THE GREAT AGAINST THE POWERLESS

The predicament of Cyntoia Brown will not let go of Tennessee.

For those might not have heard of this situation due to matters of distance, or maybe work/family schedules that allows little time for news stories, she is a minor who was convicted of shooting a man who’d gotten her back to his house for sex (after arranging it with her trafficker, a man who called himself “Kut Throat”).

There are more details in the criminal fact patterns, which are widely available in the news right now, and the story doesn’t seem to be dying down.

For now, her future is in the hands of Tennessee’s Governor Bill Haslam, who is considering whether or not to alter her sentence (he is leaving office shortly, because his term is almost over). Despite considerable pressure from the public, he has not committed to any specific answers to frantic questions about this matter.

Interestingly, the timing of Cyntoia Brown’s case happens to coincide closely with the legal troubles of Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese citizen who is the CFO of Huawei, as well as the daughter of its founder. She has recently been arrested in Canada for some sort of fraud against several banks. President Trump, in an apparent attempt to avoid trade wars with China, has publicly mentioned the possibility of somehow aiding her case to secure her release (despite the fact that Meng isn’t being detained in the U.S.) Affecting criminal cases in another country (even one as close to America as Canada is), is a long reach — many would call it an act of legalistic and diplomatic overstepping. But the President of the United States is willing to go this “extra mile” for Meng.

It’s too bad nobody can get Cyntoia Brown a job as CFO. When it comes to her, well — no one seems ready to do anything on behalf of a victim of child sex trafficking.

The United States is no longer making even the most cosmetic efforts at pretense. It is openly, and quite proudly, siding with the great . . . against the powerless.