"The Makings of a Police State"

[TBoneTX 46,125]

The Makings of a Police State-Part VI

Sunday, 31 January 2010

A Nation of Suspects

Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in 'changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them.' -- Paulo Freire

The illegal domestic wiretapping of all Americans, the invasive search practices at every airport directed at every single US passenger, the compilation of all data on all citizens in not only one but multiple government databases, the unreasonable and warrantless search and seizure practiced on US masses facilitated arbitrarily by the FBI, are among many known and unknown government practices directed at the entire population of the United States of America.

Despite the current futility, many constitutionalists, legalists, analysts, and activists are writing, talking, and arguing about the legality or illegality, constitutionality or unconstitutionality, practicality or impracticality, of these surveillance and search practices of our 'National Security State.' There is a plethora of material out there for you to read or listen to on those points, so there is no need for me to cover all that has been covered already; over and over. I am not going to discuss the tedious and ambiguous laws, nor am I going to waste time on the vague and irrelevant notion of and argument on security. No. I intend to focus on the subjects of these practices; the people; the masses, in fact, the entire population as the willing recipients who have come to view and accept themselves as suspects. Isn't this what we have become; a nation of suspects?

No one any longer questions the fact that our government has been engaged in domestic surveillance of our communication systems. The news came out. The practitioners admitted to it, in fact, proudly. These activities were challenged in courts and the challenges overridden, thus making the legality or illegality, constitutionality or unconstitutionality, all irrelevant; moot. Several years have passed and it has become, it is, a fact of life; a fact in every American's life. And for the majority, not a painful or aggravating fact of life; just 'a fact' of life. Why?

Many say 'look, there are these bad guys out there called terrorists. The government is out there looking for them; everywhere. I ain't doing nothin' wrong, and I ain't got nothin' to hide. So why should I be concerned? My government is doing it to keep me, to keep us all, safe; to protect us against those bad terrorist people lurking here and there.'

If you were to ask most 'but why do they tap your phone line and capture your data or conversation? You the good citizen?' The common answer would be along these lines, 'I don't know. They must know something. I don't understand how intelligence and police stuff like this works. They must know something, if they think tapping my phone and listening to my conversation helps to fight terrorists and keep us safe. I just do my own thing and since I don't have anything to hide it doesn’t bother me. They've got to do what they've got to do to protect us.'

Most of you know that the above dialogue is more or less what we get everywhere with almost everyone. I have had that exact same conversation with tens if not hundreds of people, and I can assure you that the above rendition is in no way exaggerated or downplayed. It is the general attitude. It is the common thought and response process. It is a fact of today's life expressed by today's people in our country. And to recognize these common beliefs, to draw the most logical conclusion, takes neither a genius nor a philosopher nor a psychologist. But let's move to the next related fact, and see that same logical conclusion.

Starting immediately after the September 11 terrorist attacks, we began to see, and of course become subject to, jacked up security check points and searches in our airports. First, they already had us all going through big complex metal detectors. Then, they had us do the same thing but remove our belts and other metal containing garments and belongings. Then, they had us bend over like servants before kings, remove our shoes, and humbly walk barefoot through the big complex metal detectors. After that, they prohibited us from carrying our drinking water or any other liquid, and they made our lactating women open up their stored breast milk and sip it before the eyes of the traveling masses passing by.

Meanwhile we learned of their massive databases on fliers, where over one million people were divided into no fly lists, almost no fly lists, and maybe no fly lists, with further division into high-risk fliers, medium-risk fliers, and low-risk fliers. But, despite all these massive, complex and secret multiple lists and databases, we all had to go through those same detectors, with no shoes, no liquids, supposed random but all too frequent pat downs. So we never understood the rationale for having all those lists and databases anyway. No worries. We, most of us, said, 'we may not understand, it may not make the slightest sense, it can defy all logic -- but that doesn't matter. The government must know things we don't, and they are protecting us against the big bad terrorists.' So we went on, kept putting up.

