Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
This blog, like many others has an internal search function that will lead you to past stories. It is located beneath the smiling countenance of our proprietor on the upper right. If you enter SWAT into search, you see that the first archive page shows 19 stories involving SWAT raids that were unnecessary and/or unwarranted. In those raids 4 people and 9 dogs were shot in error by the SWAT Team. Just a catalog of the shootings belies the terror that these raids can instill in people who are merely residing within their homes. Many of the articles detail doors suddenly smashed open, flash grenades and gas grenades tossed into the home, people thrown to the floor handcuffed and left for hours in that position, by invading SWAT teams that either had the wrong house, faulty leads and or in some cases enforcing what were clearly civil warrants. In one instance in California a SWAT raid was carried out due to the suspicion of a defaulted student loan. http://jonathanturley.org/2011/06/08/california-family-hit-with-swat-raid-ordered-by-the-department-of-education/
I believe that the rise of these SWAT teams is leading this country towards martial law and what we all commonly understand is a “police state” as repressive as any we’ve seen in the past century. We have seen constant encroachment on our citizens Constitutional protections and a continued erosion of “the Bill of Rights”. Free Speech, the right to peacefully assemble, Habeas Corpus and safety from unwarranted intrusion in our own homes, among others, have been steadily eroded under various guises, be it the drug war, or national security. In my opinion the SWAT team concept, which militarizes our police forces, is leading this nation to what I see as a state of Martial Law. Despite ones place on the currently inflamed political spectrum, this is a problem that I think concerns us all as citizens, not as partisans. I will present to you sufficient proof of my belief, the majority of which will come from what can be fairly described as a “Libertarian Think Tank” and which was founded by Charles Koch, among others. When I find myself on the same side on an issue as the Cato Institute, then I know with certainty that my fears are well grounded and unrelated to any personal partisanship of my own.
“Martial Law (definition)
The exercise of government and control by military authorities over the civilian population of a designated territory.” http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/martial+law
That partial definition above really doesn’t state the understood essence of the term “Martial Law”. The full definition would of course describe situations like a “State of National Emergency”, where the National Guard is called out to restore order. Yet, while I’m admittedly stretching the definition to fit my own conception, I don’t believe my conception is far from the mark of what’s occurring in America today.
First let me briefly summarize the history of SWAT teams in America as I see it and then I will present evidence that I believe backs up my opinion with factual argumentation. The man credited with inventing the “SWAT” concept was Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Police Chief Darryl Gates in 1966 as a response to the riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Gates was a rather controversial man, who took a draconian mindset into law enforcement. His pronouncement on racial issues regarding both Black and Latinos skirted quite closely to bigotry. Then too the history of the LAPD is a rather checkered one. It was an open fact that the police in L.A. were always seen to be the “protectors” of the “White” population from first the resident Latino’s and then from the Black people who had joined the emigration to California as a land of opportunity. The LAPD actively recruited police officers from the South who were experienced in enforcing “Jim Crow” laws. Gates’ innovation was the use of military tactics and equipment in a special force that was trained by ex-Marines. Besides “riots” the LAPD SWAT team soon became deployed in the “drug wars” and in “controlling” demonstrations.
Gates’ SWAT concept slowly gained popularity through the 70’s but it was limited to units being formed in only a few Cities around the U.S.. With the election of Ronald Reagan though and his institution of the “War on Drugs”, the SWAT concept began to spread across the Nation and local Police Department began receiving massive amounts of Federal funding to organize units, to train in military tactics and to buy military equipment. The public acceptance of these units stemmed from a media all too eager to engender fear ridden news items and to show the “heroism” (and need for) these tactics on their numerous “Cop Shows”. The over sensationalized “Crack Epidemic” of the 80’s and its’ overplay in the media helped impel this new tactic. Having been directly involved in working with “Crack” and Cocaine addiction I’m not trying to lighten their terrible effects. I was on the ground, so to speak, these were issues that required mental health professionals, rather than policing. Especially because invariably those caught and arrested were users, or low level dealers. Interestingly too, “Crack” was an addiction of the lower classes and thus caught most of the attention, whereas the more expensive Cocaine was commonly used among the wealthy with few criminal consequences, other than the health issues it raised.
“The Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act”: Passed in 1981 it was the first “official” blending of the military and the police.
“In 1988, Congress ordered the National Guard to assist state drug enforcement efforts. Because of this order, National Guard troops today patrol for marijuana plants and assist in large-scale anti-drug operations in every state in the country.
In 1989, President Bush created a series of regional task forces within the Department of Defense, charged with facilitating cooperation between the military and domestic police forces.
In 1994, the Department of Defense issued a memorandum authorizing the transfer of equipment and technology to state and local police. The same year, Congress created a “re-utilization program” to facilitate handing military gear”
After 1994, the use of SWAT Teams for local police forces grew exponentially with the impetus coming from the infusion of massive amounts of Federal Fund and surplus military equipment. What local police chief wouldn’t want a free armored vehicle? The spread of SWAT Teams around the US has become an epidemic to the point that even relatively small town police forces (towns with 25,000 to 50,000 people) have their own SWAT teams supplied via generous Federal funding and trained by military personnel, often at specialized military training bases.
The essence of this problem as I see it is that conceptually police and the military, while both carry weaponry, have two distinctly separate functions. The Military are to be used for making war and for invading foreign countries. Historically in America we didn’t allow the military to be used on our shores. The responsibility for maintaining order within our country is given to State and Local Police forces and not to the Federal Government. That idea has in fact been chipped away for many years, for many reasons. The FBI which was supposed to investigate Federal Criminal activity has found its duties expanded, either legally by legislation, or by fiat from such figures as J. Edgar Hoover, who conveniently conflated FBI work with his own personal power interests. Since the founding of the DEA, the line between Federal and State/Local has further been blurred, as indeed the line between the DEA and the Military has also been blurred. Finally, the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act has made the separation between Federal and local law enforcement almost nil.
Traditionally in this Country Police Officers were seen as members of the community and most felt that way. Thus policing, with exceptions of course, was more about maintaining public peace rather than frightening, disabling and punishing citizens. From a military perspective though, especially in occupying other countries, the idea is that all the populace are possible enemies not to be trusted and with whom harsh treatment is needed to instill fear and submission. When you begin to train police officers in those same tactics, then the citizens they deal with suddenly become “the other” in their minds, to be harshly repressed, frightened and dominated. It is this mindset that has become all too prevalent today and it has come into being via the SWAT concept.
A second problem with the SWAT teams and with the largesse of supplying localities with military equipment, structure and training is that “cool” stuff when available will be used and “overused”. To local police officers, indeed to many ordinary people, this equipment is “cool” stuff and its’ availability makes its usage much more likely. That is how a SWAT Team can be sent to deal with a delinquent Department of Education Student Loan. The human “need” to use the “team” and the equipment leads to rationalizing its use in instances that in the past were dealt with without the need for overwhelming firepower. While any situation where police must go to a house on official business can turn deadly for the police, this is generally not true in the overwhelming majority of cases. In fact in these days where 300 million firearms are owned by our citizens, sudden massive confrontation can exacerbate violence.
Beyond the lack of Constitutionality, the unneeded expense of manpower and the plethora of tragic happenstance is the bald fact that for us average citizens these SWAT actions are terrifying and have a “chilling” effect on even our legal activities. This to me is the essence of a Police State and a close harbinger of the imposition of Martial Law upon us. The word “martial” itself means military, or warlike.
Since this is the essence of the over proliferation of SWAT teams, to me at least, it seems that what is being rapidly imposed on Americans is Martial Law. Before you decide to agree, or disagree with me I would humbly request that you don’t take my word for what it happening. Below I’ve supplied 3 sources that detail copious proof of my allegations and a thorough discussion of what is happening to America due to the SWAT team craze.
The first is from one of the most popular (definitely centrist for financial reasons) and iconic magazines in the United States Popular Mechanics. It is written by Law Professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com
“SWAT Overkill: The Danger of a Paramilitary Police Force
“In a guest editorial, law professor and instapundit.com blogger Glenn Reynolds argues that over aggressive tactics and surplus military gear have turned some police units into a dangerous menace. SOLDIERS AND POLICE are supposed to be different. Soldiers are aimed at enemies from outside the country. They are trained to kill those enemies, and their supporters. In fact, “killing people and breaking things” are their main reasons for existence.
Police look inward. They’re supposed to protect their fellow citizens from criminals, and to maintain order with a minimum of force. It’s the difference between Audie Murphy and Andy Griffith. But nowadays, police are looking, and acting, more like soldiers than cops, with bad consequences. And those who suffer the consequences are usually innocent civilians.” Read more: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/4203345
The second source consists of a paper written for The Cato Institute by Radley Balko, who is a well-known libertarian journalist:
“CATO Paper: Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America: (published in 2006)
Executive Summary:
Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.
These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects. This paper presents a history and overview of the issue of paramilitary drug raids, provides an extensive catalogue of abuses and mistaken raids, and offers recommendations for reform.”http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf
Included with the paper that you might profit from seeing is an interactive map of the U.S. showing the huge amount of botched SWAT teams’ raids across the country and their results. This map alone is worth looking at to get an idea of the extent of the problem, with the understanding that it was created in 2006 and so it omits the increasing SWAT usage of the last seven years. http://www.cato.org/raidmap
Finally, my evidence comes from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) an organization I’ve supported since my teens. The ACLU to me has proved that it will fight for any civil liberties cause, without judging the politics of the people it fights for. The ACLU has just launched a nationwide program to investigate the abuses of SWAT Teams and the militarization of police enforcement in the U.S.
“American neighborhoods are increasingly being policed by cops armed with the weapons and tactics of war. Federal funding in the billions of dollars has allowed state and local police departments to gain access to weapons and tactics created for overseas combat theaters – and yet very little is known about exactly how many police departments have military weapons and training, how militarized the police have become, and how extensively federal money is incentivizing this trend.
It’s time to understand the true scope of the militarization of policing in America and the impact it is having in our neighborhoods. On March 6th, ACLU affiliates in 23 states filed over 255 public records requests with law enforcement agencies and National Guard offices to determine the extent to which federal funding and support has fueled the militarization of state and local police departments. Stay tuned as this project develops.
Consider these ten chilling stories. If the anecdotal evidence is any indication, use of military machinery such as tanks and grenades, as well as counter-terrorism tactics, encourage overly aggressive policing – too often with devastating consequences:
1. Confused after throwing a deafening and blinding “flashbang” into a home, police mistakenly shot and killed a sleeping nine-year-old.
Read more »
2. A county sheriff’s department in South Carolina has an armored personnel carrier dubbed “The Peacemaker,” which can shoot weapons that the U.S. military specifically refrains from using on people.
Read more »
3. New Hampshire police received federal funds for a counter-attack vehicle, asking “what red-blooded American cop isn’t going to be excited about getting a toy like this?”
Read more »
4. Two SWAT Teams shut down a neighborhood in Colorado for four hours to search for a man suspected of stealing a bicycle and merchandise from Wal-Mart. Read more »
5. A company in Arizona submitted a patent for shock cuffs, which can be used by cops to remotely administer a Taser-like shock to detainees.
Read more »
6. Police in North Dakota borrowed a $154 million Predator drone from Homeland Security to arrest a family who refused to return six cows that wandered onto their farm. Read more »
7. Police in Arkansas announced plans to patrol streets wearing full SWAT gear and carrying AR-15 assault rifles. Read more »
8. Drone manufacturers may offer police remote controlled drones with weapons like rubber bullets, Tasers, and tear gas. Read more »
9. An Arizona SWAT team defended shooting an Iraq War veteran 60 times during a drug raid, but had to retract its claim that the veteran shot first.
Read more »
10. The New York City Police Department disclosed that it deployed “counter-terror” measures against Occupy Movement protesters.
http://www.aclu.org/militarization
I think that these three articles and the information they supply has proven my case, with solid evidence, that our country is fast becoming a police state under martial law. Do you think I’m wrong, if so how?
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
USA has one abomination being the police that spill innocent blood in people, and pet’s. Martial law with the military will be yet again a worse abomination to follow the first. People need to see that nipping it in the bud stopping it by God’s merciful grace to not have a worse abomination come upon us. To be humbled to the point of not fearing to lose the body not killing to try to save it saves the soul even as Jesus saved his.
Excellent article and examples. I have been in these organizations most of my life and he is correct for no concern for the constitution or personal rights. It has definitely escalated in the past few years and is getting worse. When you have a government and organizations that feel they are above the law and in fact they make the law then that is the last stage before Martial Law.
I think that these three articles and the information they supply has proven my case, with solid evidence, that our country is fast becoming a police state under martial law. Do you think I’m wrong, if so how?
No, I do not think you are wrong (The Best Formula For “Gun Control”).
In fact, I think you are spot on Mike S.
Some of the authoritarians are itching for martial law, and have planned for it for a long time.
I am trying to find James Steele to ask him if he is training police forces here in the U.S. like he did in El Salvador and in Iraq under Petraeus (Reuters, with video).
He taught the death squads he trained in the worst torture techniques.
We have always been under a police state. There has never been any freedom in a country with jails. Jesus frees. The words home of the free exist in a deceptive song.
Then too the history of the LAPD is a rather checkered one. It was an open fact that the police in L.A. were always seen to be the “protectors” of the “White” population from first the resident Latino’s and then from the Black people who had joined the emigration to California as a land of opportunity.
===========================
When I was in the Navy, I watched two Long Beach police officers beat the living you-know-what out of a big white guy. We almost intervened, but the big white guy told us not to.
If the swearing in of Brennan is any indication, it will get worse:
(Guardian, Brennan takes oath). He deliberately took the oath on the version that did not have the Bill of Rights in it.
Due process of law is void of Gods law of eternal love. It is void of do unto others. Fear is at its root. Devils fear judgment. They know they will be under Gods law having broken it a long time ago. Devils jail trying to be better. We have them following the Constitution like a shadow follows a solid object.
