Now that the former
President and the candidate for future
President has been convicted of thirty-four
felonies, he joins nineteen million other
Americans who have such convictions. Those
felons face major restrictions in employment,
finance, and housing. For example, federal,
state, and local government jobs often require
a security clearance, for which felons often
cannot qualify. In some areas, felons are
disqualified from teaching jobs. It is
challenging for felons to be admitted to the
bar, which they must do to practice law. They
can’t work in jails.
Felons often do not
qualify for professional licenses, from real
estate licenses to barber certification. They
are often excluded from providing either child
case or elder care. In the health care area,
felony convictions may disqualify people from
working as a physician, nurse, or pharmacist.
In some instances, felons can’t get a pilot’s
license, or a commercial driver’s license.
Felony convictions can sometime prevent people
from getting loans, or even rental housing.
There are enormous biases against those who
have been convicted of felonies, but that bias
is not likely to affect Donald Trump, and even
if it did, it wouldn’t matter. He is shielded
by his wealth and his status, and his behavior
during his trial indicates that he respects
neither the rule of law nor those who work in
law enforcement. In other words, absent a
large fine or incarceration, the former
President experiences no consequences for his
illegal action.
Meanwhile,
according to the Sentencing Project report
“The Color of Justice”, as many as a third of
African American men have felony convictions.
They are barred from employment and prevented
from fully participating in society. Despite
laws that “ban the box” by preventing
employers from asking about criminal records
early in the application process, the
intersection between criminal bias and racial
bias often leaves African American men (and
women) at the periphery of society.
Trump’s supporters
suggest his conviction is “political”, but one
might say the same thing about Black convicted
felons, many of whom, like the Central Park
Five, were set up by so-called law
enforcement. Or there’s the case of Darien
Harris, the Illinois Black man who spent
twelve years in jail because of the false
testimony of a blind eyewitness. Black men
experience miscarriages of justice every
single day. Donald Trump did not experience a
miscarriage of justice. Instead, District
Attorney Alvin Bragg meticulously showed the
former president’s pattern of fiscal
malfeasance. He used people still loyal to the
felon to make the case against him. The former
president somehow thinks his criminal case
will buy him sympathy, or affinity, with Black
people. This is, at best, amusing. It is also
warped and cynical.
If incarcerated,
the former President will have Secret Service
protection wherever he serves. Ironically,
with his felony conviction, he could not even
be a member of the Secret Service. It is also
ironic that two Trump employees were
incarcerated for following the ex-president’s
orders, but ringleader Trump may be able to
avoid incarceration because of his former
status. Michael Cohen served three years for
tax fraud and was disbarred. Alan Weisselberg
is incarcerated now, serving five months for
tax fraud and five months for perjury.
It is, at best,
unseemly for the President of the United
States to be a convicted felon. Indeed,
thirty-eight countries (including the United
States) deny entry to felons. Those countries
include G-7 countries Japan, Canada and the
United Kingdom. Mexico, Israel, India, New
Zealand, and Australia also bar felons from
entry. So do many African countries including
Kenya and Tanzania, but the former President
would not likely want to go to countries that
he vulgarly disparaged. If the felon wanted to
go to these countries, leaders would probably
make an exception for him, but that just
points out the privilege Trump has that
millions of other felons don’t.
Many felons have
been disenfranchised, but Trump won’t be.
Although Florida makes it difficult for felons
to vote, Governor Ron DeSantis has already
said he will exempt Trump from voting
restrictions. Imagine that there was a
one-vote difference in the Florida popular
vote between Biden and Trump in the 2024
election. The felon could be a decider in his
own victory, hardly fair.
Those who believe
in justice must work to ensure that we don’t
have a Felon-in-Chief in the White House.