Recently, they said all those practices were not nearly enough, so they've been erecting body-scanner temples at security checkpoints, and asking us to step in them to be viewed naked-breasts, penises, arses and all. To be technically correct, they are not forcing us to go through the scanners; in fact, they are giving us options:

-You either step in the scanners and let us view you, all your private parts naked, or,

-You go through grabbing, groping, patting, and worse one-on-one searches.

They have been proudly justifying these invasive procedures by presenting them as reasonable options for people to choose from. Think of a rapist saying the following in court:

'But I gave her a choice, and I made it clear. I said you either submit willfully and quietly while I rape you, or, you can fight and I'll beat the hell out of you while I'm raping you.'

We've been complying with all that. We get to the checkpoints, and as one woman told me:

'I just go into this auto pilot mode. I remove my shoes and other items. I move forward towards the screening machine while looking into empty space and avoiding any eye contact. I step in there, slightly spread my arms and legs, pause, and step out on the other side. I then let out a deep breath for making it, without sounding off any alarm bells, and without having to be touched, groped and patted everywhere. Then I walk away quickly and try to wipe away all the memories of those long minutes. It's the best way to deal with these things.'

Again, this sounds very familiar. Just read through documented victim accounts on dealing with highly traumatic experiences. I used to read about and listen to such victims. A woman telling the story of being molested and raped by her father:

'I used to pretend not being there -- you know, almost like an out of body experience. He'd quietly come to my room, his breath reeking with alcohol -- I'd close my eyes when he pulled down my panties -- I'd spread my legs, close my eyes, and imagine not being there -- imagine it was not happening. It was quicker that way. He'd be done and gone. And I would go on trying to forget, pretending I forgot -- trying to erase all the memories and the feeling of being violated.'

Doesn't it feel that way? Don't we feel violated? Don't we feel powerless? Doesn't it feel like total submission to a force greater than any one of us, and obviously the total of all of us?

Think about it. Many elementary schools bring in law enforcement or psychology experts to educate our children about abduction, molestation, rape, etc. One of the things they try to teach our children, in simple and easy to understand language, has to do with recognizing 'danger' or 'criminal' or 'wrong' behavior, approaches, and requests, and to say 'no,' or walk away from predators who initiate them. One of the main things they teach:

It is not right or good if people, even friends and family, ask to see your private parts. That’s why we call them 'private parts.' They are private. We say 'no' if someone asks us to see our private parts. We don't let people touch our private parts. We run and report to our parents if someone tries to touch our private parts. It is not right. No one should be asking you, or do to you, things like that.

Now, with all the transportation procedures, security screening rules, shouldn't they add a qualifier to above lecture-training points? Something like:

It is not right or good if people, even friends and family, ask to see your private parts. That's why we call them 'private parts.' We say 'no' if someone asks us to see our private parts. We don't let people touch our private parts. However, if it's TSA screeners at the airports, if it's the security police in front of the congressional building, if it's the... then all bets are off. You have to let them do whatever they ask you to do. It is okay for TSA men and women to see your private parts. It is perfectly okay, if they pick you for random additional search, and touch your private parts; grope, pat your private body parts. Then, it is okay.

Let's use common sense here my friends. When put in writing it may sound disgusting or outrageous to some of you, but isn't it true? Don't they view us and our children, and all our private parts with their new body-scanner temples? Don't they give us a thorough pat down, everywhere, including our private parts when we say no to their temples, or, when we become the chosen random one for one-on-one pat down?

What will you tell your kids when they say, 'But daddy, they told us at school not to let people touch us down there! How come this guy is touching me here?' No, you tell me, what will you tell your kid when he or she innocently, but far more rationally, asks you that question?!

