How Did America’s Police Become a Military Force on the Streets?

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Sharon Secor's picture

Very simple answer. Sad but true. We let it. We didn't care enough to stop it when it started and we don't care enough to put a stop to it now. They can't arrest all of us. They can't arrest half of us. They can't even arrest one measely quarter of us.

If we all refused to comply with unconstitutional demands, even just a quarter of us... arresting us would clog up the courts and jails to an unmanageable point. If we stopped paying them -- not one more dime in taxes -- it would soon end. Refusing to comply and refusing to pay would make the system grind to a halt. 

We pay for their damned military equipment. We pay for them to abuse us and harrass us. And we, as a people, don't give a fuck enough to put a stop to it. A lot of people talk a lot of shit. But, that's all it is. Shit talk.

Except for a few of us. I say us because anybody reading that knows my story knows a little something about just how far I've gone, how much I've lost, and how much I've risked to refuse to comply with these lawless bastards. And, I will continue to do so until the day I die -- and that won't be before I've raised the next generation to do the same. A drop in the bucket compared to what could happen if we, as a people, had each others backs, if we, as a people, valued liberty, the Constitution, the rule of law.

These things they do to us -- BLATANTLY AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION, AGAINST THE HIGHEST LAW OF THE LAND -- we, as a people, allow it. We could, as a people, put a stop to it at any time. We don't have to vote and wait for the slow, slow grind of the political process. We could do it right now and be done with it within a year, two at the max -- refuse to comply and refuse to pay. It really is that simple. But, we, as a people, just don't fucking care.  

Suverans2's picture

I gave you a BIG thumbs up, and I give you a tip o' the hat, Sharon Secor, even though there are a two MAJOR points in the above comment I take exception to: (1) the constitution is not your saviour; and (2) it is not even "the highest law of the land".

CONSTITUTION.
In American Law. The written instrument agreed upon by the people of the Union or of a particular state, as the absolute rule of action and decision for all departments and officers of the government in respect to all the points covered by it, which must control until it shall be changed by the authority which established it, and in opposition to which any act or ordinance of any such department or officer is null and void. Cooley, Const. Lim. 3. ~ A Dictionary of Law [Black's 1st (c.1891)], page 259

We see from that, that the Constitution is the supreme law “for all departments and officers of the government”. So, what, then, is the “supreme law of the land”?

The law of nature is superior in obligation to any other. It is binding in all countries and at all times. No human laws are valid if opposed to this, and all which are binding derive their authority either directly or indirectly from it. ~ Institutes of American Law by John Bouvier, 1851, Part I, Title II, No. 9

We see from that, that the law of nature is the supreme law of the land, i.e. thesuperior rule of law. In a de jure republic “...the rule of law limits the authority of men exercising governmental power,” and that "rule of law" is the "law of nature".

"Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights. . . and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him . . . and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural right." ~ Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Francis Gilmer (c.1816)

Here is an Unhappy Dependence Day poster for you. It nearly says it all...though, to the end of that, the author might have added, "...except bitch and complain".

Sharon Secor's picture

Ah, it is such a pleasure to pass a few words with you once again. I love interacting with smart, well read, thinking, logical people. It has become such a luxury these days. So, it is always a delight when you come to the party! Actually, I don't disagree with you at all. I'm well aware of the limitations of the constitution. And, I know full well it isn't my savior. Hell, it wasn't even written for me, a woman. I'm a political anarchist. I prefer no government, save my own. I also believe in natural law. It is what I teach my children. I don't expect or request that they repect or follow the law of this land. I do insist, however, that they are moral and expect that they act according to principle.

It seems rather silly of me, my own little sovereign nation, to surrender my sovereignty to a person, group, or organization that is not as well educated as I am (I'm not being a snob, it's just I am super well read and I study economics, history, all the humanities really, multiple languages, and too much other stuff to write here as a hobby, just for the pure joy of it) and not as generally moral/principled as I am (hey, man, there's some things you just don't do or say). In other words, to someone who is not my equal, let alone my superior. 