Don’t discount the NDAA, National Defence Authorization Act set in motion by Obama 01/01/2012, getting ready for Martial Law. ALL your rights go with this one!
Well…. When the military police, soldiers are trained they are trained under general military principles…… If they take that training to a local police force….. What do you really expect….. Some are trained snippets…
Does the FBIs investigation and search of homes of antiwar
activists and others simply exercising 1st Amendment rights and letter of Congressman John Conyers questioning Mr. Eric Holder investigation of this…cross this line as a borderline swat team investigation???
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/John.pdf …
A chilling post. There is no question that police now see us all as criminals who have no right to raise any question about any issue not matter who civil our tone or reasonable our question may be. Subservience is the only response they will accept.
There is an old saying that seems to apply here: when the only tool you have or know is a hammer every problem is a nail. Having military weapons creates the need to use them for every incident no matter how unreasonable their use is.
Thank you for pulling all this information together in one place.
Letter of Congressman John Lewis to. Mr. Eric Holder….
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/john_lewis_20110513_163242.pdf …
Letter of Congressman Capuano…
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/Holder%20letter%20re%20FBI%20Raids.pdf …
Letter of Congresswoman Schakowsky…
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/SchakowskyHolderLetter-1_0.pdf …
Shocking, true, and sadly not the biggest problem we face as united citizens.
Letter of Congressman Price…
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/Price_Letter_Holder_051411.pdf …
Letter of Congressman McDermott…
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/mcdermott-letter-holder.pdf …
Letter of Congressman Gutierrez….
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/gutierrez-letter-to-AG-Holder.pdf ..
Letter of Ellison…
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/Ellison%20letter%20to%20Holder.pdf ..
Letter to President Obama…
… http://www.stopfbi.net/sites/default/files/President%20Obama%203-15-2011.pdf …
Great job Mike. I am not sure I can agree on the martial law aspect, but there is no doubt that police forces are being slowly militarized in weapons and tactics. As mentioned earlier, the NDAA could leader to worse problems. The answer to the abusive police tactics is for rogue cops and forces to be prosecuted, not promoted.
Mike,
Excellent and well thought out as usual. Not all departments are becoming militarized, thank goodness. I saw a military type armored vehicle on the back of a big truck the other day. It had the name of a police department on the side, but was a place I never heard of so the memory did not stick. I can see the occasional need for such a vehicle, but on a simple cost analysis, they do not make sense. I read of one being used just yesterday in Minneapolis to end a 9-hour standoff. They used the vehicle to approach the suspect, making a successful arrest with no one being injured. On the other hand, I read of several towns who plan to use these tanks on wheels for routine city patrols. I am not the type to be paranoid, but these kind of news reports give me the willies.
I sat down with our local sheriff recently and he went over his annual budget with me. I was stunned to see how many of his patrol cars have well over 200,000 miles on them. My daughter was riding with one of the deputies when they got a Code 3 call out in a remote part of the county. She told me she looked over at the speedometer and it was sitting on 91 mph. In a high mileage patrol car, that is risky, especially on mountain roads. If the county commission cannot see fit to spring for some new patrol cars, they have no business spending anything on military type toys.
As for so-called “drones” there is a real conflict going on behind the scenes between Homeland Security, the FAA, and the Academy of Model Aeronautics. The AMA is to model airplane hobbyists as the NRA is to firearms hobbyists. I prefer to call them remotely piloted aircraft. They can be any size. The USAF Predator is 27 feet long and has a 49 foot wingspan. That is bigger than my twin-engine Cessna was. The newest version is called the Reaper is even bigger. The Reaper has a 66 foot wingspan and is 36 feet long. These are real airplanes in every sense of the word. One model airplane kit company sells radio controlled models of these two USAF drones, but the models are just that, model airplanes. They are no more drones than a model of a P-51 is a fighter plane.
I read recently of a Canadian law enforcement agency that acquired a small remote controlled aircraft. It looks just like the radio controlled models you can see any weekend afternoon at your local radio control model flying club. That Canadian police department had a mountain of paperwork with their government before being allowed to deploy it. Their small “drone” has controllable cameras that can be monitored in real time by police on the ground. The first time it was used was to locate a missing child in the woods. There are many uses for such small aircraft that are not malignant. The Canadian officer in charge of the project said they planned to use it when searching for lost people ranging from children to fleeing felons. They can also take an aerial view to scout out situations such as hostage standoffs. I don’t have any problem at all with that kind of use. Where I have a problem is if they plan to weaponize UAVs, especially ones as big as a Cessna aircraft.
Researchers are working on completely autonomous robotic weapons. That scares hell out of me. I read a science fiction short story back when I was a teenager. It described small anti-personnel robots to be used in warfare. These were deployed in large numbers against an enemy force, but their direction sensors got confused, causing them to turn 180 degrees, attacking and killing the force that had deployed them.
There are so many weight and balance restrictions on small remote control airplanes, they would have trouble carrying a weapon that weighed more than a firecracker. The FAA restricts model airplanes to a maximum altitude of 400 feet, and if they weigh over a certain amount, have to be registered. Range is strictly line of sight and obviously radio range is not all that far due to power restrictions on hobby equipment.
The latest big thing to hit the model airplane hobby is FPV, which stands for First Person View. The pilot wears goggles that are actually tiny computer video monitors. The model has a HD camera that sends back pictures in real time to the pilot, and a video record can also be made. The equipment is so sophisticated, the pilot can activate a heads-up display of flight instruments, just like modern military aircraft. This is a genie that will never go back in the bottle. One of my friends brought one out to the flying field the other day. That was the first one I had seen locally. His is identical to the one in the video below.
Whoever put that radio control model up in controlled airspace near JFK airport the other day violated all kinds of FAA regulations. My take on it is either he is a total idiot and scofflaw, or it was a radio control model that got away from the operator, flying out of radio range. The latter is unlikely, because when that rare event does occur, the plane usually just spirals out of control and crashes.
I have embedded a video below that demonstrates FPV. The airplane shown is similar to the one acquired by that Canadian police department; however, the police version had more than one camera, which was directionally controllable, had HD zoom, and other features that fit the mission . This video was made in Austria. I don’t know what the rules are in Austria, but if it were in the USA, the pilot violated a number of FAA rules and AMA guidelines for safe operation. This flight would have gotten him thrown out of any AMA sanctioned model club in this country. On the other hand, it is rather entertaining.
The FAA and AMA are working together on rule making regarding privacy restrictions. It is definitely uncool to use this technology to peek into private home windows, or watch someone skinny dipping in their backyard pool. One of my concerns is that rogue law enforcement will ignore such rules. Or get legislation passed that makes them exempt.
Mike,
I am most certainly the choir on this issue as my thoughts on militarizing the police being a bad idea aren’t exactly a secret, but well said nonetheless. Martial law by proxy or martial law by direct military intervention is still martial law.
OS,
As you’ve shown the drone discussion is a nuanced one. I think the problem is twofold. First that the “weaponized” ones could be responsible for all kinds of deadly mischief. The second though I think is even more important. As you remember in Orwell’s “1984” everyone’s home had a two way TV that could watch you and therefore control you. I don’t want to live in a society where everyone’s movements are tracked. I can understand the rationale for security cameras, but not the rationale for moving security cameras.
FWIW, sometime after this FPV video was made, one of those windmills “ate” this guy’s airplane. Why am I not surprised?
Didn’t even scratch the paint on the windmill, from the account I read.
Excellent article. I am good friends with 2 Police Chiefs, both who are retiring next year so you can imagine how long they have been on their respective forces.
Both have been seriously concerned for the last few years on the direction “Federal Government Sponsored” militarization has taken within their ranks. They worry for their communities and for the individual officers and their families. Both have instituted programs to help keep their officers involved with their communities helping with charity events such as police sponsored food drives and several programs aimed at interacting with children.
When responsible members of the Police force are worried about the effects of militarization, you know the problem is real.
Mike,
Interesting post! Those are chilling tales about the actions of some SWAT teams. It seems there are so many things that we should be concerned about:–kill lists, indefinite detention, drone strikes, prosecution of whistleblowers, the Patriot Act…
Mike,
Being able to look for lost kids, or study a crime scene from the air is a useful and non-malignant tool. It is cheaper to monitor problems such as traffic patterns, forest fires, flooded areas or hazmat contaminated areas using UAVs than a helicopter costing hundreds of dollars an hour to operate. Our sheriff’s department got a small helicopter that had been retired from the Army. It was similar to the ones used in the opening scenes of the old TV series MASH. Hangar rent, maintenance, and operating costs were so high they got rid of it.
The FPV type machine shown in that video is inexpensive enough an ordinary hobbyist can afford one, and prices are coming down all the time.
My personal opinion is there are valid uses for UAVs that will keep officers safe and cost less money, but for routine “spy in the sky” use, there are all kinds of problems. The FAA is chartered with the responsibility of aviation safety; it has to enforce regulations, but the FAA is not a law enforcement agency. One of the FAA’s concerns is avoiding airspace conflicts. That is one reason radio control model airplanes are limited to 400 feet above ground level. Hitting one in flight could ruin your whole day.
Excellent Post Mike. I don’t think you are wrong. I think you are pretty well spot on. Americans should be afraid. Very afraid. If we don’t join together to do something about this kind of thing, it will be too late and before we know it we will wake up to find the Constitution no longer exists. It’s already been torn to shreds as it is.
It is time for a Revolution.
We need a national strike to force our govt to step down.
Our Bill of Rights is under attack. We defend it now or never
Evelyn,
I doubt you get many visitors to this blog to disagree with you. Did you notice Dredd’s post above about the new CIA Director, John Brennan, being sworn in using an original copy of the Constitution…with the Bill of Rights removed? Was that an OOPS or deliberate on his part?
As the Guardian article points out, the object on which one is sworn in is not binding, but the Oath itself is, which includes upholding the Constitution. All of it.
Factoid: I have visited the home and tailor shop of President Andrew Johnson. His grave is in the smallest National Cemetery in the VA cemetery system. I have visited it in Greene County, Tennessee. Our 17th President was buried with his head resting on a copy of the Constitution. That was his last request.
We’ve really become everything I grew up mocking the Sovets for.
As I recall, Nixon initiated the “War on Drugs.” I would take organized crime and drugs in the hands of the stupid few any day over the RICO statute, the “war” on drugs, the “no knock” warrants and the SWAT teams. Some risks? Of course. It depends on what type of country you want. When FBI agents appeared at the home of the Governor of Illinois at 6 AM to arrest him as opposed to phoning him at a reasonable hour to ask him to appear in court demonstrates that the United States inches ever closer to a police state where officers of the “law” abuse their powers…not to mention WACO, Ruby Ridge and all of the instances Mike lists.
I understant where you are coming from Mike, but I might suggest that this isn’t as much a wide spread problem as it might seem. There are a few realities that are present in LE that have caused the agencies to engage in tactics that resemble military roles but just because there is a parallel in tactics and equipment does not always imply that the purpose of those two entities is becoming merged.
It really is the matter of how they are used that is the question as to whether or not it is beneficial or not.
Probably in my mind the wake up call in LE came during the infamous North Hollywood shootout. This incident caught the LAPD with its pants down and they were totally outgunned by 2 heavily armed bank robbers. The LAPD was reduced to having its patrol officers borrow hunting rifles from sporting goods stores to address the threat, that is two robbers bent on destruction, armed with machine guns and threat level IV body armor.
This kind of incident can happen anywhere and I have been an advocate for being better prepared for these types of incidents. Especialy active shooters.
SWAT teams are good for these type of incidents, I agree it is really a waste of resources and too risky to deploy them needlessly. But if I was a police administrator and saw a potentially dangerous situation about to unfold I am going to do what it takes to protect my deputies and the public and if the SWAT team is indicated, then that is what I would call out.
I also have a different approach to SWAT teams that is a bit controversial and one you probably would not agree with. Unless the jurisdiction is a extremely large metro area, I would not have standing SWAT teams but I feel that regular patrol units should be equipped to handle any active shooter or hostage situation. The former being so exigent there isn’t time to call out and assemble SWAT. The training would benefit all patrol officers to go through it. Most of the gear could be carried in the patrol car. My former department had an Armoured Personnel Carrier but it iwas rarely used and more or less a military donation. But it was there for the rare event of a barricaded shooter. Other than training purposes I haven’t seen it used personally.
It is the equipment that is not the problem it is the deployment when unnecessary that is.
Why don’t people defend Gods law? Defending Gods law results in peace. Can you tell me what that law is?
I would like to also point out that there is really a disconnect between local-state police agencies and the federal government. Just because the President and Congress are whittling away certain liberties of the populace, it does not necessarily translate to what happens at state, county or city agencies. Local agencies do not report to the federal gov’t. The rules of search and seizure are often different.
Just because the federal gov’t provides money to agencies to purchase equipment it does not at all mean that the federal government is forcing a crackdown on the population in fact in many cases the opposite is true. These grants often come with conditions that certain policies and procedures be enacted that deal with professionalism or approaches to the rights of the public. One grant that I wrote and obtained had a condition that our department enact a policy of how to deal with race riots. Some had requirements that our department have a policy on informing victims of domestic violence of resources they could seek in our community. I recognize that some could argue that providing equipment to deal with drug enforcement is causing harm to the rights of the public but I think that is more about perspective than oppression.
You really have to look at each agency individually to see if it is benevolent or not. Nearly all LE agencies do not plot together to deprive the citizenry of their rights. But I will agree there is a perception of this because often there are ideas such as procedures and equipment that seem to fan out like any idea in any trade, business, or social circle and it can be interpreted as an agreement by all to do it a certain way.
@warren
“I would take organized crime and drugs in the hands of the stupid few any day over the RICO statute, the “war” on drugs, the “no knock” warrants and the SWAT teams”
None of those things are mutually-exclusive. Kennedy worked with the mafia to try to assassinate Castro, Oliver North used the mafia to help launder money for his drug running operation. It happens.
