I just read a news report of the lengths to which police in Miami are going to collect and destroy all evidence of a shooting of a Black male who was trying to flee a traffic stop.
Their actions included seizing and destroying cell phones and video recording devices of people who filmed the incident. One person, realizing this was happening, is reported to have popped the memory card from his phone into his mouth to preserve it from the police.
Now the police and the city are using court orders to try and track down all such evidence, but note the police state tactic in the subpoenas.
YOU ARE SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED NOT TO DISCLOSE THE EXISTENCE OF THIS REQUEST. ANY SUCH DISCLOSURE COULD IMPEDE THE INVESTIGATION BEING CONDUCTED AND THEREBY INTERFERE WITH THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW.
Our elected leaders, our Supreme Court, and our police and military authorities no longer operate under any pretense of adhering to the fundamental principles of due process and habeas corpus, the two principles that are the fundamental framework of a Constitutional system, operating under a rule of law.
We are no longer rapidly descending into a police state. We are there.
The Supreme Court of the United States has clearly indicated that it will side with the corporate oligarchy no matter what. Its Citizens United ruling gave corporations the green light to spend unlimited sums of money to buy elections and the politicians of their choice. At the same time, SCOTUS ruled that corporations cannot be held responsible for the illegal acts of the dummy corporations they have created to separate themselves from any liability. For the Corporate Oligarchy and the super rich, the United States has become the Best of All Possible Worlds right now.
The Patriot Act is a totally unconstitutional act, worse than the Alien and Sedition Acts of our early history, designed to ignore any and all protections of the Bill of Rights regarding privacy and freedom of access to information and association.
Warrantless searches and seizure of information, everything from credit card spending habits, telephone calling records, down to lists of what books American citizens check out fro their public libraries, are just an accepted part of the norm of the current American police state.
The FBI has now declared that spying on individuals without warrant and violating the sanctity of private property and the home is simply accepted and necessary standard procedure.
Congress and the DOJ and the AGs of the majority of the states are simply ignoring and trying to sweep under the rug the massive illegal acts by the banks, the hedge funds, and mortgage industries. The few glimmers of hope where courts and a few states are trying to tell the truth, namely that the laws of title chain have been completely broken, and according to the law, a huge portion of mortgages cannot be enforced because the law was broken, will be crushed by the Feds and DOJ, and swept under the rug.
I would say that the funny thing about this, although it is not really funny, is that those in America most vociferous about protecting their freedoms from the evil government are the very ignorant, misguided souls who have voted into office the politicians and the judges who have created this police state.
What is really amazing is how the mass media have softened the American people up for this with their production of shows like ’24’, which have made it OK to torture and violate the law, as long as it is in the necessary defense of the Fatherland. Oh, sorry, I meant to say the Homeland.
And the American people, like the ignorant and know-nothing sheep they appear to have willingly become, cower in fear of nameless ragged bearded terrorists on the other side of the globe, while the fundamental freedom to live without fear under a rule of law is vanishing on the smoke of history.
Don’t ask about who is winning the so-called War on Terror. Al Qaeda and all the others of their ilk have already won. They have accomplished their goal. They have made Americans turn on themselves, and we are doing their bidding, and destroying ourselves and our liberties and our Constitutional system, in a much more efficient fashion than they could ever have done.
Mission Accomplished, it seems.
