NY Times Report Documents Metastasizing of the Police State of America

[JEB]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/They-re-everywhere--NY-T-by-Dave-Lindorff-Assange_Dept-Of-Homeland-Security_Federal-Agency-FBI_Freedom-141118-567.html


The latest news on the burgeoning police state in the US -- a page-one investigative report in the New York Times disclosing that at least 40 agencies of the US government from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Supreme Court (!) are using undercover agents to spy on and even to entrap law-abiding American citizens -- suggests that we have passed the tipping point.

One can no longer speak in terms of the US as a country that is moving towards becoming a police state. We are living in a police state.

<snip>

I used to scoff at the wild-eyed claims made by people on the right and left who said that we were living in a police state. Having lived for a year and a half in China, where a police state has been operating now for 65 years, and having visited police states in Eastern Europe during the days of the Soviet Union, I have seen and experienced what life is like when the police, secret and overt, run rampant, and I knew the US was not like those places.

I've changed my mind, though. The only difference I see now, knowing what we know about the breadth and depth of police activity in the US, between what's happening here and what happens in places where police states have long existed, is that in long-standing police states, everyone knows they are being watched and are subject to arbitrary arrest. while here in the US, many Americans remain blissfully ignorant of what has happened to their vaunted freedoms.

You don't know you are in a newly established police state until you deliberately or inadvertently cross a line. That's why we still have people in this country thanking people in uniform for "defending our freedom," when we've actually already lost them (in no small part thanks to the state of perpetual war our politicians have been orchestrating).

<snip>

Clearly we are being watched, at least in some locales.

The latest Times article also shows that every American is now at risk too, not just journalists and protesters. If the government feels free, or even becomes enthusiastic about using undercover officers in every agency to engage in entrapment, people will have to worry about what they say to anyone. Routine behavior like watering a lawn at night during a draught alert, doing a home roof repair without a permit, or sharing a friend's "joint" in a private setting could lead to an arrest -- especially if you happen to have enemies in a local community. Routine conversations, particularly about politics, could be viewed as subversive and be passed on to employers.

And that, I've learned, is one of the worst things about police states. Sure, it's terrible that the full power of the state can be brought to bear to crush heretics, rebels and outsiders. But in a police state, those in authority at any level -- in schools, police departments, planning commissions, courts, health departments and other offices -- can also make use of the apparatus of the police state for more petty and vindictive purposes, to harass and humiliate and punish those against whom they have personal grudges. In a state like China, or the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), we know such abuses are or were commonplace. They will become so here too in the new Police State of America.

That I can predict with absolute confidence.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." On that basis, the US has in recent decades fallen very far from any greatness it may have once had. But it can also be said that a nation's freedom can be measured by how free its people are and feel to be to criticize, protest and organize against its ruling elites. Most of us, including those of us who are critics of the Establishment, may still feel that we are free to act, but we must note the terrible lengths to which this government is going to repress political activists like Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Edward Snowden, and others, journalists like James Risen, Glen Greenwald and Barrett Brown, or Internet activists like the late Aaron Swarz. The list of people being hounded and persecuted by the US police state is far too long to publish.

Suffice to say if police repression can happen to the people on that list, it can happen to all of us.

The only way to end a police state is to call it out and to stand against it.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Quite a fascinating read in a very dark way by Dave Lindorff. Please take the time to go and read the complete piece at the link.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/They-re-everywhere--NY-T-by-Dave-Lindorff-Assange_Dept-Of-Homeland-Security_Federal-Agency-FBI_Freedom-141118-567.html

[hifiguy]

1. Yes, it's fascism now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025817654

[JEB]

5. Thanks for the link. Excellent info.

[billhicks76]

9. Hillary and Jeb Bush

Equals more police state. Bush Sr still has his influence doesn't he.

[ReRe]

14. I can't thank you enough...

... for linking that wonderful eye-opening essay! I hope everyone who wonders this way clicks on it and gets their minds opened by your view of "the big picture."