The CIA still runs drugs, still launders money (Wachovia and HSBC are some of the more high-profile cases), and is still involved with organized crime — not just the mafia, but now Mexican drug cartels too.
The larger issue here is the planning process.
HSPD 51 came as part of a chain of planning documents, stretching back through PDD-62 and FPC-65 under Clinton, and the REX84 tests under Reagan.
Possee Comitatus is clearly undermined by Northcom, created under Bush II, which was mobilized during the BP oil spill, but is also operating in Mexico through the Merida Initiative. Obama’s domestic roles for drones are quite in line with the Bush Administration’s thinking here. Local law enforcement have been wrapped up with federal espionage through the Intelligence Fusion Centers, also under Bush II.
Of specific relevance to this blog post here is the 1122 Procurement Program.
This provides a pathway for local law enforcement to procure military grade weapons.
Like many things, one rationale lends cover for another. Just like “fighting online piracy” is a tool for “eroding online privacy,” the War on Drugs is a similar catch-all. The 1122 Program is marketed as a tool for fighting drugs, but there is scant data that’s what its actually being used for.
Consider in this connection, one noteworthy provision in the post-911 PATRIOT ACT:
http://nymag.com/news/9-11/10th-anniversary/patriot-act/
The “sneek-n-peek” provisions have been used 1,618 times for drug offenders…. but only 15 times in terror cases. This provision of the PATRIOT ACT is 100x more likely to be used in a non-terrorism related context.
When Americans choose to trade temporary safety for essential liberty as Ben Franklin warned us about they may want to weigh it this way: if we have an American style “Innocent until Proven Guilty” system (which most police/FBI don’t subscribe to) then there will be some guilty people that temporarily get away – there theoretically will be more citizen-crime. But if we have a “Guilty until Proven Innocent” system (our current system) there will be more “color of law” crimes perpetrated by police officers/FBI and more innocent people falsely punished. Crimes perpetrated by some (not most) police officers also are not documented accurately so the voters never see the true police-crime statistics. Either way the American people are not any safer and didn’t reduce the crime rate with our upside down justice system. Great book is “The Rights of the People” by David K. Shipler published in 2011 where he traces the roots of the problem back several decades.
The original Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. § 1385) (PCA) was passed at the end of The Civil War.
The military website USNORTHCOM has language that on its face strongly respects PCA.
However, another military source says PCA has been emasculated and its now a toothless historical piece:
(Will The Military Become The Police – 3?). That is a quote from a Homeland Security contractor website, written by Major Craig T. Trebilcock, then removed from the site when it drew someon’s attention.
I got a copy in the Wayback Machine, showing they removed it because they wanted that reality hidden from somebody.
The have also developed a military manual that goes through the paces of detailing deployment of the military if we complain too much about economic problems:
(ibid, quoting The Phoenix Business Journal). The manuals and the equipment are in place.
All it takes to implement the reality Mike S pondered is an order from …
I have long maintained that the purpose of TSA at airports is to turn you into sheep. The war on Terror is likewise meant to make you, a citizen of this country, very fearful and thus thankful for Papa Fed to protect you from all the evil terrorists out to kill you, your wife/husband and kids. And the war on drugs is likewise meant to terrorize you.
There are some signs things are changing for the better: 2 states just approved marijuana for recreational use, many states allow medical marijuana, gay and lesbien people are more and more gaining the right to marry. So while there are signs of improvement, there are also, sadly, many signs that we are still being herded like sheep, and too many of us are thankful for that herding.
Darren,
Agree on the SWAT team standing in most departments. One department I do some work for has two former Marine snipers who work as corrections officers. When the SWAT team is called out, and that is very rare, these two men are on the team for obvious reasons. They have not yet been put into a position where they have to use skills the USMC spent a million dollars apiece training them. However, it is good to know they are ready to go in case of hostage situations or similar. The SWAT team members do regular patrol or corrections work until there is a crisis. It may seem odd, but the bomb squad has far more calls than the SWAT team. The bomb squad seems to stay busy. Quite a few of the calls are to help dispose of chemicals in meth labs, but many are for suspicious packages or actual homemade pipe bombs.
I remember the bank robber shootout. I also remember the Texas Tower shooter, Charles Whitman. He outgunned the police as well. Two officers and a civilian volunteer climbed the tower and killed Whitman in a close quarters shootout at enormous risk to themselves. I suspect either of our two former Marine snipers could have easily taken him out from a safe distance if they had proper equipment.
The major concern I have is the departments who get all this military equipment, then are all too eager to collude with rogue Federal agents against protesters and others exercising their Constitutional rights. I fear we have too many mayors, police chiefs and sheriffs who are wannabe generals, and also wish to suck up to the Feds. Not to mention exercising their favorite prejudices.
Anyone remember the Bonus Army march on Washington? Herbert Hoover was quite embarrassed by the protests literally in his front door at the White House. He called on Douglas MacArthur, who sent infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks to confront and attack the WW-I vets and their families. The Bonus Army marchers were driven out, along with their wives and children, and their shelters and belongings burned.
More recently, we have seen the attacks on OWS groups. None of the militarized officers involved have been identified,much less prosecuted, for almost killing former Marine and Iraq combat vet Scott Olsen. Olsen has a fractured skull and brain damage from being hit in the head by a tear gas grenade. When others came to his aid, a flash-bang grenade was thrown into the group trying to give first aid. Stuff like that. The officer who threw the grenades was caught on video, and was in a group of other officers, but his identity is still unknown to the general public. We have since learned that Federal agencies were involved in disrupting those protests and deliberately destroying personal belongings, including cameras and portable computers.
Maybe this is another social control tactic from the Elites? Could there be an ominous movement or potential revolution about to occur and the Elites are using these tactics to prevent this revolution from transpiring? Or maybe their is a potential ‘domestic terror threat’-on a scale, that you and I couldn’t possibly imagine,-brewing or on the horizon? Why else would you tell the ‘enemy’ (or people that you are trying to control) your plan of attack if they ‘cross that line’?
Think about this: In the past 2 months, they (Elites) have told us that they can and are reading and listening to our emails, phone records, etc.; they told us the weapon that they can use (drones, and other military style weapons and tactics); and they told us that they can use it anytime that they feel like it (or when they feel a potential threat is imminent).
Something is on the horizon…………or maybe they are just trying to prevent one of us from committing another Timothy McVeigh act? Sandy Hook Incident?….Stay tuned…….
Mike, excellent article. I’ve posted for a while that I don’t think we’re coming under anything, we are already there, it just depends on where in the citizenry the focus is put at any given time. Increasingly protesters are being arrested and charged under local terrorism related laws, dissent is being equated with terrorism. As well, as you mention, local police and SWAT are being used to deal with matters more appropriate to civil law remedies but hey, why send a process server to deliver a subpoena when a fully tricked out SWAT team is available?
I have thought about the changing face and soul of policing regarding the drug laws for some time- about 25 years give or take- and think about it as a hybrid of privateering and brigandage. Forfeiture laws have made it so. I went to the link of the map you posted in your article and and went to my city. The first click of my mouse returned the description I posted below.
If you haven’t already checked out the video on wealth inequality that Anon keeps linking to you should, its part of the equation and should be factored in to the thinking that the police now regard us all as the enemy. The police have always been a reflection of the attitude of the power players/structure in a city or state. Used to be minorities were the focus, keep them down and in their place with relentless harassment. It’s a wider net now which is probably why it’s a matter of more generalized concern. It’s classed based now and almost everyone is fair game.
We post on Turleyblawg that there is a two-tier justice system but there always has been multi-tier justice, what is different today is that the class structure has changed but most people are still deceiving themselves about it. The militarism of the police is the response to a new social structure wherein there are the wealthy, the 1%, and the new class of serfs which encompass about 80% of the population. SWAT rolls up heavily padded and armored, like the Lord’s own knights, to harass and pillage under color of law and the rationale du jour.
The first time I read about asset forfeiture was in the very early 80’s in Mother Jones magazine- the take away was if you were a person of color and or carrying any cash stay the hell away from Miami International Airport- the cops stop you, take the money and on occasion your jewelry/camera, and release you in time to catch your flight out albeit traveling a bit lighter. Brigandage under color of a war on drugs.
Keep in mind the military aid and intervention the war on drugs included as well as serving to spur the country to lock up and disenfranchise as many as a million people a year. the enemy became the citizenry. The war on terror is following that same pattern IMO and is a boon to the MIC and has set off a round of intervention unseen since the Vietnam era. The rights not crushed by the war on drugs have been under the war on terror. The treasure not looted and the class-based gains not lost to our ‘wars’ has been by banking fraud, trade policy (which has encouraged runaway corporations) and tax policy. The benefactors of those policies are also the benefactors of our two-tier justice system. The justice system, right down to the local level, works for them.
The point is that turning local police into a quasi-military force is not isolated from the other aspects of the changing landscape of America and it’s been at work for 30 years at least. You have to do it if the overwhelming majority of your citizens have become the enemy, or a rabble that needs a constant reminder of where the power lies to keep them in line.
Lol, too paranoid?
******
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigandage
******
Title: Gary Miller
Type: Raid on an innocent suspect.
State: MO
Description: In October 1986, police raid the St. Louis home of Gary Miller, based on a tip from a confidential informant. In the course of the search, a Detective Clifford of the St. Louis Police Department steps on an infant baby’s head while attempting to search the home’s ceiling for drugs. Police find no drugs or weapons, nor do they make any arrests. Police do, however, seize about $13,000 in cash from Mr. Miller. Under asset forfeiture laws, the police department gets to keep the money. Even though he is never charged with a crime, it is up to Mr. Miller to prove he didn’t get the money through drug transactions. In 1992, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rules that although there is no evidence of drug use or distribution on the part of Mr. Miller, he failed to prove he earned the money legitimately. The police get to keep the money they seized in the raid. Source: U.S. v. Twelve Thousand, Three Hundred Ninety Dollars, 956 F.2d 801 (1992)
Date: Oct 10, 1986
Anon’s link:
artiewhitefox
1, March 9, 2013
It’s a tit-for-tat type of law… You do me like I do you… or something like that.
Looking Beyond Election Day: The Issues That Threaten to Derail the Nation
By John W. Whitehead
October 31, 2012
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/looking_beyond_election_day_the_issues_that_threaten_to_derail_the_nation
Excerpts:
Indeed, unless we take a proactive approach to the problems that loom large before us, especially as they relate to America’s ongoing transformation into a police state, we may find that they are here to stay.
Militarized police. Thanks to federal grant programs allowing the Pentagon to transfer surplus military supplies and weapons to local law enforcement agencies without charge, police forces are being transformed from peace officers to heavily armed extensions of the military, complete with jackboots, helmets, shields, batons, pepper-spray, stun guns, assault rifles, body armor, miniature tanks and weaponized drones. As Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, observed, “Today, 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear and armored vehicles. Some have tanks.” In other words, what we are witnessing is an inversion of the police-civilian relationship.
…
SWAT team raids. With more than 50,000 SWAT team raids carried out every year on unsuspecting Americans for relatively routine police matters and federal agencies laying claim to their own law enforcement divisions, the incidence of botched raids and related casualties is on the rise. Nationwide, SWAT teams have been employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activity or mere community nuisances including angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession, to give a brief sampling.
…
Rise of the Imperial President. During his two terms in office, George W. Bush stepped outside the boundaries of the Constitution and assembled an amazing toolbox of powers that greatly increased the authority of the Executive branch and the reach of the federal government. Bush expanded presidential power to, among other things, allow government agents to secretly open the private mail of American citizens; authorize government agents to secretly, and illegally, listen in on the phone calls of American citizens and read our e-mails; assume control of the federal government following a “catastrophic event”; and declare martial law. Thus, the groundwork was laid for an imperial presidency, a state of affairs that continued after Barack Obama’s ascension to the Oval Office and one that will likely not improve, no matter who wins on Election Day, unless something is done to restore the balance between government and its citizens.
Thanks, Mike.
The Politics of Fear in America: A Nation at War with Itself
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_politics_of_fear_in_america_a_nation_at_war_with_itself
By John W. Whitehead
October 01, 2012
“Fear is the foundation of most governments.” – John Adams
Excerpts:
Turn on the TV or flip open the newspaper on any given day, and you will find yourself accosted by reports of government corruption, corporate malfeasance, militarized police and marauding SWAT teams. America is entering a new phase, one in which children are arrested in schools, military veterans are forcibly detained by government agents because of the content of their Facebook posts, and law-abiding Americans are being subjected to the latest in government spy technology.
…
Undeterred by its failure to check drug use, the governmental machine keeps chugging along. Consider that in 2011, half a billion dollars’ worth of military equipment flowed from the military to local police, with another $400 million worth of equipment reaching local police by May 2012. In addition to direct transfers of equipment, the federal government has given local police departments grants totaling $34 billion since 9/11. The 50-person police department in Oxford, Alabama, for example, has acquired $3 million worth of equipment, including M-16s, infrared goggles, and an armored vehicle. All of these new toys lead to specious SWAT team raids that eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, acclimating us to the vision of police in jackboots with assault rifles patrolling our streets.
anonymously posted
1, March 9, 2013
“Rise of the Imperial President.”
U.nited
S,tates of
A.uthoritarian rule
For the life of me I cannot understand why people think these things are no big deal, and they’re not planning on ”using” these powers. Ignorance will not be bliss for long.
They are VERY MUCH up to something, and I’m sure we’ll find out what it is sooner rather than later. This has all really escalated recently. You do NOT order 2700 lightly armored vehicles for the homeland, for ”just in case.” It’s more for ”when you do.” The only part I don’t know is if this is for AFTER they take the guns, or while they are GETTING the guns.