It's not that I have a problem with authority. I have no problem following client directions or taking editor's suggestions, even if I don't agree. They're in charge, not me. I love to hang out with people smarter than me and learn from them. There is so much more for me to learn in this world. It is a true pleasure to listen to someone talk about something they know well or watch someone do something they're super good at. I appreciate and respect the advice of people that are better educated, more informed or simply of a different opinion or perspective than I. But, I will not be ruled by people who are not my equals, nor does it seem very smart to yield control of my life to such. (I hate democracy. Never will I allow idiots to make decisions about how I should live or what is best for me and mine simply because the number of ignorant people ran high enough that day or for that issue to be the majority)

And, our politicians today -- thieves, murderers, war criminals. Did you see the news today. One of our drones killed 16 SUSPECTED jihadists or whatever attempted term of justification they're using today. SUSPECTED!!! OMFG that is so deeply wrong. And, they say it and report it like it's all right!!! It is a CRIME. We have no right to do this. We, our nation, flat murdered people today. And yesterday, and the day before, and..... How can anybody justify this shit? You cannot twist our written laws enough to accommodate this, you can not twist them into saying it is right. You're not allowed to kill suspects. Suspected, not proven and convicted. And, nobody seems to care, not enough to do anything. Not international law, not the people... So much of what I see all around me lately is just so damned surreal. I've never seen anything like it in my life.

I always say the same thing, beg it of people almost -- please, please, please stop paying for this. When you give the government money, this is what you pay for. Murder, brutality, an utter disregard for the value of human life. The well over a million dead Iraqi women and children, those lives lost in Afghanistan, etc. and so on. We kill people in Pakistan by drone. We torture and kill all over the world. People talk about the few thousand American deaths, but they don't talk about the civilian deaths on the other side, like those other people don't matter, aren't real, or are somehow worth less than us. They have as much to do with their leaders policies and decisions as I do with mine. They are innocents. It is morally wrong to finance these crimes against humanity. And, I should submit to be ruled by these vile sub-humans (in the sense of lacking the basic things that make us human, like the almost innate sense that it is not right to mass murder millions of people for economic/political gain... those sorts of things)? HA! NEVER.

While I am a political anarchist, I am also a realist. The State ain't disappearing any time soon. However, if these treasonous bastards would follow the Constitution, I could live with that fairly well. They refuse to be limited by what is proclaimed to be the highest law of the land. it is an out of control, lawless, dangerous government that blatantly disregards its own laws and rules. Once they don't even respect the people enough to try to hide it, it is a sign that times are dangerous and shit is really fucking bad. Now, as for what I said above, using the Constitution and the highest law of the land, I agree with you completely about not a savior and that natural law is higher. But, sometimes it is necessary to speak in the language of the people to get a message across, to make a point with the concepts and ideals that have meaning to them (as my own may not), those that shape their own perspective and understanding.

Here's an example. I am a woman of very, very few friends and many, many associates. I use the word friend with a specific meaning, somebody I can hard-core trust, don't have to worry about or watch my back around. I can relax and just be me, without have to pay tight attention to situations and surroundings. A friend is someone you know -- and it takes time to really know someone, years. A friend is someone you respect. I use the word friend for someone I know has my back. I can roll up in the middle of the night or call from the train station, all is cool and there's not too many questions. I know that no info will be given out, even under official intimidation and threats. I can leave my belongings, my money, whatever and when I come back a year or so later, it's all still there. That person is as much my friend when times are hard as he is when they're good. And, of course, I treat that person in the same way, respecting and protecting that trust. The word friend means something, something real. 

However, friend in the common language is used very loosely. (And, that's leaving aside the whole Facebook dilution of definition) It can be someone you see once a week at the laundromatte and chat with while folding clothes. It can be someone you can't turn your back on, but you move in the same social circles, have known each other's name and history for years, so you make routine conversation regularly. Sometimes, in order to make myself understood, or avoid hurting feelings, I have to use the language of the land, express things in the terms people are used to hearing. Sometimes I say this is my friend so and so instead of what is true from my perspective, this is my associate so and so.

