Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean Life, D 10 ec. 27, 2019-Jan. 2, 2020
By Haider A. Khan
DENVER, Colorado, Dec
20, 2019 (IPS) — When I
decided to become a US
citizen in 1990s, it was
a deliberate decision to
spend my life fighting for
preserving and deepening
democratic freedoms at a
place where I have spent
all my adult life. Having
struggled against a brutal
military dictatorship while
I was a teenager, I knew
that democracy is something
you have to fight
hard for. Therefore, when
I became a citizen, for the
swearing in event I took
with me key documents
of US democratic heritage.
These included the
constitution, the federalist
papers and related documents
from the 1780s.
Since that ceremony I have
tried to learn as much as
I could about the crucial
idea of democratic checks
and balances among the
executive, legislative and
judiciary branches of our
government. I have come
to realize how prescient
some of the revolutionaries
from the 1770s and
1780s were in identifying
the potential sources of
tyranny and corruption of
democracy. I have always
looked at the impeachment
provisions in this
light.
As we know, George
Mason, the author of Virginia’s
Declaration of
Rights, over the course of
the constitutional convention,
realized the threat to
democracy from the powerful
executive branch of
the new government he
and his fellow revolutionaries
were creating. Mason
rightly concluded that the
president of the republic
could become a tyrant as
oppressive as any absolute
monarch. We also know
that this line of thinking
led to Mason’s intervention
in the debates on
September 8, 1787, when
he asked why were treason
and bribery the only
grounds in the draft Constitution
for impeaching
the president? His fear was
that treason would not
include “attempts to subvert
the Constitution.”And
he was right.
It was his fellow revolutionary
from Virginia,
James Madison who helped
Mason to develop a separate
class of impeachable
offenses. This was what by
now should be familiar to
us from the House Judiciary
Committee hearings
— “other high crimes and
misdemeanors.” It was
clear also from the seeming
lack of understanding
of the Republican house
members why this phrase
has been so contentious.
It also underlined how the
inclusion and interpretation
can offer people fighting
against tyranny of a
dangerous executive power
as the one at present some
crucial assistance.
We have to thank the
foresight and insight of
three Virginians — Mason,
Madison and delegate
Edmund Randolph for
this inclusion. These three
men had very different
positions on the Constitution;
but their arguments
in the debates in Philadelphia
and at Virginia’s ratifying
convention in Richmond
produced crucial
definitions of an impeachable
offense. Ultimately,
the delegates agreed that a
president could and should
be impeached for abuses
of power that subvert the
Constitution, the integrity
of government, or the rule
of law.
These three Virginians
— Mason, Madison, and
Randolph — all defended
vigorously the rights of the
legislative branch to carry
on procedures of impeachment
if the evidence pointed
towards abuses of power
that subvert the Constitution,
the integrity of government,
or the rule of
law. Thus on July 20, they
opposed the arguments of
Charles Pinckney of South
Carolina and Gouverneur
Morris of Pennsylvania
who had moved to strike
the impeachment clause.
The argumens of Charles
Pinckney of South Carolina
and Gouverneur Morris of
Pennsylvania were remarkably
similar to what many
By Zellnor Myrie and Zaki
Smith
With the holiday season here,
many of us are last-minute
shopping and making plans to
spend quality time with family
and friends. We’re celebrating
the good fortune of the past year
and looking forward to opportunities
promised by the new one.
But for hundreds of thousands
among us with past criminal
records, the overwhelming
majority black and brown, it can
be hard to celebrate, and the
New Year brings little in the way
of good news.
That’s because in New York,
most criminal records – some
of them decades old – are only
a few clicks away for almost
anyone, including employers
and landlords, to see. This costs
people jobs, creating a constant
struggle for individuals to provide
for themselves and their
families or pay the rent on an
apartment where everyone can
live – assuming a landlord will
rent to them in the first place.
It’s hard to feel like celebrating
when you can’t make ends meet
or keep a roof over your head.
Even though New York is
known worldwide as a center
of opportunity, many opportunities
are closed off to people
who have committed a crime.
No matter what they’ve done
to repay their debt to society,
no matter what changes they’ve
made in their life since they
were convicted, New Yorkers
with criminal records are
often unable to move forward
simply because we don’t have
strong laws to clear past criminal
records.
One of the authors of this
piece, Zaki Smith, has experienced
this personally. Thirteen
years after being released in
2004, Smith was living in New
York and working as a youth
mentor for a nonprofit organization
that serves public schools
in New Jersey. One day, on his
way out the door for work, he
received a letter from the state
Board of Education stating that
he could no longer work in any
New Jersey school because they
had discovered his criminal
record in New York. More than
a decade after he served his
prison sentence in full and dedicated
his life to serving at-risk
youth, Smith was abruptly cut
off from his means of contributing
to society and his livelihood
because his employer could easily
dig up his past.
Stories like Smith’s are all too
common in our state. Criminal
records in New York, with limited
exceptions, follow people for
the rest of their lives. And once
a record is public, discrimination
and roadblocks follow. Even
though we have laws — wellintentioned
ones, some in place
since the 70s — to prohibit job
discrimination on account of a
criminal record, they are hard
to enforce, and employers violate
them right and left with little
fear of repercussion. And no
parallel laws even exist when it
comes to housing.
We know this must change.
Legislators and advocates have
tried to alter the harsh reality
of a permanent record for dec-
OP-EDS
These three
Virginians —
Mason, Madison,
and Randolph
— all defended
vigorously the
rights of the
legislative branch
to carry on
procedures of
impeachment if the
evidence pointed
towards abuses of
power that subvert
the Constitution,
the integrity of
government, or the
rule of law.
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the right to edit all submissions.
Continued on Page 11
Continued on Page 11
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Impeachment: An
ordinary citizen’s view
New Yorkers deserve
a true clean slate
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