United Police States of America

The United States was founded on the Constitution as the law of the land, followed quickly by the Bill of Rights. The Constitution was meant to restrain the government, keep it limited and protect the natural rights of the individual. While the Constitution has been under assault since the ratification, the rise of the US police state has put many more of our natural rights at risk from an overreaching government. While the commerce clause or the general welfare clause has been consistently misinterpreted, with the exception of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution, most of the Bill of Rights has remained intact, recently we have witnessed the erosion of our Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and even the Eighth Amendments. These are mainly our protections against government intrusions. They deal with such important things as privacy against unreasonable searches, right to due process, self-incrimination, rights of the accused and the forbidding excessive fines, bail and cruel punishments. With the passage of the PATRIOT ACT, the government was given the power to claim someone an enemy combatant, even an American citizen and violate such rights as speedy trial, due process, right to counsel and even the right to confront the accuser. Then add in the NDAA, which gave the government even more power over our natural rights as humans. With these two laws, we lose our right to be secure in our own possessions; the government can write their own search warrants, refuse due process and invoke gag orders on everyone involved, even your bank or utility company. As if that is not bad enough, we have seen the militarization of our local and federal police forces. Think about the manhunt in Boston for the marathon bomber. The entire area was under martial law as the police shut down the entire city to search for a single suspect. Police in military gear and military grade weapons went door to door unlawfully searching houses and this wasn’t the first time. Think back to the ex LAPD officer, where again police in military gear went searching house to house for a single suspect, shutting down the tourist town of Big Bear. Not only have police departments been going military style, but our very own Department of Homeland Security, which in reality, does nothing that other agencies haven’t be doing. Their mission claims that their goal is secure our nation from the many threats we face, but they don’t handle our borders or immigration. They don’t investigate or arrest criminals or terrorists and they don’t handle economic or cyber issues, there is a department for that as well, so what is their “mission”? The Department of Homeland Security has recently purchased millions of rounds of ammo and armored troop transports, but for use on whom? Even if you are not targeted by the police, you can still have some encounters with police that never end well for citizens. SWAT raids targeting the wrong house have resulted in family dogs being killed, people being injured and in some cases even killed, all because of bad information. There is even one instance, in Henderson, where were denied entry into a private residence. Police wanted to use the residence as a staging area for a potential crime happening next door. What did the police do? They broke into the house, arrested the occupants and unlawfully searched and occupied the house. The rise of a militarized police force should raise concern for everyone. Were the actions in Big Bear and Boston preparing us a more militarized society, where police armed with machine guns patrol the streets in armored vehicles breaking down doors of innocent civilians? How much is enough? For links and sources click here.

Welcome to Orwell's 1984

Thirty years ago, the communists were the enemy and they resided in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We made fun of them, how the government controlled every aspect of their lives, how people were starving, living in poverty and relied on the benevolent communist regime to survive. The communist regime controlled the media and the schools. If you weren’t happy, you better keep that to yourself because you could be sure that the regime was listening and you might receive a visit from the KGB and be locked away without a trial. In America, we are freedom, liberty loving people and that could never happen here. Well look at how far we have fallen. We have gone from a country founded on the individual to a country of sheeple. No longer is individual initiative rewarded, it is punished. Rewards are dished out to those that use the system. President Kennedy’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” has been transformed. Now it’s more like, “ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can give to you.” With nearly 50 million people dependent on the government, millions more living in poverty and a government system that perpetuates the cycle of generational poverty. The main stream media has long promoted the government’s position, most recently look at the media’s worship of the current president and what are government ran schools teaching our students? If you look at our rankings in education, we are dropping in the world rankings. What should have all Americans up in arms and seriously questioning their government’s actions is the latest spying scandals that have been uncovered. It starts small, with the Internal Revenue Service targeting certain groups for no other reason than their name. Prying into areas where they have no business, such as what books they read or the content of their prayers. Then it gets a little wider, like Verizon turning over all of their customers phone records to the National Security Agency in the name of fighting terrorism. Of course the National Spying Agency claims that they are just storing the data, not listening to actual phone calls, like that is supposed to make it okay. If that was all the government was doing that would be bad enough, but it’s not. The government has also been collecting internet traffic from companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook, but it’s only to keep you safe. If all of that doesn’t make you feel safe, don’t worry, there are now streetlights that will help keep you safe. They are smart streetlights and are they are being tested in the United States; these have the ability to record audio and video as well as broadcast messages. All of these invasions of privacy are not based on any sort of probable cause, are not issued by a judge and are illegal according to the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution. Benjamin Franklin is credited with the quotation, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." This is not a left or right issue or a republican/democrat issue, it’s an American issue. When we lose the foundation on which our country was founded, we are no longer free. The question is how many more intrusions of our freedom before you take a stand? Please click here to see article with links.