I keep getting these ridiculous e-mails telling me how America has become a Totalitarian State in the years since the Founding.
The author of this theoretical hogwash and vague generalities is long on claims and accusations about “The Elite Rulers” and so on and so forth, but very sparse on details.
Some “Totalitarian Conspiracy” nut cases seem infatuated with some notion that our police forces have been turned into some kind of fearful “Militaristic” machine that raid private dwellings at will and shoot dogs for the fun of it.
This would, no doubt, account for a generally-growing paranoia among some of our least educated and most easily led citizens about those sworn to uphold the Law and protect the innocent.
I would like to inform the blog audience that in the 74 years I have been living in this Country, no SWAT team has ever knocked my door down in the middle of the night and I can go even further and say it has never happened to anyone I know either.
The way I look at it is if you keep your nose clean and are not committing any kind of crime, you are going to get no hassle from Johnny Law.
But I, for one, am glad these guardians are out there sweating through long, often dangerous shifts of vigilance to keep my rear end safe and secure in my little comfort zone.
The new “Vigilantism” arising from relaxed gun laws gives me no comfort whatever because I have no desire to be “Protected” by someone who is not trained in Law Enforcement and who just might be a little off the nut when it comes time to make decisions affecting my personal safety and maybe even my life.
Regardless of what the paranoiacs have to say, I am very glad to have my “Militarized Totalitarian” Police Force on duty day and night— and, oh by the way, I don’t see them in those negative terms and no one that I know who has an ounce of common sense or decency about them thinks that they are in any sense androids controlled by Totalitarianism either.
As long as I drove a car, it was never searched by Police or Federal Agents and no one ever flashed red lights to stop me and ask where I was going or what I was doing.
It is comforting to know that we have Police who are efficient enough and skilled enough to spot suspicious activity and to take precautionary measures to insure that felons cannot get on with their nefarious agendas.
If you get stopped and asked questions by Police, it is not a sign of totalitarianism. It is a sign that the Police are on duty and doing what it takes to make sure you are safe and free.
I have heard so much—especially from The Right Wing—about the need to increase security along our borders that I have absolutely no problem when Border Agents ask some people for their proof of citizenship from time to time.
It is not totalitarianism for Border Patrol Agents to ask people for their “Papers.”
They are doing what they are paid to do.
Potential terrorists, drugs and other threats can slip across borders with the greatest of ease sometimes and I do not think it is in any manner “Totalitarian” for Border Agents to be on the job and doing what they are paid to do.
The paranoids like to point to legitimate Law Enforcement Agents as the real threat to our nation but no one has yet come forth—as far as I can tell– to talk about the crazies who get their hands on weapons and permits to carry them and then go off on some kind of self-appointed Police mission and do bodily harm to others sometimes.
I think some people need to get their heads back into the sunshine of reality, forget their phobias about America and it’s Leaders and Agencies, brace up and start enjoying the Freedoms they have (And apparently aren’t aware of).
Posted by John Liming as political opinion
…Unless you’re protesting. Or recording their conduct towards a friend. Or they simply want your property. Or you’re of a class and/or race that doesn’t usually pass through their area. Or…
2nd link got garbled: It’s a Radley Balko post on the flimsy premises used by the police to steal your property without you having done anything wrong, thanks to the War on Drugs.
So what is the answer? Are we to disband professional Law Enforcement and return to the days of “Social Justice” when every citizen was armed to the teeth and could legally act as judge, jury and executioner? Is that the direction in which we are headed? Is that the direction in which we should be headed?
http://americanliberaltimes.com