Topic: Dogs, Cats, and Geese
Subtopic: Are the demographics changing in Ohio?
Earlier this month, politicians were mocked when they claimed that recent Haitian migrants relocated to an Ohio suburb were killing domestic cats and dogs and then eating them. Claims were immediately voiced that the politicians were xenophobic, hated immigrants, and were just plain silly.
Local officials acknowledged that the suburb’s semi-tame geese were getting harder to find in the local ponds
Political pundits were quick to claim that the politicians were spreading dangerous rumors and hoaxes to the detriment of the new Ohio Haitian immigrants.
I have no idea if the Haitians are responsible for the disappearance of any animals in Springfield, Ohio. Maybe many of the local animals decided to leave the area for a better location. Maybe something else happened.
Being an investigator by nature, I like to gather all and any facts I can find before drawing my conclusions and forming my opinions.
When pondering possible facts about the Springfield, Ohio issue, I started with learning more about the issue at hand - starting with the Haitians.
By looking in the World Fact Book, a fantastic tool to find knowledge that addresses neatly all the countries of the world, I queried the country of Haiti.
Haiti has an interesting history with many of the occupants arriving in Haiti during the “Slave-Trade Days” of previous centuries. They came from Africa and brought their religious traditions and customs with them. In the Haiti of 2018 – the latest year statistics were available to the current addition of the World Fact Book - Haiti had approximately 11,753,943 inhabitants. Haitians were listed as Catholic (55%), Protestant (29%), Vodou (2.1%) other religions (4.6%), and no religion (10%).
Like many Americans, I knew a little about the Catholic religion, Protestant religions, and the Jewish religion, but I didn’t know much about the Vodou religion.
“Haitian Voodoo (/ˈvoʊduː/) is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Vodouists, Vodouisants, or Serviteurs.” (See Wikipedia for extensive facts in its lengthy article with 568 literary/factual citations.)
Vodou practices largely revolve around interactions that incorporate song, drumming, dance, prayer, possession, and animal sacrifice (my emphasis). (Basquiat 2004, p.8 and Fernández Olmos & Paravisini-Gebert 2011, p.117.)
So, let’s see if I have this right.
The U.S. Government covertly introduced around 20,000 Haitian immigrants into the area surrounding Springfield, Ohio, without telling the local government that the immigrants were on their way and would need additional social services, including additional educational staffing.
Once in the United States, the new immigrants were free to enjoy all of their new, constitutional rights, including their right to practice the religion of their choice under the First Amendment to our Constitution.
If the makeup of the new immigrants is consistent with the known demographics of Haiti, at least approximately 480 new immigrants practice the Vodou religion.
Many domestic cats, dogs, and semi-tame geese have “disappeared” since the Haitian immigrants arrived.
Is it possible that the missing animals could have fallen victim to animal sacrifice or food for starving people? It is possible.
Is it possible that the animals could have decided to run/fly away from Springfield, Ohio? It is possible.
Let’s look at this scenario: You come home and find the cookie jar that had contained your favorite chocolate chip cookies broken on the kitchen floor and many of the cookies missing. Then you find your four-year-old child looking sheepish with cookie crumbs and chocolate on his face. You ask him, “What happened?” He says, “The dog knocked the cookie jar off the counter and it broke”. His answer might be true. After all, it could be possible. But I think you know what happened to the cookies.
Life can be complicated and it is at times, it comes down to what you believe when you analyze and weigh all of the facts surrounding a situation.
We all have to make our own decisions.
By the way – I credit the ‘Chocolate Chip Story” to my former colleague, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Schuster (Northern District of Ohio). She used a similar argument in her closing argument before the jury in one of my cases (circa 1974) involving the theft of cases of Teacher’s scotch whiskey from the Cleveland docks. I had built a circumstantial case against a local longshoremen who had been identified as being suspicious by local security guards. The jury analyzed the evidence, found the defendant guilty, and the Federal Judge sentenced the thief to prison. Upon appeal, the case was accepted by the appellate court that affirmed the conviction.