Welcome to police state 2011
Dear Editor:
Three recent occurrences should have everyone in America questioning the intent of their government. The first is the shooting of former Marine Jose Guerena who served two tours of duty in Iraq and was shot 61 times in his own home by a SWAT team serving him a warrant. The next, is the arrest of Adam Kokesh (another former Iraq War Veteran and host of Adam vs. The Man) when he was body slammed to the ground and arrested for dancing just after a couple, who started slow dancing inside the Jefferson Memorial, were also arrested.
And thirdly, is the Indiana Supreme Court's recent mid May decision to eradicate the fourth amendment by allowing police to enter homes without a warrant. Justice Steven David's decision reads as this "We believe … a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest."
And doesn't this ruling of just sit there and be obedient little citizens sound vaguely familiar as to how we were told to handle a hijacking situation? Cooperate with the terrorists and do what they tell you to do? Are decisions like this setting us up for gun grabs or inspections of our homes at the whims of the state? Isn't this policy not only setting us up for an abuse of police power but also opening the door for criminals who impersonate police officers?
I don't want to sound like I am anti-law enforcement. As a matter of fact I am hoping that there is a mass awakening among police officers who also take an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States before we find ourselves in a Nazi Germany like situation. If you are a police officer and you do not feel we are moving in this direction please contact me and I will point you to the federal and state legislation that shows you this is exactly where we are heading.
A recent apology by our current sheriff for false information spread by the Southern Poverty Law Center will illustrate our current state of affairs. The SPLC was responsible for much of the bad information in the infamous MIAC report that identified returning veterans, Ron Paul supporters, those who belong to third parties and people who believe in our constitution as potential terrorists. The SPLC's punishment for this now withdrawn report? The CEO of the SPLC now sits on the Department of Homeland Security's "Working Group on Countering Violent Extremism." Why are citizens and law enforcement agents alike taking anything these organizations say seriously? And why do we support them with our tax dollars? Are gun owners now considered potential terrorists? Maybe you should read some of the bills flying through Congress like a midget shot out of a circus cannon.
And was it because Mr. Guerera was a returning vet that this raid was conducted to begin with? He was being served a warrant to search his house for drugs and none were found. And common sense tells us that if armed men arrive outside of a recent combat veteran's home with guns drawn and in a very confrontational manner there is a slight chance his initial reaction may be to defend himself and his family. I mean these things happen so fast and so aggressively his instinct may have simply been to do what he was trained to do. He had just gone to bed after working a 12 hour shift.
When the shooting stopped Mr. Guerera had not fired a single shot and his safety was still on. Was he trying to discern who it was who was storming his house? Which takes me to the War on Drugs. When Reagan started the program there were around 3,000 Swat team/paramilitary style raids per year. Today there are over 50,000, mostly to serve drug warrants but they are also used for white collar crimes and to raid poker games as well. And there are consistently cases of raids happening at the wrong homes. Every year people get killed in these raids for no reason at all, both law enforcement agents and citizens.
The freedom philosophy on drug usage is that if an adult is abusing THEIR body with drugs it is THEIR choice. Roughly 60 percent of jail and prison populations are made up of non-violent drug offenders. No American should be forced through taxation to chip in for the cost of providing drug addicts three fresh meals a day and medical care. I don't condone drug use but it is not a grown adult's job (the politician) to tell other grown adults how to live their lives. Not in a free country anyway.
The War on Drugs is today's prohibition. People still drank just like they still do drugs. They just have to pay higher prices to do it which brings on big profits like those made by Al Qaeda and the Mexican Drug Cartels that turn common street thugs into monolithic criminal king pins just like it did with the Purple Gang and Dutch Schultz during the Prohibition. And for people addicted to drugs, they now have to commit more crimes to pay for their more expensive habit. The amount of money spent per year to wage the War on Drugs is in the billions and cost many more lives per year than all of the US casualties suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Just remember that we are all in this together. It is those who pass down policy that put both peace officers and citizens at risk.
Gene Duffy
Jim Thorpe
