[ExI] Upon pondering your freedoms

John Grigg possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com
Mon Jul 21 06:07:33 UTC 2008


Amara wrote:
After ten years living abroad, I am more struck than ever by the
arrogant, power-trippy, gun-trigger-happy perspective that the local
police carry in the the U.S. This is a massively over-policed country
with police personnel that have an attitude. With ambiguous laws
stemming from the equally ambiguous 'War on Drugs', 'War on Terrorism',
'War on Pornography', let's just call it the the 'War on Asparagus', the
American police can enter one's home on any trumped-up charge and carry
off your possessions, and your children and You. My list of 'depredations'
show so many 'Acts', that it would be no problem for the police to find
something in their legal arsenal if they don't like you, in order
to make your life very miserable.

Would the American police be so arrogant if more 'citizens' protected
themselves with weapons at home?
>>>

Amara, I know what you mean.  I live in a city where the folks in
power who run things have not encouraged business and the taxes that
would have flowed from that, but in their view there just cannot be
enough money in the police budget.

But of course things like public transit get shafted, a prime example
being no bus service on Sunday and limited service on Saturday.  A
light rail system that is nearly finished has gone from being seen as
a borderline waste of money to now (due to gas prices) being a smart
thing to have built. lol

I just cannot get over a city council member saying to the media, "we
will have to cut bus service, but don't worry, we would never cut
police or fire."  I feel public transit should also be made "sacred."

I remember years ago watching "Boyz N the Hood" and thinking how it
would drive me crazy to have police helicopters constantly buzzing
overhead, all night long, as they did to the main characters who lived
in Los Angeles.  Well guess what, I live in a decent neighborhood (not
in LA, either) but police copters are a constant source of noise
pollution and a sense of invaded privacy.  You would think they would
at least install noise suppressors so they would not be heard so
easily. lol

I agree that often police in this nation are just too prone toward
bullying and being high on their own power in combination with being
just plain paranoid and thinking everyone is out to get them. lol
There are definite exceptions to this that I have met either by being
stopped on the road or due to various jobs I had over the years that
caused me to deal with law enforcement.  I tend to think certain
personality types are attracted to working in law enforcement who may
tend toward the misuse of power, and of course doing the work itself
in our violent society may become jaded and hard.

I do think police/feds/military (and the politicians who ultimately
give them their marching orders) would be more prone toward abusing
the citizenry if we were a totally disarmed population.  At least the
NRA believes this and so do I! lol  I hate to view most Feds (I have a
high opinion generally of the FBI) and especially the military as
possible bad guys.

But believe me, if the gov't is out to get you, a half dozen friends
plus yourself, armed with rifles and lots of ammo, is not going to
stop swat teams and armored vehicles for very long!  And yet if a
whole nation of armed citizens put their foot down and say enough is
enough due to oppression and civil rights violations, than sheer
numbers would improve the odds.

The worst case scenario would be a takeover of our civilian government
by the military.  And don't think this is impossible.  As things get
worse some general may begin to think this is the only way the nation
can be saved, as generals often think in Latin America, Asia and
Africa.  A terrorist strike or massive natural disaster could be the
pretext to act.

The other possibility (even scarier and more possible) would be a
properly elected U.S. president (hey, Hitler was elected...) using
martial law and various special presidential "powers" to overnight
turn himself into a dictator with limitless power over the American
population.  And the military would be his personal instrument to
enforce his will.  This ugly scenario could even lead to a second U.S.
civil war...

It disturbs me deeply that so many Americans seem so damn insecure and
are willing to throw away their civil liberties and let police get
away with bullying the general population for the sake of security and
"order."

John Grigg



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