Police State America –Volume One
Chapter 1-The Rise of the Police State
Chapter 4 — Universal Public Surveillance
Chapter 5 — Other Surveillance
Chapter 6 — Searching for Anarchists, or Maybe Just Political Activists
Chapter 7 — Winning the Information War
Chapter 8 — Arbitrary and Unaccountable Law Enforcement
Chapter 9 — The Militarisation of the Police
Chapter 10 — Occupy Wall Street
Chapter 11 — Intimidating the Media & Subverting the Press
Chapter 12 — The Short Road: Democracy to Fascism
Chapter 13 — The Next American Revolution? Anticipated Civil
Police State America
Chapter 8 — Arbitrary and Unaccountable Law Enforcement
Glenn Greenwald wrote that “the most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield. The Obama administration not only asserted exactly that power in theory, but has exercised it in practice”. This is the power of a dictator. Paul Craig Roberts put it very well when he wrote, “The US government claims it is unaccountable if proceedings for controversial actions are secret, that if something is “secret”, the government needn’t prove that it’s legal. This has created a body of US law, the ultimate effect of which has been to completely insulate the executive branch from legal challenges and judicial review for anything it deems a national security matter. If the White House declares any policy a classified national security secret, no one will ever be able to have standing to challenge it before a court of law. From this, nobody has standing to sue in court and the government avoids any ruling on the constitutionality of its actions. The American system of government is totalitarian at its core, what NSA employee William Binney called a “turnkey totalitarian state”.
It is true that the US President can imprison for life, or execute, any individual in any country with a complete absence of evidence, charges, lawyers or courts, simply on his whim, without any recourse. But it goes much deeper and farther than this, well beyond matters of national security or terrorism, extending to the daily actions of life, and most especially directed against those who are critical of the government, who investigate government malfeasance and who publish revelations of official crimes. But perhaps the real danger is not that the elected Congress has been omitted from the loop, but it is those of Jewish secret government rather than the President who are making these decisions. We are rapidly approaching the time where anyone critical of the government or the American political-capitalist system, or of the FED and its owners is, by virtue of the fake ‘war on terror’, automatically deemed a terrorist and guilty of felonious breaches of national security. This is no more than a relative handful of powerful individuals criminalising any protest directed at them. Many of those arrested during the Occupy Wall Street protests were charged with precisely such crimes, having been labeled as terrorists simply for protesting against the bankers reaping billions in bonuses and trillions in bailouts for causing tens of millions of people to lose their homes.
The government, through the police and prosecutors, can lay all manner of charges against a citizen and obtain a conviction without ever being required to produce any evidence, simply by informing the court that the very production of evidence “would compromise national security”. In some cases, the individual is not even informed of the details of the crime he is assumed to have committed. This is McCarthyism again, in all its misguided glory. As noted earlier, even for a simple matter as being placed on the government’s ‘no-fly’ list, officials at all levels will hide behind their veil of secrecy, will tell unlimited lies to the courts, and will pursue their cause far beyond the ability of most individuals to cope. Only the wealthy with access to the best legal representation will have any hope of escape, but these people are seldom charged. The constitutional guarantees of habeas corpus and due process of law no longer exist in government-sponsored prosecutions. Lies and secrecy are now standard, as are military tribunals that avoid public trials and conduct their affairs entirely without oversight. Secret evidence is now standard, evidence which will not be disclosed to the person being charged or even to the judge conducting the trial, as are secret witnesses who can neither be identified nor cross-examined. Indeed, even the laws themselves are now stated as secret.
To a great extent, it is the wildly arbitrary capriciousness of US law application and enforcement that becomes truly frightening. Here is one such example, courtesy of William Blum:
“In October 1976 the well-known terrorist Orlando Bosch organised – with the help of the CIA – the explosion of a bomb on a Cuban civil airliner, killing all 73 people on board. The US government refused to extradite Bosch to stand trial and a Miami TV station aired a live interview where Bosch not only admitted responsibility for the aircraft bombing, but revealed intentions of continuing terrorist activities against Cuba. Five Cubans travelled to the US to investigate this and other acts of sabotage and terrorism originating from the US, and obtained positive proof of not only the aircraft bombing but many other terrorist acts. Upon presenting this evidence to the US government, the FBI arrested the five Cubans on charges of terrorism (!) and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 15 years to life. The convictions were unique in the world of law, having been obtained by the US government without presenting any evidence whatever in court of the mens’ guilt of anything.”