Now let's go back to our submission to total surveillance in the name of vague and irrational security. Most people I know, in fact everyone I know in this country, has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Even with our spouses we adhere to respected privacy ethics. You certainly would not like or tolerate it if your partner were to go through your private mail, open and read it. No matter how innocent, worthless or trivial the content of the envelopes. You would be livid to find out your partner has discovered your password to your personal e-mail accounts, and has been reading your correspondence with others. No matter how innocent or unimportant the nature of those communications. You would be outraged if your spouse picked up the phone upstairs and listened in to your conversation with a friend. No matter what the nature or importance of that particular call. Then how is it that all these expectations of privacy, the sense of being violated when that privacy is invaded, and the swift and firm response to these violations, all go out the window when the violators happen to be total strangers hidden in secret castles of our government?

Somehow the same justification, 'Oh, I'm not doing anything wrong, and I don't have anything to hide' does not wash away the justified feeling of being violated. For some reason, lines like 'he/she was doing it for my own good, to protect me better, or, to just make sure I wasn't engaged in anything nefarious or dangerous' would seem utterly irrational or stupid. Yet, we've been practicing this irrational distinction with far more outrageous violations of privacy inflicted upon us on a daily basis, and by those we don't even know -- to know the extent of the damages they may be able to bring down upon our lives.

When did we make these decisions? When did we decide to put in place and live by these distinctions? When did unreasonable search practices somehow come to be accepted as reasonable? When did we accept being watched, being searched and patted down, being treated, and simply living as suspects?

Whether it's carrying out a conversation over the phone, whether it's writing a quick e-mail to a colleague, whether it's flying home to Milwaukee to see your grandmother for one last time, we, every single one of us, are being listened to, watched and read, and invasively searched as suspects. No matter how clean our background and criminal history, no matter how virtuous our daily lives and conduct, no matter how exemplary our citizenry -- no matter; we are all suspects.

Are we witnessing our transformation into Orwellian masses? Because these incremental applications of indiscriminate government surveillance and warrantless-reasonless searches and seizure targeting the entire population, are geared to desensitize, degrade, and ultimately and inevitably, to dehumanize us all.

One of the notions we once tried to live by and be proud of was 'innocent until proven guilty.' Now, it seems we are all guilty until -- well, until the end of time? Until the end of the last terrorist on earth has been announced? Until we say enough is enough and stand up for our own rights, privacy, dignity, and freedom?

Here is an excerpt from an article published in 2005:

Metro police officers are using new behavioral profiling techniques as they patrol subway stations, identifying suspicious riders and pulling them aside for questioning.

The officers are targeting people who avoid eye contact, loiter or appear to be looking around transit stations more than other passengers, officials said. Anyone identified as suspicious will be stopped and questioned about what they are doing and where they are going.

As part of their preparations for tighter security during the presidential inauguration, the officers have been trained by the Transportation Security Administration to take notice of the same behavioral characteristics and patterns that airport security officials watch for.

Orwellian, isn't it?

It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face -- was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime. -- George Orwell

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2010/01/31/the-makings-of-a-police-state-part-vi/#more-1615

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Dusting off the stacks, and just happened to find this "gem"?

Edited June 1, 2012 by ☼

[JohnR! 5,495]

I suspect a conspiracy is afoot.

I have this eerie feeling the government knows where I live, where I work, how much money I make and what car I drive. I suspect the government may have infiltrated my network of thousands of friends on Facebook. I suspect they are following me on Twitter...

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Dusting off the stacks, and just happened to find this "gem"?

Posted it to see who would reply and how, si man.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

""""'But I gave her a choice, and I made it clear. I said you either submit willfully and quietly while I rape you, or, you can fight and I'll beat the hell out of you while I'm raping you.'"""

^ That about sums it up right there.

The sheep like to be herded and herded they shall be so long as the reasonable voice isn't the loudest.

No one wants to believe in the atrocities their government commits. However their government is just as human as they are and more than willing to take everything from their fellow man to gain more power over them.

The question becomes, are the people going to become too weak to fight back, or are they going to break before its too late and take back their freedom.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Tin foil hat alert!!!

