Yeah, the article is a tad on the conspiratorial side (OK, a lot), but you want to be safe, right? That means we need to relinquish some of our rights so that we can be safe, right? And who knows. That little old lady next door just could be a terrorist in disguise. Or a commie pinko. Better turn her in so they can batter down her door and drag her off. Better safe than sorry, I say. Right?
Three States Subjected To “Martial Law Sweeps”
Federal law enforcement agencies co-opted sheriffs offices as well state and local police forces in three states last weekend for a vast round up operation that one sheriff’s deputy has described as “martial law training”.
Law-enforcement agencies in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas took part in what was described by local media as “an anti-crime and anti-terrorism initiative” involving officers from more than 50 federal, state and local agencies.
Given the military style name “Operation Sudden Impact”, the initiative saw officers from six counties rounding up fugitives, conducting traffic checkpoints, climbing on boats on the Mississippi River and doing other “crime-abatement” programs all under the label of “anti-terrorism”.
[…]
Forget innocent until proven guilty, you are now a terrorist suspect until you are told otherwise.It is now the norm to consider everybody equally likely to be guilty of something than innocent. This is proactive policing, not preventative or reactive policing, and is widely indicative of a society that is NOT free.
This form of proactive policing is a phenomena indicative of a once free state rapidly declining into a authoritarian police state.
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” – Thomas Jefferson
Tom’s Saturday morning two cents.
Well, we’re being told (eventually forced) to relinquish all meaningful freedoms to save the plant from climactic catastrophe. No difference really.
The reason doesn’t matter. If you’re willing to give up freedom, you’re willing to give up freedom.
Hey, it’s no big deal, we all live in a police state.
Try not paying your taxes.
I am constantly amazed at how complacent so many of my fellow Americans are toward the dismantling of our precious Constitution – and freedom.
We have become a nation of cowardly, lazy, willfully ignorant sheep – easily manipulated by fear mongers (CODE ORANGE! CODE ORANGE! – RUN HIDE), who don’t know, or care about what’s going on around them.
Maybe it’s too hard to think about these issues – or we didn’t pay attention in school – or life is too easy to worry about such things. My guess is that we’re just @#*ing stupid – and damn proud of it.
And anyway, if the government says something, it must be true, right? George Orwell wasn’t wrong, his timing was just a little off – six years early, to be exact.
(My sincere apologies to real sheep.)
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“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.”
Clarence Darrow, Attorney for Snopes in the so called “Monkey Trial”.
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” . . . . use of the big lie and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism or security. It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth; it is the spreading of fear and the destruction of faith in every level of society.”
President Harry S. Truman
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“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter”
Winston Churchill
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“The power of the Executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist.”
Winston Churchill
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We don’t need no bullets or bombs to destroy this country. It will destroy itself.
Floyd Red Crow Westerman, actor, song writer, activist for American Indian causes
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I cannot believe you’re shilling for Alex Jones. What’s your next source of information, David Duke?
#5: I may not like the messenger, but that doesn’t mean the message is any less valid. He simply is the first source I found who mentioned it.
I wonder how many of us see the connection between this post and this prior post?
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=17304#comments
In this current post the police can sweep entire states looking for bad guys, so why not start with a test case? Sweep something smaller, something the public can get behind. No matter that the precedent created allows legal mass sweeps. Instead of a religious compound, why not the entire state?
As long as it is against someone we don’t like it’s ok, but when it’s against us, well, now that’s bad.
The legal precedents being established will certainly be expanded to allow mass sweeps based on unconfirmed and possibly non-existent evidence. Say (for example) a group of Atheist create the “It’s not God” club and have formed affiliated discussion groups throughout Alabama. Now the religious right claim that these discussion groups are a terrorist organization “fomenting revolt and acts of sedition against the great state of Alabama” and send anonymous phone calls to the police.
Given the level of review currently required, the police can raid all the homes and offices of the group, close the group down, and put them in jail, even though the only thing found is a document highlighting their planned non-violent opposition to “intelligent design”.
The damage is done.
We loose our freedoms piece by piece, till one day we wake up and discover they are all gone.
