A Robbery of a Different Kind
The police state is not only here – it is being welcomed with open arms
by Eric Peters
“Exhibit A: In Aurora, Colorado, police searching for suspected bank robbers locked down an entire intersection, dragooned 40 random motorists out of their cars at gunpoint, handcuffed them and “asked” for permission to search their vehicles.
“Naturally, no one refused permission.
“The action itself is startling: 40 people, guilty of nothing more than proximity, of being in the same general area where a suspected criminal might also be, are literally pulled from their vehicles, shackled and detained for more than two hours – even after it was obvious they were guilty of no crime at all.
“Even more startling, however, than these over-the-top tactics is the fact that (apparently) every one of these 40 innocent people complied without a peep of protest ...
“None put up a fuss when the cuffs came out.
“One woman interviewed by ABC News clucked happily: ‘Yeah, we all got cuffed (laugh) until they figured out who did what.’
“No doubt this woman will not object when a gang of armed men kicks in her door, invades her home and holds her family at gunpoint until they figure out who did what. After all, there are criminals about. They could be anywhere. Which means, anything is justified.
“In the words of one ABC News blogger, ‘Sounds like the police did their job – and did it exceptionally well!’ ...
“The Accosted apparently agree. So far, according to news reports, none of the 40 has so much as filed a complaint.”
COMMENT
The compliance of the masses is the result of a century of indoctrination by government-run schools. Both the police and the people behaved exactly the way people are conditioned to respond to authority in the government schools.
Through an insidious process of which few have been aware we have allowed ourselves to evolve into an Authoritarian State.
If any one of us misbehaves, all of us will be punished. The rules are certain to become increasingly restrictive each time an individual gets out of line.
"Officer, am I being charged with a crime?"
"Shut up, asshole, and get in the cruiser."
The degree to which most of us are complaisant in the outrageous carryings on in Washington, DC would seem to bear this out. We have, indeed, become a nation of sheep.
Contrary to Scripture could it be time for us to go astray, and each one of us to follow his own way?
Liberty may become little more than a forgotten myth if we do not.
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
~ C.S. Lewis
"When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws."
~ G.K. Chesterton - in the London Daily News, 7/29/1905
I believe the incident described in Peters’ article should give us cause for considerable alarm.
Do you agree or disagree?
~ FreeThinke
Something that happened to me back in 1970 or so....
ReplyDeleteA police officer stopped me as I was driving through a small town here in Northern Virginia. I asked him, "Officer, why are you stopping me? Was I speeding?"
"No, you were not speeding."
"Then, why did you stop me?"
"Because you have a university sticker on your car and you look suspicious. I'm going to search your vehicle."
I paused, then stated: "You need a search warrant for that. I want my attorney."
The officer snorted. "Just who is your attorney?"
I named our attorney, the family attorney always on retainer.
The officer's jaw dropped. "You don't really have him as your attorney."
"I do." I rattled off my attorney's two phone numbers (office and personal).
The officer folder up his notebook and said, "Go on your way."
In today's crazy climate, what would happen to me if such an event occurred now?
I do know of several instances of unlawful searches of vehicles over the past three years here in Northern Virginia -- one of those instances a case in which the driver of the vehicle had done nothing wrong and even had his seat belt fastened.
So, let's say that you're doing nothing wrong -- as was certainly true in my case all those years ago. Your vehicle will still be impounded, and getting it out of that impound lot will cost you over $400. I kid you not! And if your vehicle is damaged during the towing process or anything is stolen from that vehicle, unless you have comprehensive coverage on the vehicle, you'll have to pay the charges. Again, I kid you not! I've known of more than one instance of what I'm describing (vehicle damage and property stolen).
So, here is what we now must do: Have a high-powered attorney on retainer! There is no other way to protect the rights we should have to take such costly steps to protect.
The same applies to our health care -- particularly if we are taken to the ER and, later, forced into a nursing home.
Oh, in answer to the question at the end of the post: The incident is indeed cause for alarm!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing you were "well-connected," AOW, or things might have gone badly for you.
ReplyDeleteWhat you –– and those 40 people in the article –– experienced was clearly an abuse of power. Certainly unconstitutional.
Aren't we supposed to be free from "unreasonable search and seizure?"
OH! And did you hear about the new law making drivers eligible for a one-thousand dollar fine if they are caught driving with pets unrestrained by a seat belt?
Talk about DRACONIAN laws!!! That one really takes the cake. I suspect it may be a "test case" on the part of Authority to see just how much abuse We the "eople have been conditioned to take.
I forget the state from which this latest atrocity emanated, but –– again –– it's part of an emerging pattern of petty tyranny on a thousand fronts that threatens, if unchecked, to make our once-great nation a living hell.
We may catalogue these affronts to human dignity, and shriek and roar and throw up our hands all we like in the blogosphere, but that won't begin to stem the tide.
In suppose using tactics perfected by the left -- organized protest marches, belligerent-but-nonviolent "demonstrations," Parades Celebrating Pride in Liberty, massive organized phone calls, letters and emails to every member of congress demanding justice. OCCUPY the MALL, etc.
Trouble is we conservative-libertarians are either gainfully employed or too busy working at real tasks that interest and enliven us to devote that much time to what-amounts-to organized bitching. We're just too polite, mild-mannered and respectful if human dignity for our own good.
~ FreeThinke
When the tin-plated uniformed bureaucrats become ineffectual at serving the people, they end up turning on the people. That is so much easier than doing the job they initially were supposed to do.
ReplyDeleteThe American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. —Norman Thomas
ReplyDeleteWe are far too accepting of "authority figures." In our hearts, we want to appreciate our first responders. We want to respect them for the jobs they do for us ... but we must be wary not to cross that line into National Socialism. Look what it did to the German people.
I am reminded of yet another quote that went something like this. "Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"
Your graphics are over the top, Freethinker. It isn't Democrats who beat up innocent people. It's you fascist Law & Order types who want to scare everyone into shutting up and getting out of your way. It's you greedy rich types who want to keep everybody down, so you can live high and mighty.
ReplyDeleteBarbra
Thanks for your input, "Barbra."
ReplyDelete~ FT