Virtually all of this state-sponsored oppression is directed to the control of political dissension and civil unrest, including the “crimes” of investigating and exposing corruption and illegality at the highest levels of government. US courts have repeatedly affirmed that it is illegal and a threat to America’s national security for anyone to disclose acts of corruption, lawbreaking or treason by US federal authorities. Under President Obama, the US has harassed, bankrupted and sent to prison more whistleblowers than criminals. Those who expose the crimes of the government and its agencies are imprisoned or killed, while the perpetrators of the crimes suffer no consequences. Wherever we look, we have firm evidence of the existence of a fascist police state, largely under the excuse of the government’s war on terror and with the full support of the compliant media. It is true these powerful laws are not universally applied, and we can all point to individuals who contradicted the government and escaped unharmed, but this is not an accident and in fact is a feature of the system. It is precisely the capricious unpredictability of enforcement that creates the fear to compel obedience. If the law is clear and well-known, and enforced uniformly, we can cope and find ways to work around it, but if enforcement is arbitrary and the penalties severe, the risk is unquantifiable and the consequences potentially disastrous. It is this that creates an overall climate of fear in which few will dare to act. The Patriot Act in the US is especially frightening because it’s a door that opens onto a one-way street where citizens are spying on each other with no court oversight. The neocons and the political Right-Wing will tell us they are protecting their country, but that claim is made by every fascist dictatorship.
When one assembles the multitude of pieces of information on the general subject of ‘homeland security’ in the US, it is clear the government is determined to suppress by harassment, imprisonment or death those who speak out against the illegal acts and atrocities of their own government. It is determined to crush, violently if necessary, peaceful public assemblies that petition the government for redress. Today, any person (who can be physically taken into custody by US officials) can be detained indefinitely if considered a “high value detainee”, which definition is so vague and arbitrary as to be universal. If the authorities deem by their secret standards that a person “poses a threat” to civilian or military facilities, is a member of a “terrorist” group (like Occupy Wall Street), has “potential intelligence value” or qualifies for “such other matters as the President considers appropriate”, he or she is a candidate for disappearing into a system without charges or trial, without recourse or oversight.
Sen. John McCain, at left, speaks as Sen. Joseph Lieberman looks on during a press conference at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur on May 31, 2012.STR/AFP/GETTYIMAGES
Among the “crimes” for which citizens can today be labeled a “low-level terrorist” and imprisoned in the US are: protesting near the President or other designated individuals, investigating or reporting on crimes committed by the NSA, CIA, FBI or Homeland Security, speaking out against government policies, participating in a public protest, criticising the use of drone aircraft to kill innocent civilians, investigating either the FED or the Wall Street Bankers, taking video of police officers or the military engaging in civilian brutality or other illegal acts, investigating commercial crimes and felonies committed by the major multinationals, investigating factory farming and criticising the government’s current wars. It is apparent from the above that virtually anyone might fit any of these definitions, and their categorisation as such – and their infinite detention, torture or death – are not subject to any protections from either the constitution or the courts. For this legislation, we can thank US Senators Joseph Lieberman and John McCain, two notorious protectors of freedom and human rights.
In all the politically Right-Wing nations, including the US, Canada and the UK, it has become illegal to take video of police officers when they are brutalising civilians or committing other crimes. Even being in possession of a visible mobile phone or camera with a police officer nearby will often result in the device being confiscated or smashed by the police, often accompanied by criminal charges, with police claiming they are “intimidated” by being photographed, a claim readily accepted by the courts. In these countries, there have been so many cases of police brutality often resulting in serious injury or death that have come to light only because a civilian was on the scene with the presence of mind to take video. In every case, the police lied about the circumstances and it was only the video that revealed the truth. Therefore, it is now illegal to take video.
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Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 32 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chapt. 2 —Dealing with Demons).
His full archive can be seen at
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ and https://www.moonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at:
2186604556@qq.com
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