And, that is why I used those terms -- Constitution and highest law of the land -- the way I did. I wanted to communicate my point in as raw, readily understood/felt terms possible... and sometimes that requires using the language of the land, using ideals and concepts that work with the perceptions most people have of their world, what they're familiar with and feel comfortable with. 

You notice how people are so frightened of no government? Like they expect that at the very moment that the State ceases to be, chaos and violence, the worst of human nature will explode throughout the land. They ignore their true, real life experiences -- what usually happens, for example, in a time of crisis? People come together and help each other, organizing themselves just fine on their own. How many average people are really going to watch the family with children down the street starve to death? (With Fed programs instead of local ones, many lose that twinge that tells them to see and do, because the assumption is that the government will do it).

It's the same concept as repealing prohibition or legalizing all drugs. It is not going to result in a massive increase in addicts. Legality isn't going to make me suddenly change my mind and become a crazed addict, nor will it many other people. The absence of government isn't going to make the average person become an out of control, vicious criminal. Yet, for these people, the concept of government equals safety and order. Never mind true documented facts, they ignore those, refuse to acknowledge them even though they are too shockingly, insanely huge to just pretend they are not there -- the number of countries that mass murdered millions upon millions of THEIR OWN citizens. Despite the clearest of evidence to the contrary, in their understanding of reality, in their vision of the world, government is forever (and irrationally) tied to safety and order, no matter how many bodies governments hide away, until -- having no fear -- they just leave them where they drop for all to see.

These people are ultra uncomfortable  with and quite frightened of a social and economic paradigm that doesn't include government akin to the form and function of governments today, whether they be left or right, socialist, communist, etc. Indeed, they are flat out unable to conceive of a life without a somebody who must be obeyed giving the orders in a from the top down sort of government. They seem confused over the simplest of things, like who will fix the roads or what will happen to the schools. Well, just like they may have pitched in with a bunch of their friends to buy a keg of beer in the days of their youth, people who need or want the road will pitch in together to maintain it. Is it really that hard to figure out? Nope. They just operate from and are locked into a statist mindset, and thus can't quite find their way from there to here.  But... sometimes... if you speak their language, use their imagery and concepts, you can step by step, question by question, lead them out of that odd head place they inhabit. 

Sometimes I wonder if it is a matter of how you view the people you share the woprld with. I believe people are inherantly good, full of wonderful potentials, great courage, honor, beauty, and nobility. I trust  that, left to their own devices, to self rule, most people want to be that best self and most of their when it really matters decisions will reflect that, however imperfectly. Sometimes life is hard. It's struggles, sorrows, and pain bury that true self deep. Under the right circumstances, however, it can reemerge, even after a long time. Every now and then, though, in some people, it just fades away. It dies.  

I try to give people the opportunity to be their best self, I look for that true self and try to draw it out and strengthen it. Listen with respect and interest, talk about the best self facets I see, try to make people feel good about themselves, confident, offer trust (a certain degree in areas where a loss, while it may sting, won't hurt). Treat them like they already are that best self, not like they are stupid, unreliable, a fuckup or whatever bad things they're told they are or believe about themselves. And, while sometimes I suffer more than a bit of hurt, often I am pleasantly surprised, even awed. And, it is the magic of those times that makes it well worth the times I hurt a bit. Funny what a bit of respect and faith can do. 

Statists, however, I think they see humans as fundamentally evil, unable to be trusted to govern themselves, requiring a powerful government to keep them in line. It may be that they hate the weakness, fear, evil in themselves so much, they see it in everyone else as something that needs to be controlled, curbed. Or perhaps they embrace those things, and they just assume everybody is like them. Maybe they fear what they assume is in others. But, I think the bottom line is they are pessimistic about people, they believe the worst. If they weren't such troublesome bastards, I'd feel kinda sorry for them. What a cold and ugly place they dwell in.  