[niyad]

2. k and r and bookmarking for later--there is only so much ugliness I can handle on a single cup

of coffee.

[tk2kewl]

3. just finished reading "National Security and Double Government" by Michael J. Glennon

worth a read

http://www.amazon.com/National-Security-Government-Michael-Glennon/dp/0190206446

[Fawke Em]

4. 12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
Fourteen Signs of Fascism

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

[Historic NY]

7. Define undercover agents...

because most agencies don't have uniformed agents ala Heath, Irs, EPA, etc.

any plain clothes investigator using this NYT article would be considered them undercover.


"The Times reports that IRS personnel have been going undercover posing as accountants and even as physicians to root out tax fraud, that the Supreme Court has been dispatching some of its guards (all of whom have been trained in undercover work) "dressed down" in civilian clothes to mingle with protesters (notably abortion-rights activists) to spy on the activists exercising their First Amendment rights outside the court building, that the USDA sends out agents posing as Food Stamp recipients to try and entrap shop-owners to commit Food Stamp fraud, and that even NASA and the Smithsonian Institution have undercover operatives. Undercover cops and agents are assuming the identities of teachers, doctors, journalists and even priests."

[Dawson Leery]

8. Why not just have an American MI5, then the tyranny can be in the open.

[hifiguy]

10. It's already very much in the open.

Remember what was done to the Occupy protestors?

[truedelphi]

11. Mid-September of this yer, in Calif., the "Press Democrat"

reported that the local police were out in an effort to make their deprtment appear friendly.

they were going to household after household to let people know if they ae low income, they can apply for food stamps, and other benefits.

The problem being - this shows that clearly the police departments have far too much money coming their way. We are cutting people off the food stamp programs who are on it, on account of "austerity" yet a squad of police have the time and boots on the ground to go door to door to advertise Health and Human Services?

A letter to the newspaper indicated the vast amounts of federal and state and local tax revenue that pour into the Sonoma and Napa police departments, while meanwhile, the fire departments are starved out of having their fire hosues open!

[Dustlawyer]

12. If you are fed up or simply want to do your part as a U.S. citizen, advocate Publicly Funded

Elections (PFE's) and an end to the revolving door between government and industry. This is what Bernie Sanders has said is his number one issue, getting the campaign money out of politics. Voting for the lesser of two evils is not that good if the Plutocrats control both candidates! Nothing will change for the better, that's for sure.
Help spread this idea of PFE's and make a difference, don't just sit online and bitch about how bad things are. I know that many of you already work to make our country better, but we need a whole lot more who can see through the facade of Representative Democracy in America today. We know our politicians represent their Donors and not us (for the most part). PFE's can end the control over our politicians and judges that the Plutocrats currently enjoy (Wall Street execs not being indicted for example).
I am beyond fed up with the corruption where corporations send a campaign donation to every fundraiser, much like an installment plan, if the candidate goes against their interests the checks stop. In some cases they go to an opponent who has agreed to do their dirty work, and it is all legal since John Roberts wouldn't know a Quid Pro Quo if one bit him in his sorry ass!
Please fight to return Democracy to America!

[Octafish]

13. Thank you, JEB! It is a Must-Read!

From Lindorff:

I used to scoff at the wild-eyed claims made by people on the right and left who said that we were living in a police state. Having lived for a year and a half in China, where a police state has been operating now for 65 years, and having visited police states in Eastern Europe during the days of the Soviet Union, I have seen and experienced what life is like when the police, secret and overt, run rampant, and I knew the US was not like those places.

I’ve changed my mind, though. The only difference I see now, knowing what we know about the breadth and depth of police activity in the US, between what’s happening here and what happens in places where police states have long existed, is that in long-standing police states, everyone knows they are being watched and are subject to arbitrary arrest. while here in the US, many Americans remain blissfully ignorant of what has happened to their vaunted freedoms.

[hifiguy]

15. Indeed.

Thanks JEB. I included a link to this article in my above-linked DU post. This is crucial.