U.S. State Department Recruited to Address Human Rights Crisis at Home

CROWN POINT, Ind. - July 21, 2016 - PRLog -- Today, on behalf of Opt IN USA, attorney Zena Crenshaw-Logal* wrote two U.S. State Department officials, asking them to "enlist the U.S. Justice Department" in addressing "Declaration of Human Rights and treaty violations attendant to persistent U.S. legal system abuse and corresponding lapses in judicial oversight".  The five (5) page letter with enclosures is to Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; as well as Ambassador Samantha Power, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations.  The focus of these officials is usually on global matters while the U.S. Department of Justice addresses patterns and practices of rights violations under color of law in America.  So it is an unusual move for Opt IN USA to request Malinowski's and Power's direct involvement in resolving a domestic problem, albeit with international human rights implications.

"Opt IN USA submits . . . that the sheer seriousness of (our) concerns warrants more than the silence or subterfuge (we) regularly (i.e., almost invariably) elicit from U.S. state and federal officials, which responses (Crenshaw-Logal claims) defy the good faith of America's pacta sunt servanda."  The Latin phrase meaning "agreements must be kept", is from Article 26 of the Vienna Convention.  The provision confirms that "(e)very treaty in force is binding upon the (participating members of the United Nations including the United States) and must be performed by them in good faith."

According to Crenshaw-Logal's letter to Malinowski and Power, "(t)he primary goals of Opt IN USA are to prompt U.S. ratification of the First Optional Protocol for the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) and, in the interim, trigger legislative investigations into the scope of a distinct, objectively discernible pattern of U.S. legal system abuse facilitated by unchecked judicial misconduct."  This problem dubbed The Third Degree (TTD), is detailed by a 46-page report that Crenshaw-Logal encloses for Mr. Malinowski and Ambassador Power.  The report describes an "Optional Protocol" as "an instrument that establishes additional rights and obligations to a treaty".

Should the U.S. adopt the First Optional Protocol for the ICCPR, the U.N. Human Rights Committee (HRC) would be empowered to address allegations by Americans that U.S. state and/or federal officials have violated the ICCPR and/or tortured them on U.S. soil.  Presently, the HRC "cannot examine" allegations of ICCPR violations or torture of Americans by U.S. officials submitted by any American, although the U.S. ratified the ICCPR in 1976 and the Convention Against Torture in 1987.

"Prior to Opt IN USA issuing its 46-page report on (TTD), . . . a coalition of 38 non-governmental organizations representing thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of Americans described the underlying U.S. legal system abuse as 'unchecked judicial misconduct' and claimed 'the ineffectiveness of domestic remedies is an integral part of its pathology.'  The group's referenced letter of September 15, 2015 to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has yet to prompt a response, even after responses were (reportedly) promised to two (2) constituents of the committee's chairman, Senator Robert Phillips (Bob) Corker, Jr. (R-TN), at a December 2015 district office meeting spearheaded by Opt IN USA."

Congressman Peter Visclosky (D-IN 1^st Dist) represents Crenshaw-Logal and the U.S. congressional district in which Opt IN USA is headquartered.  He characterizes Crenshaw-Logal's concerns "as strictly 'judicial matters'; noting 'the matter (she brings) forward involving a specific court case rests outside Congressional purview'."  Crenshaw-Logal responds through her letter to Malinowski and Power, copied to Congressman Visclosky and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, that Opt IN USA "certainly does not" impinge on America's separation of powers.  Crenshaw-Logal indicates it should be clear "that Opt IN USA (seeks) redress of apparent Title 18, U.S. Code section(s) 241 and/or 242 offenses which criminal violations of federal rights transgress the ICCPR and other human rights treaty provisions."

In closing, Crenshaw-Logal acknowledges that "periodic miscarriages of justice are an inevitable byproduct of America's legal system as it is operated by humans and we are unavoidably flawed."  However, she submits that nothing but a war by the U.S. judiciary on certain of its critics could explain the undeniably intense hardships imposed on her and her "closest colleagues" through legal processes.  According to Crenshaw-Logal, such abuses prompted the death of "Opt IN USA's largest benefactor", her "husband, Mr. Rodney A. Logal, who died . . . on July 3, 2016."  Crenshaw-Logal reports to Mr. Malinowski  and Ambassador Power that her late husband "is not the only, and certainly will not be the last casualty of U.S. legal system abuse if undue deference to America's judiciary persists".

To access links to Opt IN USA's full letter to Mr. Malinowski and Ambassador Power with enclosures, visit https://www.dropbox.com/s/e294nd9b52kfdvw/online_Impasse%...