The Department of Homeland Security has been directly involved with the militarization of our local police forces across the country since its inception. DHS along with the Army, under NORTHCOM, have been actively taking an increasingly Un-Constitutional and direct role in the policing of American citizens. Fusion centers all across the country have been set up to coordinate and link together the investigative and enforcement capabilities of the local police, state troopers, Army and National Guard.
On the surface this may seem like a good idea, until you realize that the Posse Comitatus Act established in 1878 was meant to disallow the military from engaging in civilian policing on American soil. This was due to the fact that standing armies were commonly used in police states that were totalitarian in nature. This is a characteristic we are seeing more and more of in the United States.
These Fusion Centers are federally funded with no government oversight; they are out there doing what ever they wish to the unsuspecting and unknowing public. Routine spying on Americans is now localized through the fusion centers operations, which have included collaboration with the CIA. Previous to this there was a ban on CIA intelligence operations in the U.S. The ACLU has filed a report on Fusion Centers highlighting the gross violations to our Constitutional rights. http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/privacy/fusion_update_20080729.pdf
In many instances found by the ACLU, innocent citizens have been the target of intelligence gathering. The internal documents of the DHS state that “right-wing extremists” are potential terrorists, along with Iraq war veterans, Afghanistan war veterans, and citizens who support candidates like Ron Paul. The rhetoric is disturbing as it targets Americans for their beliefs (thought police), which is Orwellian in nature.
The security apparatus is being turned inward in dramatic fashion under the guise of rooting out radical extremists. Yet, as we have seen over and over again, the average American citizen who is invoking their 1st Amendment rights by protesting the corrupt banking system, the lack of arrests and accountability regarding the Wall Street fraud that crashed the economy, illegal wars, environmental justice, monopolization, conglomeration, and centralization of corporate power, and finally our bought and paid for government are the ones being trampled down upon by the authoritarian powers of our government sponsored police structure.
If there is one clear about the Occupy Wall Street movement, it is that the NYPD has made a great effort to stifle, physically abuse, and manipulate the dissenters. The initial reaction the movement was to start beating and pepper spraying protesters, and that continues to this day, some 7 weeks into the movement. That progressed into actively manipulating the crowd into “breaking the law” by directing them onto the Brooklyn bridge, corralling, and then arresting some 700 people.
The continued heavy police presence, even riot police to attend to peaceful protesters is overkill to say the least. Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas gave the NYPD exactly what it needed to hear as they started to send in riot police to yet again intimidate peaceful protesters. See him shame them by letting the cops know exactly how dishonorable their behavior is in what is supposed to be a free society: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/decorated-marine-screams-at-nypd-on-behalf-of-occ
The arrest of Naomi Wolf this week was enlightening as to the techniques being employed by the NYPD, as well as police around the country; it turns out the Department of Homeland Security is playing a major role in it. The DHS has been involved in training the police for a few years now, but what they are training the NYPD for is to deal with public dissent against the establishment. DHS is all over Manhattan helping to freeze streets for passage, and generally being a silent commander of the police presence there. The DHS is the mouthpiece for government rhetoric and propaganda concerning threats to national security.
The Unties States has been on a path to closing its society since the mid 90’s, and when Bush II took office the country steamrolled into action. Naomi Wolf was attending an event for the Huffington Post in NYC when she came upon the Occupy Wall Street protesters. They were chanting and using the human mike technique that they have adopted after it was told to them that megaphones are illegal. Soon the police arrived and began the game of intimidation. Ms. Wolf had asked everyone that seemed in a position of authority what the law regarding permitting for the event was so the group could protest and still be within the limits of the “law”.
She was informed public sidewalks can be occupied given the pedestrians are not obstructed, so she led the group across the street to march in single file and still make there voices heard. Soon after some white shirts appeared and told them to disperse; when Ms. Wolf asked for the law to be clarified the officer gave her what she said was “a hate filled look”; he then yelled in her face saying, “Are you not going to back down?” She did not, and was promptly surrounded by 20 officers and taken into custody.
The protesters had planned to follow her to the precinct, except they were lied to when they asked where she would be taken. She was ultimately treated well in the ride to the precinct and soon after released, but why was she arrested at all? This is the question that begs an answer, and that should be asked by every American with a pulse. This is unacceptable in a free society; that people are arrested for participating in a peaceful assembly; it is a Constitutional right. See the video of Naomi Wolf being arrested here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt7pIhapo1o&feature=player_embedded
The moves being made by our illustrious establishment are to unequivocally deeply suppress or deny our rights of free speech. The incident at Citibank where 20 protesters were arrested for attempting to close their bank accounts is incredibly fascist in nature. The protesters were locked in the bank by security and then told they were trespassing. The strange thing is, undercover cops were already inside the bank and posing as protesters while making a huge ruckus, being obnoxious, and yelling loud. The undercover cop then manhandled a female customer outside the bank who was speaking with protesters and was dragged into the bank and arrested with everyone else. Protesters said he was laughing at his techniques and spoke of how he was paid to do so with other officers back at the precinct.
In yet another attempt to extend the police state into in everyday lives, the Department of Homeland Security is deploying the TSA in Tennessee to hunt for terrorists on the highways. VIPR, or the Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response program is another DHS program implemented by the TSA to stifle the rights of Americans by stopping and searching them at random checkpoints without any probable cause to do so; a clear violation of the 4th Amendment. When will enough be enough? Wake up America; we are no longer living in a free land.