Lessons of a Police Chief: Militarization is a Mistake
by Norm Stamper
Nov 16, 2011
Excerpt:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/lessons-of-a-police-chief-militarization-is-a-mistake
“Everyday policing is characterized by a SWAT mentality, every other 911 call a military mission. What emerges is a picture of a vital public-safety institution perpetually at war with its own people. The tragic results—raids gone bad, wrong houses hit, innocent people and family pets shot and killed by police—are chronicled in Radley Balko’s excellent 2006 report Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.
Norm Stamper was Seattle’s police chief from 1994 to 2000, and a police officer for 34 years. He is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and the author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing. He wrote this article for the Nation.”
Center for Investigative Reporting
America’s War Within
Homeland security and the first 10 years of the war on terror.
http://cironline.org/projects/americas-war-within
—–
Local police stockpile high-tech, combat-ready gear
Dec 21, 2011
http://cironline.org/reports/local-police-stockpile-high-tech-combat-ready-gear-2913
Excerpt:
If terrorists ever target Fargo, N.D., the local police will be ready.
In recent years, they have bought bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment and Kevlar helmets, like those used by soldiers in foreign wars. For local siege situations requiring real firepower, police there can use a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. Until that day, however, the menacing truck is mostly used for training runs and appearances at the annual Fargo picnic, where it’s been displayed near a children’s bounce house.
“Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here,” said Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. “There’s no terrorism here.”
“I’ve posted for a while that I don’t think we’re coming under anything, we are already there, it just depends on where in the citizenry the focus is put at any given time.”
LK,
I’m right there with you, it is just a matter of degree. The whole thing has been done so cleverly that many Americans still don’t realize it isn’t the country they thought it was. As for Anon’s link, I have seen it before, in fact my wife posted it on Facebook and that is where I first saw it.
Part of the problem is that I think many Americans are authoritarian in nature and so really can’t comprehend that what is going on is wrong. I blogged this over a year ago, I know you saw it and it accounts for a good percentage of the population. http://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/21/the-authoritarians-a-book-review-and-book/#more-44246 . There is more to it than that though. We have been artfully propagandized and frightened to be brought to this current situation. It has been a concerted effort, with billion$ spent and it really isn’t a conspiracy since the facts are right out there for all to see. I believe the “Founding Father’s” were aware of the possibility of this coming to pass, but felt they should give it a shot anyway on the oft chance that the people would remain alert.
I’m not one who blames the people for what has happened, since the pressures of life are such that most don’t have the “leisure” to contemplate the world around them. They are too busy making a living, providing for their families and keeping themselves from falling into abjectness. My anger and with it the blame I put on those who have so much in their lives and yet want even more. Their need is actually for greater public subservience and I think it is a combination of sociopathy and sadistic pleasure at the suffering of the human condition. It’s never been about politics, or economics. It is about the satisfaction of ego and the accumulation of power.
Does your town or county have a SWAT Team? If so, buy several rifles. God made rifles for a reason. On the Eighth Day he made Dog and on the Ninth Day he made Rifles.
<bPaul 1, March 9, 2013 at 2:40 pm
I have long maintained that the purpose of TSA at airports is to turn you into sheep …
================================
Sheep bleat what on bleat Earth bleat are bleat you talking bleat about Paul?
“You really have to look at each agency individually to see if it is benevolent or not. Nearly all LE agencies do not plot together to deprive the citizenry of their rights. But I will agree there is a perception of this because often there are ideas such as procedures and equipment that seem to fan out like any idea in any trade, business, or social circle and it can be interpreted as an agreement by all to do it a certain way.”
Darren,
I don’t think we are that far apart. This isn’t about “evil doers” as W used to say. This is about the spread of a mindset and a re-definition of mission that has spread through law enforcement in this country because on the surface it makes sense to them. Damn, if I was the police chief of some small city why would I turn down an armored vehicle for free? As my father expressed to me time and again “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. The “War on Drugs” was ill-conceived, yet intended good. The riots in the Inner Cities scared the hell out of many citizens, so planning to curtail them certainly seemed a good idea. The “War on Crime” which led to the ill-conceived and mis-used RICO Laws seemed a worthy cause and so the “tools” given LEO’s were well intentioned. The shock of 9/11 needed a national catharsis and so we invaded the wrong country, started the “War on Terror”, passed the “Patriot ACT” and created the super-bureaucracy that is “Homeland Security”, we condoned torture with “good intentions”, we ignored habeas Corpus to fight “a greater evil” and we restrict the rights of citizens to protect them. For most who embraced these changes it was with “good intentions”. That some of those behind it had murkier agendas, is not the fault of those taken in by the propaganda and mythology..
“The whole thing has been done so cleverly that many Americans still don’t realize it isn’t the country they thought it was.” -Mike S. to lottakatz
There’s a lot going on which is under the radar of many/most…
ap,
Some have better radar than others while others still are dealing with noise and interference issues.
The best one can do is clear the air and hope their reception improves.
Most of these bureaucrats are simply working in this “machine” that nobody can seem to control or reform – they simply go to work and follow orders so they can pay their mortgage, kids college tuition, etc. There is lots of arrogance but usually not intentional malice. During the 1970’s when the Church Committee was asking FBI agents why they were committing so many felonies and illegal searches, their response was “we were just following orders” or “trying to solve cases” – basically the “ends” justify the “means” which is the opposite of a Rule of Law system of constitutional due process. Having said that, Congress and the state legislatures are unwilling to fix it or provide proper training programs.
Or to quote one of the better bits of wisdom found in the Christian tradition.
1 Corinthians 13:6-10 on love –
“6 It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear. 9 Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! 10 But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.”
Although love loves the truth, love will eventually fade, but the truth will out. Truth, like love, is rarely easy, but it enduring. “I didn’t say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth. ” – Morpheus. Will enough people choose the red pill over the blue before disaster strikes?
That is the tale we are living in these interesting times.
“Most of these bureaucrats are simply working in this “machine” that nobody can seem to control or reform – they simply go to work and follow orders so they can pay their mortgage, kids college tuition, etc. There is lots of arrogance but usually not intentional malice.”
Ross,
You’ve cut to the essence of the tale.
Heinlein’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.
In my view what is needed to improve these systems are “incentives” and “disincentives” plus proper training, etc. Using a different agency as an analogy: If the employees at the Veterans Administration received a “reward” for processing veterans checks within 30 days or a disincentive (10% paycut) if their customer (a veteran) has to wait longer than 60 days. Returning veterans can literally become homeless waiting for the system to function which creates anger towards the government agency and a perception of indifference. If SWAT teams were trained properly with the right mix of rewards and penalties the outcomes would be better.
Gene H. 1, March 9, 2013 at 5:07 pm
Or to quote one of the better bits of wisdom found in the Christian tradition.
1 Corinthians 13:6-10 on love –
“6 It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 8 Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear. 9 Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! 10 But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.”
Although love loves the truth, love will eventually fade, but the truth will out. Truth, like love, is rarely easy, but it enduring. “I didn’t say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth. ” – Morpheus. Will enough people choose the red pill over the blue before disaster strikes?
That is the tale we are living in these interesting times.
=============================================
hallelujah …
Tru Dat …
Right on brother …
You be knowin’
…
And stuff like that Wally.
Suddenly, a whole bunch of Conspiracy Theorists are guest-blogging
here on Professor Turley’s blog.
To quote or paraphrase a common refrain heard from some of those folks and their devotees: “WHAT? Not everything’s a conspiracy. I implore you,
ignore these loonies and anti-semites posting and barking about some crazy conspiracy to take over the country”. USA! USA!
bill mcwilliams 1, March 9, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Suddenly, a whole bunch of Conspiracy Theorists are guest-blogging
here on Professor Turley’s blog.
To quote or paraphrase a common refrain heard from some of those folks and their devotees: “WHAT? Not everything’s a conspiracy. I implore you,
ignore these loonies and anti-semites posting and barking about some crazy conspiracy to take over the country”. USA! USA!
==============================================
Bill,
If you are hating anyone you are missing the boat.
Hate is the absence of love.
Hate is the absence of critical thinking.
Hate is what holds America and the world hostage.
Let’s roll with love.
I swear, it will work.
Just an observation. I have been thinking about this for several years. Once again last night, I saw a law enforcement officer giving a press conference. I am not sure if he was a police chief or sheriff, since I was more interested in what he was wearing on his collar than the story. He was wearing five stars as his badge of rank. This rank is the highest possible in the military, and is used only in wartime. In the history of the US, there have been only nine military officers to hold five star rank. Four Army, four Navy, and one Air Force. The Marines and Coast Guard have don’t even have that rank. Whenever I see a law enforcement wearing five stars, one has to wonder what is going through their mind in terms of ego.
The ranking officer of a Scottish regiment (such as the Black Watch) is Colonel.
The message those five stars on a collar tell me, is the wearer is grandiose, and would love to be the biggest dog in a military command. The psychology of that carries a red flag for me.
Factoid: There is one higher rank than five stars. It has been held by only two men: George Washington and John J. Pershing.
Interesting point OS. It makes your wonder if they are making up for some shortcoming!
“The “War on Drugs” was ill-conceived, yet intended good.”
I would like to believe you but at the same time as nancy regean was saying no her husband (saint ronnie) had his henchmen supervise and oversee the importation of milllions of tons of cocaine into the inner cities to destablize them further.
it all about the money and control, plain and simple.
Mike
Yes, we are close on this, bad practices by the police are bad practices in the mind of anyone.
Otteray Scribe:
I share your views on some LE administrators wearing a line of stars as if they were generalisimo of the keystone cops. 5 stars should mean something especially in the light of there being, what 8?, generals of the army, airforce (1) and Admirals of the navy. But there are thousands of LEA’s in the country some with as few as a few personnel.
Most of what I see in our state is that a sheriff or chief of police wears 3 stars, undersheriffs and deputy chiefs 2 and chief deputies or captains wear one. Probably the limit I would go with.
Thank goodnesss we didn’t have to wear ribbons above our shirt pockets
Darren, if I were ever to become a chief or sheriff, I would probably wear a colonel’s eagles on my collar. Of course, the chances of that happening are about the same as a successful audition to become a member of the Bolshoi Ballet.
BECOMING a police state??? There have been 11 or 12 murders by the Palm Beach County Sheriff in the last 2 years with no accountability. It is open season on the citizenry. And they have plenty of “toys” to enable accommodation.
Police don’t save the soul trying to save the body. That is why they kill when push comes to shove.
OS,
I bet you are pretty light on your feet…but the Tutu might not fit under your kilt! :)
Mans law is a tit for tat. That is evil for evil. Jesus is not tit for tat. The devil will get what he wants to give. That is why it is not wise to serve him.
OS
saw a picture of sheriff joe arpaio recently and i noticed he was wearing four stars. was wondering when he got promoted from a three star sheriff.
Can you quote after me, and then tell me if you are wise or not wise? Ecclesiastes 9:18 :King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
The devil is in impressed by a stars on a suit, but God is not impressed at all. Why don’t people want to impress God who is Jesus?
raff,
That was unintentionally funny. You had no way of knowing. When I was in the fourth grade, we were studying American Indians. I always admired Native Americans, and found their culture interesting. One thing in my reading mentioned Indians walked through the woods without making any noise. It explained how hunters would put their feet down so they made no noise to alert animals. I undertook to learn that, and after practicing as a kid, that way of walking became natural. As a result, I am always scaring somebody when I walk up behind them. Despite my size, I simply don’t make footfalls when I walk.
And now for something completely different.
Darren,
The sword dance is a victory dance. The crossed swords are your own, plus the one you take from your late opponent. Those are basket hilt swords (claidheamh beag) and are sharp. The sword dance originally was for males only. Women doing the sword dance is a relatively late development. If you notice, the dancers do not look at the swords or their feet. Consider the implications of that. You are dancing all around two swords which might be razor sharp, and you do it without looking where your feet are without losing any toes.
When the Black Watch Regiment concert performance band came to town on tour I took my two daughters. We got great seats down front on the second row. That might have been a bit too close to the stage, because after the dancing segment of the program, they had learned what “dressing Regimental” meant.
I remember growing up in the 50’s, and in my home town there were police living on the same block. The police knew us and their kids played with our kids. At no time would they serve an “unannounced” search warrant, nor wear body armor when entering someone’s home. I know it has been justified as due to the war on drugs and terror, and the gangs they are confronting, however too often excessive use of deadly force occurs based upon faulty testimony or evidence. The fact is that our police are now militarized and trained by military personnel. They use new weapons technology given to them by the military that would normally be used in combat situations, but instead are directed at unarmed civilians. Too often the person is shot at over 80 times while fumbling for his keys to get into his apartment (NY), or shot in the back while lying on the ground face down and handcuffed (CA). They wear body armor, batons, mace, pepper spray, or tasers to break up protesters who are simply assembling for a redress of grievance as supposedly guaranteed in the Constitution. The right to civil disobedience is part of a healthy Democracy, however when the non-violent protesters have their heads bashed in by rubber bullets or batons, it means that the Constitution is no longer being observed. The government derives it’s just powers from the consent of the governed and the Constitution, and is valid only as long as it obeys that constitution that gives it legitimacy. They act as judge, jury, and executioner, denying the suspect of due process in a court of law. Habeas Corpus which is a fundamental part of our Bill of Rights seems to have been suspended in the name of the war on terror by allowing the summary execution of U.S. citizens without charge, trial, or counsel. The NDAA and Patriot Acts have eviscerated what was once a Constitutional Republic! The knee-jerk reaction of a trigger happy police force, dressed up in black SWAT gear seems to indicate that they are more concerned with serving and protecting themselves, rather than the public who are supposed to have a presumption of innocence. This shoot first and take no prisoners attitude has turned us into a police state.
Otteray Scribe:
Yes quite a skill. I can now see from what you describe why at the beginning of the dance the man on the very right seemed to adjust his sword so precisely.
It is an interesting permutation of how in various cultures people dance around certain objects that hold high value in their societies.
