“Lynching is a premeditated extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate a group.” (A well-recognized definition of the term)

Now the President, through his Twitter account, introduced his sentiments regarding the clandestine trial or hearing regarding allegations that he violated the “high crimes and misdemeanor” clause of the Constitution, one must closely examine the use of the term. Too often we toss terms around, believing we understand what they mean and worse yet, we believe other people understand what we mean. That is why it is very important to define terms to avoid confusion before discussing them.

Lynching has NO valid connotation in our lexicon, but it’s there. The definition proffered above, I submit, is the most objective one I can find. What is going on behind closed doors in secret fits the definition of “extrajudicial.” The press isn’t complaining, because they want the President impeached. No discussion on that point is necessary.

Killing? Yes, they want to kill the Presidency of Donald J. Trump and the more than 63 million votes he received in 2016. The democrats can’t run from that, for they have been discussing impeachment since January 20, 2017, if not earlier. They want Trump gone and his voters, too.

Group? That’s easy. The democrats and their bolshevik followers.

Mob? See above.

Punish the alleged transgressor? Indubitably. The democrats want to punish all Republicans for supporting Trump and killing his presidency is the best way of doing it.

Intimidate a group? Yes, Republicans and to insure there is never another Republican president.

Yes, we are witnessing the marsupial show trial of Donald J. Trump and those who put their faith in him. The Democrats and their propaganda machine, the media, are coming after the President and his supporters. And unless Americans resist this extrajudicial effort to overturn the 2016 election and deprive the voters of a free choice in 2020, we will lose the United States of America. This isn’t hyperbole; it is fact.

Today, black politicians think they own the term Lynching as it is an honor they and only they can have and use. They are wrong. When the NAACP was founded in 1909, one of its reasons for existing was to stop lynchings. But in a study published in 1919, the NAACP found that after African Americans, Italian Immigrants were the next group to be lynched in large numbers in the South. And there were others, too. The niceties of due process were ignored and the rope went over the branch.

In New Orleans, 11 innocent Italians were lynched for allegedly killing the police chief. They didn’t do it, but members of New Orleans’ high society, including founding members of still-existing law firms, took active part in the lynchings in order to gain control of the city’s docks. One lawyer became the President of the American Bar Association in 1910. Like I said, today, those law firms still exist in New Orleans and are a stain on Louisiana’s legal system in the 21st century.

Louisiana has a long history of lynching Italians and not just in the city of New Orleans. It happened in other parishes, too. So , it just wasn’t African Americans who swung from a rope under a tree while people cheered. It wasn’t African Americans who were killed by “prominent” lawyers in prison yards on March 14, 1891. It was other ethnic groups and no one ethnic group owns the term Lynch.

So when the President used the term Lynchings, he was partly correct and any African American politicians who want to take him to task for the use of that word should study all of history and not only those portions which they support.

All Americans should support the President and our system of due process.

A retired law enforcement official, Sal Perricone is an author based in New Orleans.