American Lockdown: Law Enforcement Out Of Control And Beyond The Pale

[babylonsister]

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2575/81/

American Lockdown: Law Enforcement Out Of Control And Beyond The Pale
Monday, 08 October 2007
by Carolyn Baker


In my recent article "The End Of America: The Police State Is Right Here, Right Now" I included experiences of escalating intimidation on the part of law enforcement in the United States within recent months. I must confess that when I cite such incidents, I fear that in a few days or weeks, it will all go away, and everyone else, myself included, will begin to question the validity of the examples, breathing a heavy sigh of relief and rejoicing that the situation isn't nearly as dire as I'm asserting it is.

This time, however, I have nothing to fear because since that article was posted, the ante of out-of-control law enforcement in America appears to have been upped with a rapidity that I could not have imagined just a few weeks ago.

snip//

Although we are seeing more media attention given to private security companies such as Blackwater, we should not assume that the power and funding granted to these firms will dissipate anytime soon. They are an integral part of the Shock Doctrine brilliantly analyzed by Naomi Klein in her new book of the same title. The greater the extent of the empire's collapse, the greater the intensity of the shock applied to those who reside within the belly of the beast. From those shocks flow not only increased terror and social control, but flourishing profits for private security companies.

The U.S. government is making it unmistakably clear that it intends to use every avenue of power at its disposal to lock down the nation. A story sent to my subscribers today from the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) reveals that in its correspondence with the Treasury Department "The Treasury Department was surprisingly candid in that correspondence, asserting the U.S. Government's authority, in declared emergencies, to confiscate precious metals and to restrict ownership of mining shares -- and to confiscate and restrict every other financial asset as well."

Almost daily we hear of increased surveillance of Americans as well as unprecedented restrictions on travel, not only on persons entering the U.S. but on persons traveling within the country and on dissenters who attempt to enter other countries as in the case of two activists, Medea Benjamin and Ann Wright who were denied entrance into Canada on Thursday "because their names appeared on the FBI's National Crime Information Center database."

Another relevant story relinked today pertains to the anti-terrorism Vigilant Shield 2008 exercise of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) "The series of exercises is mandated by the US government to prepare, prevent and respond to any number of national crises that would call for the use of the military inside the United States. Vigilant Shield 2008 builds a scenario of a domestic disaster in the US (terrorist attack or natural disaster). It posits the domestic use of the US military including a special role for the US Air Force." As we know, a precedent for using the U.S. military inside the U.S. was set in the aftermath of Katrina in 2005.

For those considering expatriation, it will soon be too late to leave. For those who choose to remain within this increasingly locked down nation, it will be necessary to acquire survival skills, a strong community of friends, and a great deal of stealth in order to navigate this empire's exacerbating Orwellian treachery.

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2575/81/

[Joanne98]

1. AMEN to that! K&R!

[TomInTib]

2. And look what I got when I clicked on the link

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[ret5hd]

3. worked fine for me.

[babylonsister]

4. I just pulled it up again, Tom. nt

[TomInTib]

6. It finally worked for me, 'sister.

But you have to wonder how much longer it will be before articles such as that one never see the light of day.

[babylonsister]

7. I also thought of that, given the topic.

There isn't a whole lot of optimism out there.

[mark414]

5. the police are necessary...however, this article is 100% correct

and it's not just because of a few "bad apples." there's always been a few bad apples. what we are seeing today is the result of an infection, for lack of a better word, that comes from the top down. these bad apples couldn't exist if police departments everywhere didn't constantly justify and excuse their behavior. when you have bad apples you pick em out and throw them away. but what about when you have a bad tree?

the police are becoming more and more militarized and more and more aggressive, in every situation. just like every other part of american society they are becoming more isolated, fear-driven, distanced from their neighbors and their communities, etc. etc. etc. combine that with a massive increase in budgets thanks to "Homeland Security" (just that name alone should be enough to scare anyone) and even small town forces have special-ops caliber weaponry.

and it just keeps getting worse, and ordinary citizens who have as much to fear as the next person, just keep making more and more excuses for them.

[earth mom]

8. K & R & Bookmarked! nt

[L0oniX]

9. "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth" - Albert Einstein

I hate these asscarrots in office and the jack booted Nazi pigs (police).