This is not new.
Since November 1963, we have been losing our freedoms.
We need to dismantle the government and draft a new consitution.
Nothing short of this will change anything.
Cursor_
#9, I hope that is not true, hope.
As much as this seems to be a tin-foil hat moment, there are other credible news sources for this.
http://tinyurl.com/5eon9l
http://tinyurl.com/6okrvk
“The sweep resulted in the arrest of almost 80 people, 31 of which were fugitives. Now, the federal government will determine if any of the suspects have ties to terrorism.”…”Most criminals caught by the sweep did not have terrorist ties, but law enforcers said you can’t be too careful. “Terrorism is an event that could happen anywhere,” Luttrell said. Even in Memphis.”
Did you catch the small but significant “gotchas”? Sweep caught ~80 PEOPLE, 31 of which were fugitives. So what were the other 49? We know they were not fugitives, and therefore could have been picked up at any time. Their crimes(?) must have been so small that it wasn’t worth the effort. That is, until it made good press.
Another gotcha? A terrorism sweep picking up people who have no known ties to terrorism.
If the government can initiate a state-wide sweep to catch terrorists, and can use this sweep to catch anyone else the state has a beef with…
I hope you don’t have any outstanding traffic tickets, or haven’t pissed off someone in charge.
What’s with all the people saying “tin-foil hat, tin-foil hat, blah blah…”
Are you just afraid to face that we don’t really live in a true democracy?
Are you afraid to admit that the government isn’t your friend anymore?
Are you afraid to admit that truth is stranger than fiction?
Get a life, grow up and face it finally.
Ah Yea,
From one of your links,
Luttrell said agencies at every level need to communicate, because smaller crimes often lead to bigger crimes.
Case in point – Sheriff’s Department Patrolman Jason Kopacko pulled over a driver for improperly displaying a temporary tag. A closer look revealed the driver had no insurance and no license.
Most criminals caught by the sweep did not have terrorist ties, but law enforcers said you can’t be too careful.
“Terrorism is an event that could happen anywhere,” Luttrell said.
Well, That really scares me. Sure, not having insurance or a driver’s license is wrong, but was that the intent here? Somehow this Sheriff has lost sight of the fact that he works for the people, not the government.
Come November, the state of paranoia over McCain possibly not winning the election will have Bush suspending the election until the terrorist threat (Democrats) is reduced.
#12, This scares me too. So much for living in the Land of the Free. I historically have not been the biggest fan of the ACLU, but if they jumped into this on the side of our Civil Liberties, that would change my opinion.
Like I said, where is the ACLU when you really need them? What more could scream for their intervention can we witness like the events of last week?
Get ready for some frisky action in Denver during the primary. The protesters are already video taping the buildings, and the existing security camera locations. Could be a hot time in Denver.
“Aim for the mirrored sun glasses, or the donut hole.” – Thomas Jefferson
This story scares the hell out of me. I think the law enforcement agencies in this country are completely out of control. I used to think this type of story was a tin hat tale but no more.
#16
“Aim for the mirrored sunglasses, or the donut hole” – Borat
Fixed.
Founding Fathers wouldn’t believe this USA is the same one as the one they fought for, that’s for sure.
#9 Cursor_said
We need to dismantle the government and draft a new consitution[sic].
Quite frankly, I have little confidence in the ability of the populace to come up with an acceptable, ratifiable plan. Among the people of my acquaintance, and judging from the letters to the editor of my local daily paper, the dittoheads outnumber the leftists, liberals, centrists and moderates by a considerable margin. That way lies chaos.
#20
Dismantling existing federal bureaucracy completely (from top to bottom, starting with Mr.Pres and ending on last unionized federal building floor cleaner being (over)paid some $30k/yr for such job…) and starting all over based on the good ol’ Constitution would be good enough, don’t you think?
Just making Federal Reserve a *federal* institution would be actually a good start.
I’d like to see any one person who the government has convicted of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks.
Does anyone feel safer since 9/11? I sure don’t, not knowing that the US pissing off millions of people worldwide with an illegal war and occupying a foreign country.
With the 2nd Amend there won’t long be a 1st.