Ferguson: A Preview Of America’s Burgeoning Police State


Even America’s
smallest towns can be instantly turned into occupied territories as local
police agencies quickly transform themselves from peacekeepers into occupying
military forces. The small town of
Ferguson, Missouri, is living proof of that.

The London Guardian
covers the story:

“Michael
Brown was shot dead by an officer from a police force of 53, serving a
population of just 21,000. But the police response to a series of protests
over his death has been something more akin to the deployment of an army in a
miniature warzone.

“Ferguson police have deployed stun grenades, rubber
bullets and what appear to be 40mm wooden baton rounds to quell the protests
in a show of force that is a stark illustration of the militarization of
police forces in the US.

“‘I’m a
soldier, I’m a military officer and I know when there’s a need for such
thing, but I don’t think in a small town of 22,000 people you need up-armor
vehicles,’ Cristian Balan, a communications officer in the US army, who was
not speaking on behalf of the US military, told the Guardian. ‘Even if
there’s an active shooter–are you really going to use an up-armor vehicle?
Do you really need it?’

“In the
eyes of the government, the answer increasingly seems to be a resounding yes.

“Since
2006, state and local law enforcement have acquired at least 435 armored
vehicles, 533 military aircraft and 93,763 machine guns, according to an
investigation by the New York Times
published in June. This was made
possible under a department of defense program that allows the agency to
transfer excess military property to US law enforcement agencies. More
than $4.3bn worth of gear has been transferred since the program was created
in 1997, according to the Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO).

“The ACLU said there are no ‘meaningful
constraints’ to what a local police force could acquire, meaning that even a
10,000 person town with no history of major violence could request and
receive a mine-resistant vehicle, like those that are currently available on
the LESO site.”

The report continued
saying, “The increasing
militarization of US police is also attributed to the skyrocketing
proliferation of Swat teams across the US. There
has been a more than 1400% increase in the amount of Swat deployments between
1980 and 2000, according to estimates by Eastern Kentucky
University professor
Peter Kraska.”

The report also
said, “‘As we’ve seen in Ferguson, the militarization of policing tends to
escalate the risk of violence to the communities,’ said Kara Dansky, senior
counsel with the ACLU’s Center for Justice and the prime author of its June
2014 report on the militarization of US police. ‘We think that historically,
the police and the military have had different roles and that American
neighborhoods aren’t war zones and police officers should not be treating us
like wartime enemies.'”

See the
report here:

Ferguson
Police: A Stark Illustration Of Newly Militarised US Law Enforcement

Indeed,
the militarization of U.S.
police agencies has been escalating for decades. Can anyone remember when
federal police and U.S.
military personnel collaborated to slaughter scores of American citizens
outside Waco, Texas, in 1993, and when federal
police agents assassinated American citizens at Ruby Ridge, Idaho,
in 1992? These two episodes are a
blight on American justice, an affront on the constitutional rule of law, and
the worst kind of insult to the American conscience. And, notice, it did not
matter one bit whether a Democrat or Republican was in the White House. A
Republican (George H.W. Bush) was President when government agents murdered
the Weavers at Ruby Ridge; and a Democrat (Bill Clinton) was President when
federal agents and military troops murdered the Branch Davidians.

Those two events
seemed to be the catalyst for the emerging American Police State. But it was
the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the
implementation of the PATRIOT Act under G.W. Bush that has propelled the
police-state mentality throughout America’s heartland.

As
noted in the Guardian report above, the Pentagon has been turning local
police agencies into quasi-military units for decades. And the DHS is
routinely supplying police-state style training for practically every local
police agency in the United
States–and has been for years.

And
when it comes to the two major parties in Washington, D.C.,
the Republican Party has been the most aggressive in the creation of the
American Police State. In the name of “law and order” and “national
security,” conservative Republican legislators and Presidents have enacted a
multitude of laws abridging the protections of liberty contained in the Bill
of Rights. For all intents and purposes, the two administrations of G.W.
Bush, coupled with six long years of the Republican Party controlling the
entire federal government (2001-2006), virtually expunged most of the Bill of
Rights. In fact, everything that President Barack Obama is now utilizing to
abridge constitutional liberties was handed to him on a silver platter by
G.W. Bush and his fellow neocon Republicans in Washington, D.C.
And if Montanans send the quintessential neocon, Ryan Zinke, to Congress this
fall (and other states do likewise), America’s collapse into a Police
State will accelerate even faster.