Forgive me, this is long and I've meandered. I guess I just really feel upset, maybe it's Independence Day --  I think of the founders of this nation, how they chose to fight a Revolutionary War against what was then the most powerful empire on the planet for FAR LESS governmental abuse than we daily see and accept. I can't believe that all that they sacrificed, and right or wrong, I think they did believe in what they were doing, and I admire that. And we just squander it, toss it away like it isn't worth shit. So many too stupid to understand what it is that they are tossing aside.

And, as much as I disagree with many elements of policy, etc., I grieve for the United States, because -- even if the Constitution was a just cynical ploy, as some say and i haven't fully decided yet, by greedy, wealthy people to seize resources and power in the New World -- there were many that believed with their whole selves, working hard to make a reality of those concepts debated, discussed, and written into the founding documents of the nation. There were certainly some true believers. And, it's fucking over now, in ruins. They announce their murders of untried, unconvicted, no due process suspects like it is OK. We have become the evil empire.

I grieve for what it all means. Those that want to politically, socially, economically  dominate and control the rest of us are going to keep pushing. They'll keep trying to take our guns, they'll keep trying to convince us of how limiting and backward it is to conceive of our children as ours, when in fact they belong to the village, the hive, the state. They'll keep trying to mandate our participation in, our belief in, our acquiesence to their programs and directives. And, of course, they'll demand our money and our labor. They just won't stop. Instead of going and doing their own thing amongst themselves -- that's not good enough for them -- they are just driven to try to force the rest of us to participate. I will never pay their fucking ObamaCare Chicago Mob protection money, the forced supporting of the medical, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries, not the per month and not the fine either. Like Pirate's Bay said, "...I won't pay.I 'd rather burn everything I own, and I wouldn't even give them the ashes."

Everybody has their enough is enough, not one thing more moment. There is a point at which you have no choice but to live according to your principles, to think carefully and do the right thing. It saddens me that my kids can expect a second civil war (unless, of course, we refuse to comply and refuse to pay), because the left lusting for control side will just never stop pushing. it's going to come to a point where the Union must divide, because we are many, those of us who value liberty, more than we know. I am amazed at the huge expansion of the liberty movement. Everywhere I go, it's what people are talking about. 

I believe that, with the expansion of the liberty movement and its steady stride toward the mainstream, despite ridicule from the pseudo-intellectuals on the left, there are many people who will dig in their heels once they've been pushed to their personal point of no return. I also think that, as time goes by and more people personally experience and feel the pain of the brutality and corruption of the State and its myriad of grand and petty public officials, there will be more of us unwilling to settle for anything less than the liberty that is our natural born right. I think that the number of people that will fight to hold it, if pressed, is growing, perhaps a bit slower than the number of people talking and thinking about liberty, but still on the rise. I feel a bit fearful, because I know it will come to a point where there is no other moral choice but to stand for liberty against a rogue, evil monstrosity. And, since I have raised my children to have moral and intellectual discernment, to understand the true value of liberty, and to act on principle, I know where they'll stand, which as a mother, truth be told, does scare me a bit, though I am resigned to it, because there is no other moral place to be.

So, please forgive my lengthy wandering. I've had a great deal on my mind of late. I feel true sorrow for the loss of what the founders' passionate political and philosophical debates sought to create. I mourn for what we've lost, and not just liberty, but depth of culture and intellect, of interest and ability, character and commitment, the ability and desire to tell right from wrong, and the courage to confront evil, as well as the belief that we should. And, even though I know it's just propaganda, fed to me all my life, there's a tiny little kid part of me that still, secretly entertains the best version of our story, that our founding fathers really did fight and sacrifice for liberty, that they fought to make this nation something different, the home of the free that I was blessed to have been born into. And, it just breaks my heart to see its death in my lifetime. Never in life did I ever expect to see the day.  
 

Suverans2's picture

Thank you so very much for this very thoughtful reply...I don't get many here...thoughtful or otherwise. I don't merely give you a "tip o' the hat", Sharon Secor, I doff it in humble respect. I'm quite sure if Christine de Pisan was around she'd be proud to call you her friend. What a great read on America's Independence Day!! Thank you!