🚨 Families of Trinidadian Fishermen Slaughtered by the Trump Administration Sue the US Government. As They Should.

What happened to these men was just cold blooded murder. Period. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The Trump administration is killing people in international waters with U.S. military strikes and then calling it “policy.”

Two men from a small fishing village in Trinidad are dead—killed on a small boat—and their families are now suing the United States because they believe, plainly, this was illegal.

And I’m going to say what too many people are scared to say: this is murder dressed up as national security.

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Here’s what’s been reported: Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, from Las Cuevas, Trinidad, were returning home from Venezuela when they and four other people were killed in a U.S. military strike on October 14th. The administration claimed it was targeting vessels tied to cartels and gangs.

But this is where the lie starts to rot.

Because the United States did not arrest them.
It did not charge them.
It did not indict them.
It did not bring them before a judge.
It did not present evidence.
It did not allow a defense.

It killed them.

And then it bragged.

Trump posted video of a small open boat floating in the water, then suddenly engulfed in flames, and wrote: “Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief… ordered a lethal kinetic strike…” He claimed “six male narcoterrorists” were killed—without explaining which group they were affiliated with, and without saying whether there were drugs or guns aboard.

Sisters and brothers, this is the definition of extrajudicial killing—the government deciding someone dies without trial.

And I want to say this plainly: even if you believe the U.S. has to fight drug trafficking, that does not give the president the power to execute people at sea based on suspicion. That is not law. That is empire.

“These were simply murders.”

The lawsuit language is as blunt as it is necessary.

The complaint says: “These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”

That is not a radical statement. That is what “rule of law” means.

And these words from one of the families are painful, but true:

“If the U.S. government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him.”

Exactly.

The death penalty—when it exists at all—is supposed to come at the end of a trial with evidence, with counsel, with appeals, with scrutiny.

But in this “drug boat” campaign, the Trump administration has become judge, jury, and executioner—and the “trial” is a secret memo and a presidential post.

If any of these men were ever taken to court, not a single one would ever be given the death penalty.

But they’re being executed anyway.

The scale is already staggering

The strike that killed Joseph and Samaroo was described as the fifth attack announced under the campaign at that time, and then the policy expanded: one report says the administration announced a 36th such attack, and another says there have been 36 attacks “to date.”

And the reported death toll is already horrifying—well over 100 people. One report puts it “around” 117; another report says “at least 126.”

However you slice it, the reality is this: the United States has created a killing machine at sea.

And it’s not hiding it. It’s boasting about it.

That should terrify everyone.

Because when a government gets comfortable killing people with no due process, it never stays limited to “bad guys.” It spreads. The definition of “bad guy” expands. The secret list grows. The “standing authority” grows. And then one day the public wakes up and realizes the legal line is gone.

The legal trick they’re using is as shameless as the killing

The administration’s whole argument rests on a classified Justice Department memo and a political declaration by Trump that the United States is now in a state of armed conflict with drug cartels and gangs—reportedly based on a secret list of 24 cartels and groups he has deemed “terrorists.”

Let me translate that.

Trump “determines” a global armed conflict exists.
A secret memo says the laws of war apply.
And then the military starts striking boats far from U.S. territory.
No trial. No court. No evidence presented. No accountability.

That’s not how law works. That’s how kings speak.

And even outside experts in the laws governing lethal force dispute this theory. Congress has not authorized an armed conflict with cartels. And the administration hasn’t explained how trafficking drugs constitutes the kind of armed attack on the United States that triggers war powers.

That’s because it doesn’t.

This is a power grab.

Why this lawsuit matters

This is the part I need you to pay attention to, because it’s one of the only tools left in a country where politicians keep handing presidents more and more unchecked power.

Relatives of Joseph and Samaroo filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court in Boston. They sued the U.S. government itself. The case seeks monetary damages.

And they’re trying to pierce the typical wall of immunity by using maritime laws—admiralty statutes—because these killings happened at sea.

The legal claims described include the Suits in Admiralty Act and the Deaths on the High Seas Act, and also invoke the Alien Tort Statute—arguing that the international law norm prohibiting extrajudicial killing is universal.

And the complaint also reportedly makes an argument that should be obvious to anyone with a heartbeat:

These killings were wrongful because they took place outside armed conflict and in circumstances where the men were not presenting “a concrete, specific and imminent threat” and where other means could have been used.

And even if you pretended there was an armed conflict, the lawsuit argues, it would still be unlawful because you can’t intentionally kill civilians who are not members of an armed group and not directly participating in hostilities—meaning it would constitute a war crime.

That is the legal framing.

Here is the moral framing:

A president does not get to kill people because he says so.

This is what empire looks like when it stops pretending

I want you to notice what’s happening here, because it echoes other abuses we’ve been naming again and again.

The state kills.
The state claims it was necessary.
The state hides the justification in classified memos.
The state brags publicly to normalize it.
Then, if anyone questions it, the state points at “terrorists” and expects the conversation to end.

This is what happens in Gaza. It’s what happens in Minneapolis. And it’s what’s happening in these murders as well.

That is not democracy. That is an empire training the public to accept death without trial.

And when the public accepts that for foreigners in a boat far away, the state eventually brings the same logic home.

We’ve seen it in Minneapolis. We’ve seen it in detention centers. We’ve seen it in the way the government smears victims after killing them. We’ve seen it in the way officials call people “terrorists” with no evidence and tell us to ignore what our eyes saw.

It’s the same sickness.

Power is addicted to impunity.

I want accountability, not slogans

If the U.S. government believes someone committed a crime, it has a process:

Investigate.
Arrest.
Charge.
Try.
Convict.
Sentence.

That’s the whole point of a legal system.

If the government skips the process and goes straight to a missile, it is admitting it doesn’t want justice. It wants domination.

And if you support that, understand what you are supporting: not law, but raw force.

What I want you to do

First: don’t let this be normalized. Don’t let it become background noise. This is a fundamental civil rights and human rights crisis—because a government executing people without due process is the end of any real “rule of law.”

Second: demand transparency. Demand that Congress investigate this policy and refuse to accept secret memos as a substitute for law.

Third: remember these names. Chad Joseph. Rishi Samaroo. A small fishing village in Trinidad, grieving because the United States decided to take two lives and call it “standing authority.”

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If another country bombed an American boat in international waters and killed six people based on a “secret memo,” what would America call it?

Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun

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