There are two things
that neocon Republicans love: foreign wars abroad and a Police State at home.
And, sadly, it seems that a majority of America’s conservative Christians
are right there with them.

If America’s
pastors would start taking a stand against this burgeoning Police State, it
would die almost instantly. But when is the last time you heard your pastor
say one word of protest against the way our policemen are being turned into
soldiers? When has he said a peep about the abridgment of our Bill of Rights
by these power-hungry, would-be tyrants from both parties in Washington, D.C.?
Under Presidents Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama, the right of Habeas
Corpus, the 4th Amendment, 5th Amendment, 6th Amendment, 7th Amendment, and
8th Amendment are, for all intents and purposes, eviscerated. Kaput! Gone!
Wiped out! And the vast majority of our good pastors have not said one
word–not one word!

You see
this silent, passive pastor as a good man; you believe him to be kind and
compassionate; you think he is godly and sincere. But, by his silence, he is
helping to put the chains of tyranny around the necks of your children and
grandchildren. By his silence, he is facilitating the collapse of America into
a Police State as surely as the sun sets in the west. This
is not godliness; it is cowardice!

The founder of
Lutheranism, Martin Luther, is credited with saying, “If I profess with the
loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God
except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that
moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be
professing Christ. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is
proved. And to be steady on all the battlefields besides is merely flight and
disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

Ladies
and gentlemen, where the battle rages–and the point at which the world and
the devil are at this moment attacking–is the creation of an American Police
State (as well as the invasion of criminals and potential terrorists across
our southern border, of course). Therefore,
if your pastor is not on the battlefield at this point, he is not “confessing
Christ” and has fled his post and disgraced his calling.

The Boston Marathon
bombing brought out Gestapo-like tactics of the Boston police. Now, the little town of Ferguson, Missouri,
has been subjected to the same thing. And now that the U.S. Justice
Department has sent hundreds of federal agents to Ferguson, one can only imagine the kind of
martial law and abridgments to personal liberties that will be enacted. One
Democrat U.S. Congressman is already calling for martial law. Yes, the
Feinstein/Schumer wing of the Democrat Party loves the Police State, as well.

Realize
this, my friends, what we saw take place at Waco,
Ruby Ridge, Boston (and in hundreds of obscure
places all over the country), and now Ferguson
is a preview of America’s
burgeoning Police State.

Are
people with pure political agendas such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al.
taking advantage of the situation in Ferguson?
You bet! Are race-baiters taking advantage of Ferguson? Without a doubt. And I strongly
suspect that the federal government is using paid provocateurs to further
inflame the situation and give the federal government an opportunity to
impose federal intervention in the area. Regardless, the escalation of an
American Police State is undeniable; and the American people had better start
paying attention.

This is not a
Republican or Democrat issue; it is not a liberal or conservative issue; it
is not a black or white issue; it is not a Christian or secular issue. It is
a liberty or slavery issue! A freedom mindset and a police-state mindset
cannot coexist. They cannot! We
will either have one of the other. The
American people better make up their minds quickly which one it will be,
because, if we do nothing, our very own and very real Police State is just
around the corner.

P.S. I
am now engaged in scheduling meetings, through which we will help establish
non-501c3 churches and Christian fellowships. The
fall calendar is starting to fill up. I encourage those folks who are tired
of the silence and cowardice of these establishment, government-intimidated
churches and who sincerely desire to help start or support a true liberty
church and patriot pulpit that is unencumbered by the 501c3 non-profit
government corporation status to go to my Liberty Church Project website and
fill out the online application. Our goal is to help people all over the
country start scores and hundreds of liberty-oriented, non-501c3 churches and
fellowships. We are accepting applications NOW. Go here:

Liberty Church Project

? Chuck Baldwin

 

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