[Leatherneck 693]

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

However, in this case, the form of government is not the problem. The problem lies with the politicians and bureaucrats in gov't, their lack of understanding of the Constitution, judges that lack understanding of the Constitution and the original intent of the framers and the public's lack of understanding of the Constitution. I suspect the case with bureaucrats and politicians -- they view the Constitution as something they must get around to achieve a goal, but not one of expanded liberty and freedom.

Even a peaceful people, with no non revolutionary mentality, that have a reverence for their founding and history will only take so much from an all intrusive government -- they too have a breaking point and will rebel.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The highly edited and abbreviated version above. The unedited version below. Wonderful words, elegantly stated, with no effect of law, then, or now. In is nothing more than the rebellious act of British citizens, declaring, and justifying an act of treason against King George's lawful government.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

[ready4ONE 5,400]

The Declaration of Independance is now a RWN partisan tool to claim justification for the right to tear the nation apart if/when they don't get their way....

[slim 1,533]

All Americans should read that document from time to time. If you look closely at the list of grievances, it's not too hard to connect them to today's government. One of my personal favorites, "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance." Does that not sound like the government of today? An office/bureau/branch/department/administration for everything? A government hand in every aspect of our life?

I heard a man speak a few months ago and one of his points was, "Have you ever considered why they teach us 'no taxation without representation' in schools? Have you ever thought maybe the reason they tell us that is so we'll think what they're doing is okay simply because we have a representative?"

A buddy of mine was showing me a video a few days ago. Silly video on YouTube, something about an unrelated accident witnessed by a cop doing a traffic stop on another vehicle. Anyway, what stood out to me was this cop pulled a vehicle over for a broken windshield - and then had the driver and passenger sit on the ground while handcuffed.

Would Sam Adams sit on the ground with cuffs on because he was driving a car with a broken windshield?

Yet today, we ASK for this type of stuff. We think it makes us all safer. We're willing to pay millions of dollars a year for this "protection." We NEED it. What would we do without police.

"...swarms of Officers to harass our people..."

And I'm not even dogging the cops. Most cops are good dudes just trying to feed their families like the rest of us. But we as a society have created this behemoth of government growth that feeds on all of us for no other purpose than eating away at our substance. It is unsustainable and will be the death of our great nation.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Sam Adams and the rest profited from smuggling. That is the reason they sought independence from the British Mercantile System, and that is why the Bill of Rights was created, to permit such operations to continue under the new government. My Aussie friends like to tease me, saying, "You do realize, we both have a common heritage, as former citizens of the British Empire, of being criminals from birth."

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Sam Adams and the rest profited from smuggling. That is the reason they sought independence from the British Mercantile System, and that is why the Bill of Rights was created, to permit such operations to continue under the new government. My Aussie friends like to tease me, saying, "You do realize, we both have a common heritage, as former citizens of the British Empire, of being criminals from birth."

And your point is?

Slim's post, just above, is elegant and indisputable.

Edited June 2, 2012 by TBoneTX

[ready4ONE 5,400]

And your point is?

Slim's post, just above, is elegant and indisputable.

Elegant? Huh? Indisputable? Hardly.

Take his YouTube video story to start, the original purpose of the traffic stop might have been the broken windshield, but putting the driver and passenger in handcuffs would have been because of something the officer saw or heard when he radioed in the stop. Getting released, assuming that happened prior to the video ending doesn't mean there were no criminal charges. Very silly story to illustrate Slims view of our government as a police state. Thin soup indeed...

[Leatherneck 693]

Elegant? Huh? Indisputable? Hardly.

Take his YouTube video story to start, the original purpose of the traffic stop might have been the broken windshield, but putting the driver and passenger in handcuffs would have been because of something the officer saw or heard when he radioed in the stop. Getting released, assuming that happened prior to the video ending doesn't mean there were no criminal charges. Very silly story to illustrate Slims view of our government as a police state. Thin soup indeed...

Now that the EPA is using drones to monitor cattle ranchers -- something tells me, you'll find a way to justify that.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

zomg, not the drones! mumble, rant, mumble, buy ammo.