Ron:
It’s not anywhere near to that degree here actually. We are not a police state. Thinking that everything has gone to to such extremes sows the seeds of blind actions and causes emotions to run so hot it can turn a situation that might need a bit of correction into one where people are outraged and take to outlandish actions and make bad choices that can cause more harm than what the original situation might have presented.
Whether it’s SWAT, FBI, CIA, NSA or Wall Street the common denominator is these types of authoritarian personalities don’t believe rules and laws apply to them. We aren’t talking 20 degrees off course or honest mistakes, they have no reguard for any law or any constitution – it’s usually not even a consideration. These types are fine telling everyone else to follow the law!
Ross, one must be careful of painting with too broad a brush. Most officers simply want to put in their shift, do the right thing and go home safely to their families at the end of their shift. A small handful of bad officers and bad departments make it hard on the rest of the profession. These “bad cop” events make headlines for the simple fact they are relatively rare. However, my concern is that when rot starts, it tends to spread.
Some departments have rules just opposite to what most people think. When my daughter started to work, she was stopped in the corridor by an experienced officer who knows me. He gave her a few tips on what was expected by the brass. One thing he told her was that if she ever had to mace anyone, she might as well go clean out her locker and go home. The only reason for using mace and not get fired is if it is in the process of stopping an armed suspect using, or about to use, deadly force. No one ever hears about that kind of thing.
Tuesday, Feb 12, 2013
What does a police state look like?
by David Sirota
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/what_does_a_police_state_look_like/
Excerpt:
If you don’t live in Denver but this nonetheless all sounds familiar, that’s not surprising. As the recession has caused more social foment across the country, and as media has consolidated into the hands of fewer and fewer status-quo-loving plutocrats, the collective response from the power establishment has been authoritarian in nature. We see it in New York City, where surveillance and stop-and-frisk tactics are running rampant — and yet where billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg is regularly portrayed in the media as a great “freedom mayor,” thanks, in part, to the fact that reporters fear he will be their boss one day. And we see it in other cities where police are trying to prevent citizens from even documenting acts of police brutality.
Taken together, whether in Denver or anywhere else, the trend is clear. “Police state” is no longer a hyperbolic term, nor should it imply some fictional fantasy world. It is already here, and it operates in an insipid way whereby its worst atrocities are deftly normalized by power-crazed politicians and power-worshiping media outlets. In that, it is less “1984″ than “Brave New World” — less blatantly horrific than subtly pernicious. Either way, though, the result is the same: a police state that turns the word “liberty” into a meaningless political slogan, and not much more.
Did John Brennan Create the Loopholes CIA Used to Help Spy on New Yorkers?
Posted on January 11, 2013 by emptywheel
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/01/11/did-john-brennan-create-the-loopholes-cia-used-to-help-spy-on-new-yorkers/
Excerpt:
There’s one question I haven’t seen anyone ask but which seems utterly critical to John Brennan’s fitness to be CIA Director.
Back when the AP was first exposing how the CIA set up a spying program for the NYPD, they asked John Brennan about it. He professed to be “intimately familiar” with the program.
President Barack Obama’s homeland security adviser, John Brennan, who was the deputy executive director the CIA when the NYPD intelligence programs began, said he was intimately familiar with the CIA-NYPD partnership. He said that agency knew what the rules were and did not cross any lines.
As the program got more attention last year, Brennan even went to NYC to personally give the domestic spying program his seal of approval.
The White House added its stamp of approval a month later when President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan visited police headquarters.
“I have full confidence that the NYPD is doing things consistent with the law, and it’s something that again has been responsible for keeping this city safe over the past decade,” he said.
Remember, this program is offensive not just because it spies on so many Americans and in such incompetent fashion. It’s offensive because it involved the CIA in training NY Police Officers in CIA spy techniques.
continues…
What an absurd assumption to make: we’re heading into martial law because there’s suddenly this huge increase of SWAT team, and they have all this military equipment.
First, have you read anything recently about the increased numbers of semi-assault weapons in the hands of the populace? Maybe hear mention about the semi-assault rifle ban expiring? And the numbers of hostage takings and mass shootings? You don’t think maybe–just maybe–this might be a reason for SWAT teams?
You point to a CATO institute report that states estimates are that there have been 40,000 SWAT team raids. No facts, nothing to back up such an outrageous assertion. And CATO Institute? Seriously, this is your reliable source of news?
Secondly, where do you make the logical leap between more SWAT and martial law? There is nothing to support your assertion, other than supposedly more and better armed SWAT.
When have you ever heard of SWAT teams being used to enforce martial law?
And the ACLU links…
I’m a big supporter of the ACLU, but most of the stories you link are taken out of context.
The use of the drone and the six stolen cows? Well, the ACLU neglected to mention that the drone was used because the person was involved in a stand off with police, and the used the drone to determine the extent to which the people on the farm were armed. Oh, and that the incident ended peacefully.
A company applies for a patent. Well, companies apply for patents all the time. Sky hasn’t fallen yet.
A county sheriff in South Carolina gets hisself a an armored personnel carrier? Well by gol Martha Sue! We gots ourselves a BIG ve-hic-le! Let’s take over the gub’ment!
Oh yes, that one really convinced me to seriously consider your argument.
As for the times when innocent people have been killed, I hate to say it, but police have killed the wrong people before. They will again. All we can do is demand accountability.
Flapping our arms and yelling out “Its all a plot!” is not an effective solution.
I came here expecting reasoned argument and found a paranoid ramble, instead. Let me know when this station returns to regular programming.
Oh, and you forgot to mention that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Steven Seagal are training civilians to protect Phoenix schools. That has to be a portent for something.
I know…no more Steven Seagal movies!
Rejoice.
Re: Ottery Scribe
Good point, didn’t mean to stereotype any agency but there are unconstitutional cultures that develop where entire police departments participate in essentially blacklisting citizens in their own communities which eventually result in defamation campaigns – where a citizen is never charged or even accused of anything but remains on the police radar for life. Keep in mind these cops are not separate from the non-police community, their kids attend school together, neighbors, etc. When they get it wrong there are few avenues for the innocent citizen to pursue – they can’t go to the police! Usually it results in a very legitimate Defamation lawsuit against the local government. The question is how do you change this culture?
Go to http://www.HuffingtonPost.com and in the search box enter: “CoinTelPro, Nothing but a northern lynching”. This is where the FBI fabricated evidence and apparently used unwitting police and prosecutors to conduct an FBI assassination. In 2001 Attorney General John Ashcroft essentially legalized this practice again in 2001 (after being outlawed by the Church Select Committee on Intelligence Activities in 1975). This would include today’s SWAT operations if CoinTelPro was used in the same manner.
Ross,
No problem, just wanted to clarify. As the old adage says, a fish rots from the head down. I saw a news clip of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan at a press conference. She was completely unrepentant, and refused to answer questions about misconduct and civil rights violations by he own police department. After watching her in action, I concluded that if I looked up “authoritarian personality” I would probably find her picture to illustrate it.
Mike Spindell:
“When I find myself on the same side on an issue as the Cato Institute, then I know with certainty that my fears are well grounded and unrelated to any personal partisanship of my own.”
it is even worse than you think. The Cato Institute is headed by a well- known Objectivist who was the former president of BB&T bank.
John Allison [the current Cato president] tried to reject government money, in fact his bank was in good shape but he was forced by the Bush Administration to take the TARP money. He was given a offer he couldnt refuse. I will go so far as to say many banks did not want the money but were forced by Paulson to take it so people did not know which banks were insolvent.
Not all bankers are gangsters.
Someday, hopefully, people on the left will understand that economic freedom is just as important as political freedom.
That dancing around an object is idol worship. God said there should be no other gods before me. The God they trust in gives death. That is why people glory in a weapon of any kind that give death.
That dancing around an object is idol worship. God said there should be no other gods before me. The God they trust in gives death. That is why people glory in a weapon of any kind that gives death.
Re: Otteray Scribe
Not always questioning their intentions but more of the “ends always seem to justify the means” which is the opposite of how constitutional rule of law works. If you subvert constitutional due process (illegal searches, guilty until proven innocent, abusive plea bargains,etc) it will result in more convictions of citizen-crime and many innocent people will be punished along with the guilty but it creates MORE “color of law” crimes perpetrated by law enforcement, etc. which we have no accurate statistics to compare to. Although rarely enforced there are federal “color of law” statutes that apply to law enforcement, mayors, fire marshals, intel agencies, etc. Judges also rarely enforce contempt of court or obstruction of justice against police which creates an incentive for future abuse. Just because they have good intentions doesn’t make it legal!
You have God in you telling you this. I will go a step further saying SWAT acts like the Sodomite people of the plain and Gomorrahean -people that congregated around Lots house em mass wanting to do to him what a swat team does to people today. The person outside Lots door talked like a police officer too. Sodomite boastfully saying with an authoritative voice, 9And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them now will we deal worse with thee, than with them ,KJV,Genesis 19:. 9
“What an absurd assumption to make: we’re heading into martial law because there’s suddenly this huge increase of SWAT team, and they have all this military equipment.
First, have you read anything recently about the increased numbers of semi-assault weapons in the hands of the populace? Maybe hear mention about the semi-assault rifle ban expiring? And the numbers of hostage takings and mass shootings? You don’t think maybe–just maybe–this might be a reason for SWAT teams?”
Shelley,
Of course I read nothing about any of that assault rifle stuff, what is that all about? You say there were some people killed?
Then again, via your characterization of what I wrote, it seems you read nothing about what I was pointing out either. I suppose you are so wise that skimming a few sentences gives you the entire gist of the matter.
“You point to a CATO institute report that states estimates are that there have been 40,000 SWAT team raids. No facts, nothing to back up such an outrageous assertion. And CATO Institute? Seriously, this is your reliable source of news?”
The CATO link was to not only a 100 page report documenting its findings, but also a second link to an interactive map showing these incidents countrywide.
But the in you “wisdom” I guess you don’t need no “stinkin” facts, since you know it all already. Also in your ability to “psychically” absorb information and opinion all you need is a catalyst. You don’t like Cato, so Cato is always “bad”. Close minded much?
“Secondly, where do you make the logical leap between more SWAT and martial law? There is nothing to support your assertion, other than supposedly more and better armed SWAT.
When have you ever heard of SWAT teams being used to enforce martial law?”
Again, your pre-judgment shows a cursory skimming of what I wrote. Why not go back and read it again, slowly this time and perhaps you might understand my well-laid out train of thought and then disagree with it on the merits, if that is your wont.
“I came here expecting reasoned argument and found a paranoid ramble, instead. Let me know when this station returns to regular programming.”
I would presume to say that you came here seeking information that coincided with your own rigid pre-judgments and so when the subject got away from your own rigid belief system, you tuned out and didn’t bother to follow what was being written so that you could honestly rebut it, rather than engaging in uninformed ridicule. To some though uninformed ridicule is so much more fun than actually thinking. Then again it may just be my “paranoid rambling”.
“I’m a big supporter of the ACLU, but most of the stories you link are taken out of context.”
If you are such a big supporter of the ACLU perhaps you might follow the links to their own website where they supply the rationale for their taking on this problem? Then again, when ones mind is made up, why bother studying any further? What was quoted there came from them, not from me.
“As for the times when innocent people have been killed, I hate to say it, but police have killed the wrong people before. They will again. All we can do is demand accountability.”
Dismissing a viewpoint by trivializing it without rebuttal is a poor substitute for reasoned discussion. I don’t mind you disagreeing with me and who knows you might even raise some valuable points that I haven’t thought about? This dismissive commentary from you, however, fails to meet the test of reasoned discourse since you are demolishing “straw men” without touching on the central issues that I raised. Then again, not knowing you, I would surmise that attack is enjoyable to you for its own sake and actually doing the homework would delay you from your self-gratification.
“Oh, and you forgot to mention that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Steven Seagal are training civilians to protect Phoenix schools.”
Seriously, when it comes to rebuttal via ridicule, is that all you’ve got?
Let ‘s get back to basics. Each and every SWAT member and police officer take a (supreme & superseding) oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” – this is usually the only oath they take but if they did take other oaths it would be subordinate to their supreme oath. To protect and serve are supposed to operate within those parameters. They agreed to this as a condition of holding police powers and when police officers are removed from authority it is usually based on these types of violations.
I hope your excellent article is more warning than prediction.
Bettykath posted this in the corrections section, but I believe it is more relevant to this blog.
“bettykath 1, March 10, 2013 at 1:16 pm
from facebook
COINTELPRO Alive: Malcolm X Grandson, Malcolm el Shabazz, Issues Statement
by Cynthia McKinney on Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 6:03am ·
I sincerely appreciate the care & concern of the People over my well-being after Press TV’s report of the most recent events which have transpired regarding the F.B.I.’s harassment of me.
Given the storm of lies, and half-truths that come with being associated with being the descendant of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz, also known as Minister Malcolm X, any and everything that I do; great or small, good or not so good, real or imagined is subject to controversy. However, in this missive I will take this opportunity to properly & fully disclose what transpired.
In the beginning of 2012 I had been informed that I was under investigation by the F.B.I.’s Counter Terrorism Task Force Unit located in Goshen, N.Y.
The agents of this division-and in collaboration with others-have visited several residences of which I was known by them to frequent. However, they would never come when they knew me to actually be there. They would leave their cards with the residents asking them to tell me to call them, and then would tell surrounding residents to observe the house and to notify them if they saw me.
These are the homes of long-time friends, and very close supporters. Yet, when federal agents begin knocking on someone’s door on multiple occasions to snoop, and ask questions, whether one is guilty of an offense or not, it’s enough to coerce people into distancing themselves from you. This cheap tactic employed by the F.B.I. is a means of agitation & harassment. They seek to neutralize my networking abilities.
They have visited locations in California, Chicago, Miami and most aggressively in New York.
