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April 24th, 2013 
Peter Nolan Recently
by Michael S. Rozeff: 76
Senate Warmongers
Unless
the search passes certain legal
criteria, it is illegal.
The search
in Boston set a precedent, which means that such searches can be
generalized to other places in America and to other situations,
unless whoever authorized the Boston search is reprimanded and sanctioned
for having ordered it. That seems to be Governor Deval Patrick,
at a minimum.
Unless this
search is clearly labeled and understood as being illegal and wrong,
it creates a precedent. This changes the law de facto, even if not
de jure. A de facto change will become a de jure change if only
by interpretation
But what’s
bad about such a precedent? What’s bad about the police having the
power to make house-to-house searches routinely?
Consider
what sorts of searches were common in totalitarian countries. This
provides an inkling of the results of such police power.
First of all,
America is in some respects following a path that Nazi Germany followed.
I quote from one
account:
“Police manpower
was even extended by the incorporation of Nazi paramilitary organizations
as auxiliary policemen. The Nazis centralized and fully funded the
police to better combat criminal gangs and promote state security.
The Nazi state increased staff and training, and modernized police
equipment.”
This has been
happening in America for some time now. These are initial steps
in creating a police state. The centralization is done through building
authoritative organizations that control local deviations in behavior
and through funding. The funding brings in militarization and central
coordination, training, and routines.
From the same
source, we next read
“The Nazis
offered the police the broadest latitude in arrests, incarceration,
and the treatment of prisoners. The police moved to take ‘preventive
action’ that is, to make arrests without the evidence required for
a conviction in court and indeed without court supervision at all.”
We are seeing
in America a broad latitude given to police in making charges against
civilians, in mistreating them and getting off the hook, in killing
civilians in some cases rather than arresting them, in bringing
false evidence into courts, in lying under oath and having their
words accepted, and in seizing property. We also see prosecutors
suppressing evidence and bringing false charges. Add to these misbehaviors
and others the fact that almost anyone can be guilty of one or more
felonies. When all is said and done, police are subjecting a significant
fraction of America’s population to a police state.
Highway and
transportation searches are already common. Here’s a photo dated
Feb. 27, 1933 of German police searching a car for arms:
America is
not going to follow what Nazi Germany did in any kind of lockstep
fashion. There is too much variation in situations and events and
laws for any two societies to mimic one another precisely. The American
police state already has some unique features such as the LOCKDOWN.
The spectacle of Americans
being routed from their homes with raised arms and herded down
the street is not too far, however, from German soldiers arresting
Jews in Warsaw in 1943:
In a house-to-house
search, police can find evidence of many wrongdoings. This depends
on other laws that are passed and what items may be searched. Police
could find a copyright violation on most everyone’s computer, for
example. They could find drugs. They could find out-of-date prescription
drugs. They could find weapons. They could find cash and seize it.
It is the search power combined with other laws that become a powerful
tool of repression.
“The Nazis
took control and transformed the traditional police forces of the
Weimar Republic into an instrument of state repression and, eventually,
of genocide.”
Even without
other law, the mere interaction of common people with police in
house-to-house searches can result in arguments, altercations, arrests,
injuries and deaths. The police expect obedience and deference.
In Watertown, they demanded that people leave their homes and raise
their arms over their heads. There are many situations where people
don’t want to leave, or cannot due to illness, or who do not understand
what’s going on, or refuse to kowtow, or who naturally resist intimidation.
Arrests and charges lead to criminal records and subsequently affect
everything from employment to getting a loan to traveling to having
a firearm.
In an
article on one of the Russian police agencies while under Communist
rule, we read
“Leonid Brezhnev
reverted the State and KGB to actively harsh suppression routine
house searches to seize documents and the continual monitoring of
dissidents.”
Once searches
become routine, i.e., without warrants or under very loose conditions,
then police can intrude for any number of activities that the authorities
have deemed illegal or a threat to the authority of the State itself.
In Russia, this included political speech against the State. In
America, all sorts of records of money transactions might be monitored
or seized in order to detect “suspicious” political contributions
or other activities, for example.
House-to-house
searches, of course, make hash out of privacy.
So, in short,
what is bad about these house-to-house searches that we have just
witnessed?
They set a
bad precedent in which Americans allow measures that significantly
raise the likelihood of further repressive measures in the future.
Why does the threat of further repression go up? It’s because these
searches are illegal. Undermining rights and respect for rights
helps set the stage for further measures that repress liberty. It’s
because these searches follow closely upon the heels of other measures
that have already laid the foundation of an American police state.
This is the
direction in which America is headed.
The
reason for this direction is terrorism directed at America. The
reason for the terrorism is the conclusion among the men engaging
in it that Islam is under attack and/or that the lands in which
Islam is prominent are under attack.
Washington
will continue to go into places like Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan,
Pakistan, Somalia, Iraq, and therefore retaliation can be expected.
The empire will continue to use drones that kill innocents. It will
continue to pressure Iran. It will continue undermining Syria. It
will continue to try to change the politics of these lands. It will
continue with its benighted Israel policy. It will continue to support
the military-industrial complex, which is one major source of all
of this unnecessary expansion.
Consequently,
at home, it will continue to turn America into a target for jihadist
attacks, and it will continue police measures that can easily turn
the whole country into a police state.
April
24, 2013
Michael
S. Rozeff [send him mail]
is a retired Professor of Finance living in East Amherst, New York.
He is the author of the free e-book Essays
on American Empire: Liberty vs. Domination and the free e-book
The U.S. Constitution
and Money: Corruption and Decline.
Copyright
© 2013 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in
part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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