Pandemic and human rights in Donald Trump’s USA

This 21 October 2120 video about the USA says about itself:

In the early months of the pandemic, meatpacking plants emerged as deadly hot spots for COVID-19.

In the poultry industry, workers describe conditions that make physical distancing impossible inside plants – above all, the fast line speeds.

Chicken companies have reduced calls to slow the line speeds and space workers further apart. Federal regulators responsible for safety at the plants have issued optional guidance during the pandemic, not enforceable rules.

Fault Lines follows meatpacking workers and families who lost loved ones to the virus and asks what sacrifices have been made to keep poultry plants open.

BORDER HORROR: 500+ KIDS’ PARENTS MISSING UNDER TRUMP Lawyers tasked with identifying and reuniting families separated in 2017 and 2018 under the Trump administration’s so-called zero-tolerance border policy say they still haven’t been able to locate the parents of at least 545 migrant children. “Approximately two-thirds” of these parents, according to an ACLU court filing, are believed to have been deported to Central America without their children, some of whom were “just babies” at the time of the separation, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said. [HuffPost]

‘WHITE HOUSE KNEW’ OF COVID SPIKE AS TRUMP DOWNPLAYED CRISIS The White House has been aware for more than a month that coronavirus cases have been surging nationwide as Trump has publicly downplayed the virus and held crowded campaign events, according to private documents obtained Tuesday by a key House committee. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, released six weekly White House coronavirus task force reports showing that the White House has known since just after Labor Day that COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing and that there is a serious need for more testing and mask mandates. [HuffPost]

BREONNA TAYLOR GRAND JURY NEVER PRESENTED WITH HOMICIDE CHARGES A juror in the Breonna Taylor case said prosecutors never presented the grand jury with homicide charges against the three police officers involved in Taylor’s killing. The new allegations raise additional questions over how prosecutors handled the killing of Taylor, who was shot to death by police in her home during a botched drug raid. Only one detective, Brett Hankison, was ultimately charged, and it wasn’t even for her death; he was indicted on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for shots fired into a neighboring apartment. [HuffPost]

IF TRUMP LOSES, HE MAY GO TO PRISON Trump’s activities in recent years ― from paying hush money to a porn star to his claiming of a massive tax refund ― combined with a ticking statute of limitations clock potentially make Election Day far more consequential for him than it had been for his predecessors. If Trump wins a second term, the time limit for starting a prosecution would run out in the next four years for a number of those activities, given Justice Department guidelines not to prosecute a sitting president. If Trump loses, indictments could quickly follow. [HuffPost]

NEW BILL SEEKS TO REDUCE POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS Four years ago, the neighbors of 66-year-old Deborah Danner, a Black woman with schizophrenia, called the police to report that she had been behaving erratically. Minutes after arriving at her New York City apartment, a police officer fatally shot Donner. The officer claimed he acted in self-defense and was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges. A new bill introduced by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) seeks to reduce the risk disabled people may face in police encounters by allowing trained mental health professionals to respond to such calls instead of law enforcement. [HuffPost]