People were advising me that if I had nothing to hide, then I should just contact them as requested and cooperate. Though I must say that in these kind of matters I am of a particular ethic. For one, I have been engaged in no criminal activity of their concern, and they could have located me if they so chose. Secondly, I don’t recognize the authority in them beckoning me.
It wasn’t even until my mother informed me that they had been contacting her that I truly became agitated. She advised me to see what they had to say, and so I obliged the next time they came around looking for me. My encounter was with 2 federal agents of Goshen, N.Y.’s Counter Terrorism Task Foci Unit. The primary agent identified himself as Special Agent Tom Brozicky.
They expressed concern over-as they put it-my “international travels”; I have lived & studied in Damascus, Syria for over a year, and now the U.S. is instigating conflict within the very same region; I went on ex-congresswoman/former presidential candidate Cynthia Mckinney’s delegation along with Dr. Randy Short to Libya, and met with Leader Muammar Gadhafi one week prior to N.A.T.O. intervention and I was most recently getting ready to travel to Tehran, Iran to be a participant of the International Fajr Film Festival and give a lecture addressing the issues of Hollywood and violence:
– Modern Violence & Terrorism,
– Provoking clashes between religions & populations
I was picked up by authorities after I filed for a visa to Iran, and 2 days prior to my departure. A detective squad from the City of Middletown Police Department surrounded me in the street about 2 blocks from where I was residing. They asked me my name, and I gave them an alias, but they were already well aware of who I actually was. I didn’t tell them my real name because I didn’t know what was going on. When I was brought before a Judge of City of Middletown court I was surprised to be informed that I was being charged with Grand Larceny, and False Impersonation charge. Then I was sent to jail, and told to appear again 7 days later. Then following court date the bogus charge of Grand Larceny, which they only put to justify stopping me in first place, was dropped. And they left me to face the False Impersonation. I was offered 90 days for the offense of giving the authorities the wrong name which I declined before bailing out after 2 weeks.
When I was being held within the belly of the beast on trumped up charges, to my rescue came the journalist at Press TV based in Iran. My relationship with powerful & progressive news outfit began in April of 2012, and prior to that I had discussions with their journalist regarding current events internationally. I developed a positive rapport with some of them, and as a result was invited to travel to Iran to discuss the impact of Hollywood in stereotyping Muslims, Iranians and African people. From January 15th through 18th, 2013, I was a featured interviewee for the Press TV documentary “The Façade of the American Dream”. And prior to my date of departure to Iran, Lifetime television released a television bio-picture called “Betty & Coretta” which was a sensationalistic misrepresentation of my grandparents, my mother and me. This film aside from being poorly acted, and shallow in depth also threatened to inflame old controversies, and open unhealed wounds and to remind the public of sad outcomes without ever identifying B.O.S.S.I., the C.I.A., F.B.I. and other forces that set the climate for my grandfather’s assassination, and made my family a long-suffering casualty of COINTELPRO, and other anti-Black repression programs. Naturally, anything done to stir up old hatred of The Shabazz Family will impact me as the name-sake, and first male heir of Malcolm X, and whether I am high or low in fortunes does not exempt me from this reality.
The formula for a public assassination is: the character assassination before the physical assassination; so one has to be made killable before the eyes of the public in order for their eventual murder to then deemed justifiable. And when the time arrives for these hits to be carried out you’re not going to see a C.I.A. agent with a suit & tie, and a badge that says “C.I.A.” walk up to someone, and pull the trigger. What they will do is to out-source to local police departments in the region of their target, and to employ those that look like the target of interest to infiltrate the workings in order to set up the environment for the eventual assassination (character, physical/incarceration, exile) to take place.
For several months prior to my arrest in late January, 2013 I faced a pattern of harassment from law enforcement which is usually reserved for important figures. On Thursday, November 1, 2012 @ 11:53pm in the park circle area of Middletown, N.Y. I was stopped by officers of the Middletown Police Department, and given a ticket for “J-Walking” (crossing in the middle of the street), which then escalated into a “Disorderly Conduct” supposedly because of the exchange of words that I had with the officers. I told them that they couldn’t possibly be serious for writing me a “J-Walking ticket”, that I didn’t appreciate how they were treating me and that they
shouldn’t be looking at me as less of a man because they were in police uniform. For this I was arrested, the officers stole the little amount of money that I had on me, they then stripped me and threw me in a freezing precinct cell for the remainder of that early morning. I was finally taken before the “Judge Steven Brockett” around 1:30pm. He gave me an unreasonable bail, and then ordered that I be remanded to the Orange county Jail.
This penalty may seem a bit extreme or harsh to most of you, but here is where it gets worse: On Tuesday, October 30th, exactly 2 nights prior to this incident, the same officer “J Berman” who wrote me the ticket for “J-Walking” & “Disorderly Conduct” stopped me coming from out of a store in the same area, and questioned me as to what I was doing.
I told him that I was coming out of the store. He asked to see what I bought which was a pack of sun flower seeds. I had actually just so happened to be eating a few while he was talking to me, and I spit one of the shells on the ground. At this point officer “J Berman” threatened to write me a ticket for littering. Needless to say, I was
dumbfounded, but I went home that night.
Yet, it still doesn’t even begin there. I had an encounter with other officers of the Midletown Police Department one week prior to officer “J Berman’s” threats to write me a ticket for spitting a sun flower seed on the ground: I was coming out of a restaurant with my mother, and her friend. As the 3 of us entered the car to leave 2 police cars converged on our vehicle, and boxed us in. My mother was petrified. With guns drawn I was then ordered to step out of the back seat. I asked them why to which they replied that I had several warrants for my arrest. I told them that they were mistaken, but I still complied with their request. Humiliated in front of all on-lookers I was then thrown on the car while the officers ripped through my pockets. After they were done they said that it was my lucky day because I actually didn’t have any warrants at all, and so I was free to go! One of these officer’s name was “R. Ribeiro”…
You may wonder if it could possibly get any worse than this. Well, it does! Approximately 3 weeks prior to the public humiliation of my mother, and me by “R Ribeiro” and another officer of the Middletown Police Department I found myself subject to the discrimination & prejudice of Mayor Joseph M. Destefano of Middletown, N.Y. himself. A friend, and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Middletown, N.Y. which is owned by the Mayor, and to our
surprise he appeared from nowhere and asked us to leave. When we inquired as to why he stated that officials of the Middletown Police Department told him not to let us patronize his establishment. Mind you that this goes without incident.
As I stand for the people, God-Willing, I would pray that the same people wouldn’t hesitate to stand for me. If these unjust & heinous actions are tolerated & allowed to be done to me without recourse, then no one is safe. Just as Huewy P Newton of the Black Panther Party stated that police are in the white community to protect & serve, yet occupy ours like a foreign troop… I tell you that we shouldn’t fall victim to the conditioning of feeling inferior or fearful at the presence of law enforcement for no apparent reason.
With that being said, I was not arrested by federal agents. I was taken in by a squad from the City of Middletown, N.Y.’s Police Department. I was not being held in an “undisclosed location” so to speak. I was actually being held in the Orange County Jail in Goshen, N.Y. However, from the time that I was booked at the precinct, to standing before a Judge the next day who told me to come back in 7 more, to being processed at the Orange County Jail and up until 7 days later I was not permitted to make any calls to notify anyone of my status; as though I had just been kidnapped from of the street.
Unfortunately, until this day my family hasn’t been fully abreast of my situation as I haven’t had the opportunity to properly consult with any of them. Dr. Randy Short who notified Press TV of my situation is a close comrade of mine who was on our delegation in Libya. Media reports from Press TV about my situation were not intended to create controversy. In reality, I have a few associates that are affiliated with this reputable International media outlet, and they had expected to meet with me in Iran. So when I disappeared, and rumors spread, the inability to get concise information from a credible source prompted them to rouse public attention on my behalf, for which I am grateful. In April of 2012 I had the opportunity to be a guest analyst/contributor on Press TV. This network has a large following all over the world, and millions find it’s news, documentaries and programming to be both an educational, and insightful alternative to the conglomerated, and highly biased mainstream American & British news media. Regarding the Source magazine, nothing that they published was vetted by me, and was made by persons, at best, vaguely familiar with my situation. Further, I have never had an affiliation or relationship with The Source, nor have they ever directly consulted with me about anything.
Email: mecka1084@gmail.com
Facebook: Hajj Malcolm el Shabazz
Twitter: Malcolm71084
Instagram: mecka1084
It’s way more complicated but here is why CoinTelPro and like programs are so dangerous: The public rule-book for citizens to follow is the Constitution, Bill of Rights and federal/state statutes but CoinTelPro may punish or even destroy or kill citizens for violating “secret rules” – never advertised to the general public. For example: Freedom of Speech protects unpopular and even offensive speech and groups but a bureaucrat at the Department of Defense or FBI may view that legal constitutional exercise as unpatriotic and then proceed to punish or even kill that citizen who didn’t break any laws at all like Martin Luther King, Jr (a Baptist Minister preaching non-violence). Rumsfeld and Ashcroft publicly stated that they essentially viewed it as illegal to criticize Bush during wartime although the same rule doesn’t seem to apply to Obama.
Mike,
that was an amazing article from bettykath!
Ross,
I think the technical term for secret rules is “double secret probation”!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9741357-7.html
GMason,
That is one scary keylogger case!
travelinglimey
1, March 9, 2013 at 11:27 am
Don’t discount the NDAA, National Defence Authorization Act set in motion by Obama 01/01/2012, getting ready for Martial Law. ALL your rights go with this one!
—————-
What they say in the military. You have the right to one hour of sleep at night, you have the right to adequate food and shelter, you have the right to three meals a day. When available. Your commanding officer gets to decide what “when available” means.
Thanks for publicizing these developments.
The SWAT teams are like violently minded chimpanzees.
Swat Team members to not protect their soul. Nether do the police. They think a piece of paper with ink on it is of more worth.
Swat Team members do not protect their soul. Nether do the police. They think a piece of paper with ink on it is of more worth.
Please always check out those whom Bron supports. This banker Allison is no friend to the 99%. He says the ’08 collapse was not due to deregulation but rather mis regulation. He is a big fan of “small government” and gave a speech to this group:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Competitive_Enterprise_Institute
Check him out….I think he is one of those guys who thinks it was all those damn poor people who got us into trouble.
Does this trouble anyone else?
Ithaca, NY: home to Cornell University and Ithaca College; population
~30,000
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/3638077.html
Your friendly neighborhood SWAT team:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ithaca-Police-Department-SWAT/129365693357
AH yes the Government supporting the SWAT must only think of the peoiple in the USA as a swarm of flies to randomly SWAT at
There is no doubt whatsoever that America is suffering a rapid loss of freedoms & the powers that be are setting up steps to dramatically increase this with a declaration of martial law. Maybe tomorrow, maybe another decade or two, but the fact that it can be done anytime, with new restrictions brought into law every few months, is a dramatic loss of freedom in itself. These blogs are good. I am grateful to Johnathan Turley for putting them on.
THERE IS ONE PROBLEM. Each of these blogs eventually get a bunch of APOLOGISTS, some of which are highly sophisticated & skilled at writing many short pieces or long tomes of apologetic drivel that actually looks quite convincing. I’m not talking about the average person who cannot confront evil & so thinks that 9/11 must have happened the way his government tells him. I will give you one example & one example only because I am sure about this blogger, commenter & essay writer. Having done that, be wary of his followers & backers; some may have simply fallen under his spell but others may be apologists in their own right. After a while, these guys tend to take over the whole blog, quickly moving to new blogs to dominate that too. They have time on their hands & its quite possible that some could be paid to do what they do. The one I have in mind could easily be worth a few million to the psychiatric profession; factually they steal billions of dollars from your tax dollars & psychiatry would be abolished & criminalised if the media ever made a real effort to expose the truth.
The apologist I have in mind goes by the pompous name of Otteray Scribe. This man is an ‘up there’ psychiatrist with many government connections; in an informed society this fact alone would make you wary, but few of us are informed about these things. Of course, he will jump up, attack & name call on such a suggestion. Just be sure you do your own homework on what he attacks. He most definitely holds a status quo viewpoint; for now, psychiatry is still very status quo in spite of their admision of guilt for the Nazi holaucast, made last year, & the link between psychiatric drugs & the murder/suicide shootings in America. Check it out. He’ll try to convince you otherwise & perhaps his friends will too. Remember, psychiatry is not a help tool for sanity, but it is a help tool for insanity, used as a political tool for totalitarian & would-be totalitarian governments.
So it is very much on the subject of government over-reach & Big Brother. Any claim that ‘we’re not like that now’ is only correct to the point that some of the handlings & tortures have changed, not got better. Holding an opinion contrary to his will get you the Conspiracy Theorist label. Its a silly label because there are too many proven conspiracy FACTS to need to quote unproven theories! But the point of this essay is to look for subtle APOLOGISTS of our ever increasingly totalitarian government. The one I mention will either spring to, like a viper, or simply continue to write his ‘learned’ apologies, while posing as anti-totalitarian. Just be wary. His type would fit in nicely to an Orwell’s ‘1984’ scenario. As I will not have time to follow this blog with any regularity, I will give the name & number of a competant organization Citizens Commission on Human Rights 800 869 2247. They are very much in the forefront of getting you back your rights; OS will tell you they were started by church adherants like its a bad thing; so was America.
Crystal methamphetimines are bad for you.
They eat huge holes in your brain.
Gene,
Eats the enamel off the teeth too.
[...] Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. [...]
S¢I€N₮¤£¤G¥ does not like Crystal Meth because it eats huge holes in addict’s wallets.
Traveling Limey
I think I have read enough of Otteray Scribe’s comments to judge that what you say about him is nonsense.
It is true that the Church of Scientology’s subsidiary the Citizens Commission on Human Rights has done some useful work such as exposing Dr Harry Baily’s evil in the Chelmsford Hospital deep sleep therapy affair, however Scientology’s hatred of psychiatrists is motivated by the fact that it sees psychiatrists as unfair competition. Yes there are some evil and greedy psychiatrists who abuse their power over clients to exhaust the latter’s medical coverage while convincing them that they are members of a secret band of Satanists who sacrifice children, however most psychiatrists are not evil.
