The Posse Comitatus Act is the United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) that was passed on June 18, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction and was updated in 1981. Its intent (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) was to limit the powers of Federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce the state laws. In order to circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act, under the guise of improving security, the Federal government has passed legislation giving it ever more control over local and state police.
The vast majority of police officers are honest, hard working individuals who put their life on the line while protecting and serving the people. However, at the highest levels of Federal, State, and local government, there’s an organized attempt to militarize the police and consolidate power in the hands of a few.
So it’s imperative that citizens support law enforcement officers who are taking a stand for the Constitution. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) is an organization that’s informing the public and standing up for our rights. Please check out CSPOA to inform yourself and support their work.
President Obama’s Fast and Furious program put 2500 firearms in the hands of known criminals. This included AK 47s and 50 caliber sniper rifles. I’m raising this issue to shine light on some of the heroes working in U.S. law enforcement. Three brave Alcohol Tobacco and Firearm (ATF) agents blew the whistle on Fast and Furious when one of the illegally trafficked guns was used to murder U.S. Border agent Brian Terry. Listen to the ATF agents opening statements during a Congressional investigation into Fast and Furious.
After the 911 attack, the Patriot Act and Homeland Security gave the Federal government broad powers over State and local police forces. Ben Franklin said, People willing to trade liberty for safety deserve neither. If you believe the government narrative justifying the exchange of freedom for security, check out the post on Saudi financing of terrorism. The consolidation of power in the Federal government, especially the executive branch, is a trend that will result in a dictatorial police state.
The leadership of both political parties support the concept of a unitary executive, which is the ideological basis for the trend toward an imperial presidency. In order to move their dictatorial agenda forward, they must divide the public and promote violence as a pretext to restrict individual liberties. The New American recently reported that Justice Department grants are linked to a rap video glorifying the murder of police.
Judge Andrew Napolitano had a popular show on Fox News, until he started getting too close to the truth, i.e., both political parties are sabotaging the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Judge Napolitano recently appeared on The World Over, a television show that airs on the Catholic network EWTN. During the interview, he talked about his new book titled Suicide Pact, which documents the radical expansion of presidential power in America.
The first half of Suicide Pact covers presidential abuse of power from George Washington to Bill Clinton, and the last half of the book covers the rapid move toward an imperial presidency under George W. Bush and Barak Obama. Judge Napolitano’s interview is a must see for those concerned about unchecked violations of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. For more info check out the Judge’s website at judgenap.com.
Business Insider reported on a “black site” in Chicago where citizens are detained and treated like terrorists. The following paragraph is an excerpt from the article:
Chicago’s police department is detaining US citizens for days on end in a secret compound where suspects have no contact with the outside world, the Guardian reports today. Lawyers compare the off-the-books interrogation warehouse in Chicago’s Homan Square neighborhood to the CIA’s so-called black sites offshore that are used to interrogate terrorists. Police at the site in Chicago reportedly carry heavy military gear, and huge armored tanks are parked outside.
Check out this article from the legal journal of the American Bar Association (ABA). It raises some important points about the militarization of America’s police force. I don’t agree with everything it says, but truth is not exclusive to the left or the right, it’s usually found somewhere in the middle. The following are the first three paragraphs of the article.
Are cops constitutional? In a 2001 article for the Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, the legal scholar and civil liberties activist Roger Roots posed just that question. Roots, a fairly radical libertarian, believes that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow for police as they exist today. At the very least, he argues, police departments, powers and practices today violate the document’s spirit and intent. [Roots writes], “Under the criminal justice model known to the framers, professional police officers were unknown,”
The founders and their contemporaries would probably have seen even the early-19th-century police forces as a standing army, and a particularly odious one at that. Just before the American Revolution, it wasn’t the stationing of British troops in the colonies that irked patriots in Boston and Virginia; it was England’s decision to use the troops for everyday law enforcement. This wariness of standing armies was born of experience and a study of history—early American statesmen like Madison, Washington and Adams were well-versed in the history of such armies in Europe, especially in ancient Rome.
If even the earliest attempts at centralized police forces would have alarmed the founders, today’s policing would have terrified them. Today in America SWAT teams violently smash into private homes more than 100 times per day. The vast majority of these raids are to enforce laws against consensual crimes. In many cities, police departments have given up the traditional blue uniforms for “battle dress uniforms” modeled after soldier attire.