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.