In my view the true measure of the benevolence of a religion is what is required to be an accepted member. From the Christian perspective, which is what I know better than what I know of the rest, God does not require money to be loved or saved by him. Money is a human construct.
A church, like any organization, needs funding to operate or reasonably maintain its infrastructure, but an admission fee is not required by good churches.
Maybe artiewhitefox can speak to this more accurately and eloquently than I can.
Psychiatrist Participate with GW Bush torture program
https://www.google.com
Plenty of decent German’s thought they had the luxury of not saying/doing anything as Hitler’s Nazis came into power.
The Root of almost everything evil in the world today is Central Banks, Insurance Co. & even most of the local banks.
Warning, this guy drops a few curse words.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-10/why-central-planners-are-so-scared-italys-beppe-grillo
[...] Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. [...]
[...] Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. [...]
“The apologist I have in mind goes by the pompous name of Otteray Scribe. This man is an ‘up there’ psychiatrist with many government connections; in an informed society this fact alone would make you wary, but few of us are informed about these things. Of course, he will jump up, attack & name call on such a suggestion. Just be sure you do your own homework on what he attacks. He most definitely holds a status quo viewpoint; for now,”
travelinglimey,
I happen to know Otteray Scribe off line by his real name and not his online persona. He is not a psychiatrist. Beyond that I know him to be a very intelligent man, whose thoughts are worth pondering and who is personally an excellent human being. I think the truth is that what he offends is Scientology’s world view. While there is much to criticize in the area of psychiatry and I know that as a former mental health professional, it is not the “universally evil” profession that Scientology claims it to be. Those claims no doubt spread from the “founder” L. Ron Hubbard, who I actually heard discussing his theories for hours back in the 50’s. Hubbard, was an excellent writer of “pulp fiction”, particularly of the Sci-Fi genre. He followed a method in the 50’s that was almost a generic “get rich quick” scheme. Found a religion, get tax-free status and draw in followers. Hubbard prospered as you yourself are an example. There is much I can say about Scientology, but when talking to a true believer, I’m sure it will get me nowhere. However, your attack on OS is not only unfounded, but factually deficient and I would say he has more deserved credibility here, than you will ever attain.
Has the ACLU ever defended a Second Amendment case?
There is evil in deeds that people do like the Canaanites did that,and what religious people did e who rejected the corner stone who is Jesus considering against him because people started to follow him after he raised Lazarus. There is sin in the body because is not immortal. That body consumes Gods gifts like devils want to consume us. When there is cannibalism people are allowing demons into their soul to do that to people feeling good about doing that. People killing people feeling justified is the devil in people doing that too.
In just reading some of these posts…. It appears some are capable of manufacturing their own…. And most use there own harvest….
Well, my post brought Mike Spindell out of the woodwork!
If you really read Hubbard, you might know that science fiction & many other pulp fictions were the 30s & a little 40s, excluding the war, & two science fiction works in the 80s. By far the highest volume of written & recorded work was factual non-fiction, all very scientific, from the thirties to the eighties. The volume was indeed astounding, more than anyone by more than twenty or thirty times, perhaps a lot more. Anyway, a smart way to go about assessing a subject or writer is to unbiasedly read what he wrote, not someone else’s opinion about him.
Since he was the first person to discover Dianetics (he invented the name, discovered the subject) no one should be practising in the field of mental health without knowing this subject well. This will become clear if you read a book on the subject. Money has nothing to do with it, but you cannot even run a five child day care without some of it. Psychiatry sympathisers like to make up stuff about money & other lies to distract attention from the real harm done by psychiatry. Its companion reason for existing (along with being a political tool for totalitarian government) is to make billions of dollars almost entirely from taxpayer dollars.
Mike Spindell refuting all this & being so big on the blogs here, seriously dilutes their value. Hopefully others can get wise to this & dilute his blogging value, rather than the Johnathan Turley blogs as a whole.You can name call on me if you like; I have no particular fame or stature, but I know what I know & in any blog about freedom, it is absolutely ludicrous to support psychiatry & rail against totalitarianism at the same time!
(Have you checked on Psychiatry Germany’s admission in 2012 to its primary role in the Nazi holocaust yet? Personally. I cannot imagine you admitting to this if you did, but hopefully others WILL check this out.)
Holding an opinion contrary to his will get you the Conspiracy Theorist label.
==========
I don’t care.
travelling limey
Otteray Scribe hit it right on the head with his assertion that $cientology does not like psychiatry because it represents to it unfair competition.
Have you ever considered the notion that one of the reasons there is such animosity and hostility by the $cientologist organization toward Germany is because the German gov’t has cracked down on the organization, doesn’t recognize it is a legitimate religion and more like manipulative profit centered cult? The German gov’t even tried to ban your organization.
Did your organization at one time have its members sign legal documents agreeing that each member would not seek the services of a psychiatrist if a doctor prescribed such services?
Did not L ron hubbard get into trouble with the IRS for tax evasion?
So is it not also a matter of coincidence that your diety xenu, as told through your dear leader hubbard, came to the Earth to help depopulate the billions of persons of his galactic confederacy to avoid being thrown from power, so he worked with psychiatrists and tax inspectors to lure and ruse the population toward being drugged, put into a state of paralysis then transported to Teegeeack (Earth) where they were lined around volcanos then nuked with hydrogen bombs?
Doesn’t it seem rather apparent that even from a structural look at the practices of $cientology, anything that runs afoul of the organization’s goals becomes a target and it also works in reverse as well. Dear leader hubbard gets into touble and it automagicly gets woven into the dogma. Was it prophecy that caused him to see the light, or the summons?
“The only conspiracy theories I believe, are the one that are true.”
-Michael Moore
“but I know what I know & in any blog about freedom, it is absolutely ludicrous to support psychiatry & rail against totalitarianism at the same time!”
travellinglimey,
I only support psychiatry where it works and that is at best a 50/50 proposition. In my work I have hired and fired psychiatrists and overall I wasn’t particularly impressed. I am not a fan of psychotropic medication, but I have seen it work impressively in a few cases. I truth I know more about the field than you do, its warts and all.
However, the position taken by Scientology is doubtless self-serving, because Scientology does the mental healing thing and claims it works better. Hubbard had no scientific background and dropped out of GWU, even though he later claimed to be a nuclear physicist. He was an engaging writer though with marvelous creativity. However, I would suggest you check out G.I. Gurdjieff’s “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson” as the source for where Hubbard got his cosmology. In fact Gurdjieff’s other two books “Meetings with Remarkable Men” and “Life is only Real When I Am” also seem to have provided Hubbard with cliff note so to speak. Then too you might reference his first published work “The Herald of Coming Good”. Interestingly, Gurdjieff was also somewhat tyrannical and insisted that his rich client’s follow his directions exactly. Coincidence, or a borrowing from a master?
“I happen to know Otteray Scribe off line by his real name and not his online persona. He is not a psychiatrist. Beyond that I know him to be a very intelligent man, whose thoughts are worth pondering and who is personally an excellent human being. I think the truth is that what he offends is Scientology’s world view. ”
I’ll second that.
[...] Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. [...]
OK, you guys are beginning to make me blush.
travelinglimey:
You are an idiot if you think Dianetics is some wonderful thing.
I had a friend who got into that crap and it ruined his life as I knew it would. Lost his wife, his money and a child. Ron Hubbard is a p*ssant who played people for money.
travelinglimey:
but there is no law against it, so carry on. I am sure your views on the subject will be embraced and debated.
[...] Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. [...]
Such small mindedness: ‘Read someone’s opinion about the author instead of the author himself’. That is basically what Mike Spindell is saying. You seriously dilute the value of your blogs, this one included, by taking that position on anything.
travelinglimey wrote:
Such small mindedness: ‘Read someone’s opinion about the author instead of the author himself’
~+~
We’ll how about the words straight from L Ron himself, with narration from the south park boys
Darren,
Great link!
Re: Mike Spindell,
Mike,
I enjoy reading your articles & the rebuttals are well thought as well.
I made notes on this piece but ended up not having time to post those comments.
And I had no time for cult issues of Scientology, AMA, Dem/Repub. LOL;) maybe later.
The piece below are the type of issues where our heads are supposed to be:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/03/15-year-old-kid-develops-foolproof-test.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29
This piece below is of a US Congress lady who may not know it but I fill she needs a Nazi Tattoo on the forehead so myself & other didn’t waste your effort with her ignorance of Jefferson/Adams/Franklin”s USA Freedom/Liberty/Bill of Rights Issues::
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/11/Schakowsky-Assault-Weapons-Ban-is-Just-the-Beginning
Wow, I had to take a double look at that last link I posted.
Breitbart??? LOL;) WTF, we’d better check their editing 1st before jumping to any conclusions! ;) Jeeez..
Goodnite.
[...] Read more.. http://jonathanturley.org/2013/03/09/swat-is-america-coming-under-martial-law/ [...]
Mike Spindell, you wrote
‘I believe that the rise of these SWAT teams is leading this country towards martial law and what we all commonly understand is a “police state” as repressive as any we’ve seen in the past century.’
You then provided an seemingly random recitation of facts that somehow is supposed to support your assertion.
One of the facts have to do with SWAT teams mistakenly killing the wrong people. What does this have to do with an increasing police state and a slide to martial law?
Police have killed the wrong people in the past, and unfortunately do so now, and most deaths happen at the hands of regular police just doing their job. Not SWAT members–beat cops, if you will.
If this demonstrates anything it demonstrates that more training is needed–not that we should suddenly start stockpiling weapons against an inevitable takeover of the government.
You then go into a confused ramble about the LAPD and cop shows, and the loss of the beat cop–which happened because of growing urbanization, not because of SWAT.
You mention the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Act (MCLEA), but you don’t mention the Posse Comitautus Act of 1878. The purpose behind the MCLEA was to basically codify existing practices–to clarify usage of military in certain limited contexts.
Case in point of codified practice: a military radar picks up a plane flying from Columbia to Florida and lets drug enforcement people know that the plane may be carrying drugs. You might call this militarization of America; I call it good use of resources.
As evidence for your earlier assertion you quote Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit and CATO Institute, both libertarian extremists, neither is which is particularly good at backing up assertions with rock solid facts. For instance, no where in the CATO paper does it provide any background for its 40,000 SWAT raids a year claim. The paper is primarily anecdotal.
The ACLU did not provide a sound background for the North Dakota story. And some hick sheriff bragging about his big ve-hic-le is not a solid foundation for running for the hills screaming the sky is falling.
Nothing in your writing provides any solid foundation for your assertion that because of an increased number of SWAT we’re heading into martial law.
“If this demonstrates anything it demonstrates that more training is needed–not that we should suddenly start stockpiling weapons against an inevitable takeover of the government.”
Shelley,
I really don’t have any problem with your disagreeing with me, or even calling my piece illogical. However, where in it did I imply that we should start “stockpiling weapons?” If this is an example of your reading of my guest blog, then I would suggest you are attacking it because you skimmed it and presumed me to be a supporter of citizens weaponizing themselves, which I personally think is a futile endeavor.
“but you don’t mention the Posse Comitautus Act of 1878″.
Also had you bothered to read more closely you would have seen that one of the points made by my sources is that “posse comitautus” is no longer paid attention to by the government, even as it remains on the books. Disagree with me to your hearts content, but at least get the facts of your disagreement together. I trust that isn’t too burdensome a request.
A glance of the bigger picture of what/where SWAT teams are a small part of:
Alex Jones/Max Keiser from last year
On the local front here more on another religious cult Scientology… cause I shouldn’t just single out Morons, Catholics & islam all the time. ;)
http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/narconon-loses-drug-counseling-certifications-form/nWpHD/
There is a standard that needs to be held by all persons who truly value freedom & recognize it’s rapid decline in America & abroad. Stomping on everyone’s religion and ideology as you put on an Alex Jones pro-freedom movie, like the last post, would be violating this standard as does our host (Spindell, not Turley) & several others. Ostracising Catholics, Mormons, Scientologists, Muslims….well,the rest of the Christians & Jews cannot be far from the list. Then we could add Atheists & Lawyers as the list goes on. I did indeed single out psychiatrists myself because they are a political tool & a menace on their own. Not everyone will agree with me because of political propaganda & the position they have been incorrectly assigned in our western societies. Nevertheless, any blog about loss of freedom would be falling short not to include this Big Brother tool.
travelinglimey:
How can people think we ever had freedom with jails and condemning -police around?
travelinglimey,
As long as Catholics put up with the rape of lil boys & the Mormons put up with the rape of liul girls, & how long the list of offenses by Scientologists is, I confess I forget all of them & Muslims blame & persecute/murder rape victims etc.., & I’ll continue scorn/shun them all.
Christians, Jews, Atheists, Lawyers, psychiatrists, Judges, Law enforcement, Wallst Bankers/Insurance Co., etc., if they are involved in illegal activities, Anti-American crap, engaged in war crimes, crimes against humanity I’ll continue to curse them as well.
If you find yourself hanging out with the wrong people & engaged in bad behavior you need to get away from them & stop your bad deeds.
Don
AJ’s crew & other alternative media don’t make this stuff up, they just report on it:
4th Amendment? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ 4th Amendment
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
March 12, 2013
Police may solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States, but this is increasingly a meaningless formality for many of them.
For instance, a couple cops in Dallas County, Texas, arrived at Jon Locke’s home to serve an arrest warrant on his brother, who wasn’t there. Mr. Locke wasn’t home either, but instead of coming back at a later time when somebody was home and asking about the brother, the police took it upon themselves to violate the Fourth Amendment and rifle through the homeowner’s possessions. They went so far as to enter his home without a search warrant. more….
http://www.prisonplanet.com/4th-amendment-we-dont-need-no-stinkin-4th-amendment.html
Don,
There is an old saying to the effect, “By their deeds shall ye know them.”
When a “church” copyrights all their holy books and scriptures, and then sells them to members incrementally at increasing prices, does not pass the smell test from the get-go. I have an opinion that any organization seeking tax exempt status should be unable to copyright anything. Nothing should be sold for a price greater than it takes to print and distribute the material, subject to audit by the IRS for violations. A simple modification like that to copyright laws should put a major crimp in the style of for-profit organizations passing themselves off as religious “nonprofits.”
Blue Mountain,
Yet we agree again…
[ video of dead horse ]
Now that was funny
Otteray Scribe,
I found some interesting concepts on Copyright Law & Hollywood’s complete control of the laws @, MaxKeiser.com
He seems to be for expanding fair use rules.
I believe we need to eliminate completely all charity tax deductions. If people wish to give to charities fine, but I don’t believe the government has the authority to redistribute revenue to charities.
Some of the latest numbers I’m seeing is about 1/2, close 100 million people , in the US, that are able to work are not working for whatever reason.
Of the 100+ million that are working about 10% of them are working for Tax Free Charities. Thought WoW! What a number, 10%, can that be true.
I wish I was better at stats, but what I’m seeing is that when we strip out all govt employees, companies doing govt contracts, companies/farms/energy/charities & direct welfare funneled Walmart/Monsanto/JP Morgan/Prison Industrial Complex we can see that this economic system can no longer continue & is complete collapse meltdown.
The Federal Reserve System is the blame & Bernanke’s 85 billion monthly welfare check to Wallst is only foaming the runway as the crash picks up speed.
The short of the long, everyone’s , including SWAT team’s, check/pension checks are starting to bounce. (devaluation)
Pretty good economic stats can be found at John Williams’ Shadowstats.com
** Mike Spindell 1, March 12, 2013 at 11:35 am
“If this demonstrates anything it demonstrates that more training is needed–not that we should suddenly start stockpiling weapons against an inevitable takeover of the government.”
Shelley,
I really don’t have any problem with your disagreeing with me, or even calling my piece illogical. However, where in it did I imply that we should start “stockpiling weapons?” If this is an example of your reading of my guest blog, then I would suggest you are attacking it because you skimmed it and presumed me to be a supporter of citizens weaponizing themselves, which I personally think is a futile endeavor.
**
What would citizens receive by surrendering any of their “Rights”
Only chains of Slavery is what I see them getting by surrendering up “My Rights”
Here’s 2 articles I found interesting:
** Hugo Chavez — Paul Craig Roberts
The US elites know what is coming. That is why they created a Nazi-style Ministry of the Interior known as Homeland Security, armed with enough ammunition to kill every American five times and with tanks to neutralize the Second Amendment rights of Americans. **
http://www.prisonplanet.com/hugo-chavez-%E2%80%94-paul-craig-roberts.html
**
Vaya con Dios, Hugo Chàvez, mi Amigo
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
By Greg Palast **
http://www.gregpalast.com/vaya-con-dios-hugo-chavez-mi-amigo/
Since our govt representatives are hardly representing our collective interest I’m still hopeful people, like on many of the message bb I follow, can some how come together on the many important issues that we can all agree on & push together for solutions.
For example, if people really wish to fix crazy people from going crazy how about we 1st remove most of the pollutants/toxins from the air/water/food/meds/vaccines the best that we can.
It isn’t the 2nd amd, it’s the corporate/govt toxins causing people to go nuts.
Today with the toxins everywhere there’s no difference in what used to be known as slipping someone a “Micky” or like a date rape drug give to the general population.
We have what we have because religions don’t teach the truth in their own book. That makes people rely on the arm of man and what they make
For a look at what SWAT teams will be driving and riding in
[...] Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. [...]
[...] Posted on March 11, 2013 by admin SWAT: Is America Coming Under Martial Law? [...]
Hello! I really love this blog. Tell me please – from where do you have information for ths post?
At the one hour mark:
“First our fears grip us so strongly that, thinking about the short term, we willingly embrace a police state in a desperate attempt to keep us safe; then, someone goes off and destroys us anyway?
If security won’t work in the end, what is the solution?” -By Bruce Schneier,
03.14.13
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/03/security-when-the-bad-guys-have-technology-too-how-do-we-survive/
VPS, be careful or you’ll start using Atl media search features & fall into the pit of truth. ;)
(Rumors are they have well over 10,000 of these gestapo battle tanks to use against average oe/Suzie 6pack American. The “Only” thing different about the path this nation is on from Germany early 30’s is this time they’ve left off the swastikas.)
** Big Sis Ignores Question On Domestic Arms Build-Up
Are huge tank like vehicles destined for police use?
Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
March 6, 2013
Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano ignored a question regarding the federal agency’s alleged purchase of thousands of armored vehicles, as she hurried off surrounded by Secret Service agents, following a speech at an airline security event.
We are Change reporter Luke Rudkowski approached Napolitano, or ‘Big Sis’ as she will forever be known, following her presentation to a crowd at the 21st AVSEC World conference in New York.
Rudkowski asked Napolitano about the reported purchase of around 2,700 armored trucks that many believe are to be deployed to local law enforcement agencies around the country. **
Video
http://www.prisonplanet.com/big-sis-ignores-question-on-domestic-arms-build-up.html
George Noory: People Don’t Trust Gov’t Anymore
(Coast to Coast AM radio talk show host George Noory)
http://www.prisonplanet.com/george-noory-people-dont-trust-govt-anymore.html
10 Giant Media & Government Hoaxes
http://www.prisonplanet.com/10-giant-media-government-hoaxes.html
bettykath 1, March 13, 2013 at 2:54 pm
For a look at what SWAT teams will be driving and riding in
————————
Do they have kevlar between their eyes?
Matt,
That means what? You plan to shoot SWAT team members between the eyes?
anonymously posted 1, March 14, 2013 at 3:31 pm
At the one hour mark:
—————————
Looked at the one hour mark. I think he’s full of shi+.
Otteray Scribe 1, March 14, 2013 at 7:12 pm
Matt,
That means what? You plan to shoot SWAT team members between the eyes?
_____________
They already came into my house uninvited once. Caledonia police. They told me to come down the stairs with my hands up. I told them to stay where they were because they didn’t have a search warrant.
There weren’t any problems.
Matt, that didn’t answer the question, you answered a different one instead. But, never mind. Sometimes there is a no-knock raid with a warrant, but they may have the wrong house. Wonder what’s the best way to handle that.
Link goes to a few examples:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=swat+wrong+house&oq=swat+wrong&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0l2.1319.3758.0.5617.10.7.0.3.3.0.210.911.2j4j1.7.0…0.0…1ac.1.nOUqykxRTQQ
Otteray Scribe 1, March 14, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Appreciate the link. But they didn’t raid the wrong house.
[...] SWAT: Is America Coming Under Martial Law? (jonathanturley.org) [...]
Landmark Stop and Frisk Trial: A Cop Testifies Against the NYPD, and The City Reveals Its Drip, Drip, Drip Strategy
By Graham Rayman Wed., Mar. 20 2013 at 7:00 AM
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/landmark_stop_a.php
Excerpt:
In the second day of the historic stop and frisk trial in federal court in Manhattan yesterday, there was the start of testimony from Adyhl Polanco, an eight-year veteran of the NYPD who has made the highly unusual and courageous choice to testify against the city’s campaign. Meanwhile, as you can read further down, the city’s strategy is emerging with great and disturbing clarity.
Polanco, who first told his story to the Voice back in 2010 for our “NYPD Tapes” series, talked about his period in the 41st Precinct in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, and how his views of policing evolved away from the constant quota pressure.
Polanco talked movingly about how a police officer’s job ranges way beyond just making arrests, doing stop and frisks and writing summonses in service of quotas. “Every radio call brings something different,” he said. “Our job is to help the needs of the community. We are referees. We are in between moms fighting for their daughters.”
As for police policy, he says, “What’s on paper, the written policies, is way different from what actually goes on out there. It was all about ‘productivity,’ it had nothing to do with what we do every day.”
Stop and frisks, summonses and arrests “are the easy part of the job,” he says. “Sometimes you sit on a dead body. Sometimes, you bring an accident victim to the hospital and he dies in the car. Sometimes you deal with children who are raped, or women.”
But his precinct commander, his sergeants and his lieutenants didn’t want to listen. They just wanted numbers, he testified. “They only care about one thing–arrests, summonses and stop and frisks.”
Plaintiffs lawyer Darius Charney asked: did they care about the number of radio runs you did? The number of domestic disputes you responded to? The number of injure you cared for? “They didn’t care,” Polanco testified.
“They never cared about the quality of the work we were doing,” he testified. “They wanted quantity. And how we got there, they didn’t care. They never asked me about the quality of the stop and frisks. They never cared about reasonable suspicion or probable cause.”
continues…
[...] SWAT: Is America Coming Under Martial Law? (jonathanturley.org) [...]
my name is rocio morrow and the swat team made me think i was crazy they bakaracted me taunted me through devices tv ext… turned everone against me falsly charged me with somthing i didnt do just like mike spindell this is in hernando and newportrichey fl they wont stop they follow me everywhere i have no warrent or current charges but their trying to charge me i guess
hasnt hapen yet but im pretty sure thats whats up they wont go away but at least my word is out they had my whole family everone go against me in hernando fl
We have always been under a form of Marshal law. The only difference are this, The weapons get bigger with laws being stricter more oppressive. it is the same thing being more abominable. Have people see that reverse the tide.
next few weeks look up my name under hernando county arrest pretty sure it will b interesting they turned my husband against me u b amazed how eveyone becomes a snitch (fed) real quick when they get involved all my fam turned exspecially my 2 sisters in hernado who r twins who situation is f up if somthing happens i guess it happens everyone kept saying i was crazy but when shit was about to go down or i had a bad feeling about shit everyone would hall ass sooo obviose.they try creeping up on u n if u flip or react in a way they get u with a shot (gas)(guns)ext…they tap through almost anything doesnt matter if its in a restroom or u having sex n they show others your business they think its funny a game its messed up
my friend has a christian web site it is if your interested ( http://www.Jasonvalentin.com ) Facebook him to be updated on the new tribulation belief system. Endtime prophet: swat has no heart even worse no soul. i believe it should b considerd invastion and intrappment how they do things im previously being watched recorded swermed on 24/7 i believe this is going down,they threaten people so they cant tell u,my name is rocio f morrow look me up next few weeks if somthing happens please get word out this is f up. they shouldnt b alowed to get away with some of the things they do.
The SWAT is taught to have a dead soul. Had people would be like Jesus is there would be no attribution regarding people with people. People can stop that kind of tribulation in its tracks if they wanted to.
The SWAT is taught to have a dead soul. Had people be like Jesus is there would be no attribution regarding people with people. People can stop that kind of tribulation in its tracks if they wanted to.
The SWAT is taught to have a dead soul. Had people be like Jesus is there would be no tribulation regarding people with people. People can stop that kind of tribulation in its tracks if they wanted to.
[...] In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. [...]
Im 62 now so ive watched and listened and read and at this point things being said 5 yrs ago i thought was bs is coming true so u always start at the top. First the Fed and m
Ega money world monoply game to control everything then more elite more power more money more control. Then we have our government that long ago was an eroded corrupt entity but the country still functioned maybe because of the Greatest generation cared like no recent generation cares were honost enough even corporate leaders cared but business leaders have been tought to take and dominate and then the lethal combination of weak minded money power hungry elected officials and super rich corps made richer over years by lame gov leadershave combined to throw everything away no middle class jobs for economic stabilization in bouncebback up and down times all overseas (talk about $lost taxes our gov set them up) so jumping ahead to now we have a perfect storm of world elite pressure bad economic times rampant borrowing now the world is rejecting U.S. Currency so we cant control and on top of that the U.N. Through the elite wants to run the worlg take all weapons from all people and we all know what that meanns that was Hitlers first move for the very same reason our leaders r doing this to us. So our ptotected elite leaders being safe from what is to come fall in line for the overthrow/marshal law takeover like the gettless spinless TRAITORS they are. Warch out its coming the only chance we have is to do everything we can as soon as possible whatever works because what they r allowing Obama and others to do is UNCONSTITIONAL and is HIGH treason and Jefferson told us what to do well for our gov to do this means everyone that ever came here for freedom and opp based on the blood and courage of frontie
Rsmen and our founding fathers and every person that put life on line for what our farseeing founders set up the leaders couldnt be caring but only motivated by evil and black hearts to throw it all away for the nwo power elite. And one more thing because they need one more big happening to set in motion this martial law no freedom set up everything is orchestrated to look like tragedy but the nwo us gov rig it to get our collective cooperation
Jails is one abominable thing. Police is another abominable thing. A Swat team is a worse abominable thing, the military is a worse abominable thing yet. Then there are spontaneous acts of terrorism being abominable. To have the military used on us is yet a worse abominable thing. Religions perverting the KJV made all of the aforementioned abominable things. From the ground up is one big abominable 6 layer cake.
Whether police state or not, the risks – especially in the area of drones, and high tech weapons – is high unless there are restrictions upon use, or ownership if those are used against the American people, by inadvertence, or simply because use cannot be controlled or monitored. the assault weapons ban becomes the same argument, essentially. what patent law allows matters. who can restrict drone sales by persons who would arm them?
american has entered a world of unmitigated risk in the area of patents and technological development where weapons can be corporate owned, or personally owned.
[…] Note: In addition to drones, the highly-militarized American police are another major threat to our life, liberty, and property. […]
I just hope that the owner of any weapon considers we what is unseen to refrain from harming what is seen.
I just hope that the owner of any weapon considers what is unseen to refrain from harming what is seen.
Marshal law is a worse abominable thing than police. Both are godless.Why do people want what is godless? Jesus is not in arresting or killing.
[…] SWAT: Is America Coming Under Martial Law? […]