 Read Any Good Books Lately? Maybe you won't, ever!
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Oct. 24th, 2008 @ 08:59 pm 
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I've recently read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, and while entertaining, enlightening and a bit scary, I walked away from it thinking to myself, "Nah, it'll never happen." Apparently, there's not only a firm footing in reality, but I would lay odds that DHS has plans for most of the governmental intrusion laid out by Cory, and is just waiting for another attack on our soil to implement them.
All hand wringing aside. This is the shot across the bow. The DHS is testing the waters on this one, and this should be our wake up call, because the next anti-constitutional volley will be aimed at us.
And I know, some of you are thinking that it's the ACLU. An institution that survives on sounding the alarm, often too early and at nothing. I don't think this is nothing. Essentially, the DHS is setting up illegal checkpoints within the US.
Let me repeat that, in case you missed it. The checkpoints are not at the border, where a citizen would expect to be body-cavity searched. They are interior to the US. And there is already video of such a checkpoint here. This happened in February. Why were we not told about this shit?
I am not taking this lying down. I've had enough. I know there is an election going on, but it's time again to contact our Senators and Congress Representatives, and tell them what we really think.
Even more scary are the DHS apologists that have been so scared by the media and government of terrorists that they almost standing in line to hand over their liberties. Unfortunately, they are more than willing to hand over mine and your freedoms too.
On the ACLU page there are links to further reading material, bone up, and contact your representatives. You can find the correct ones here by entering your zip code in the box provided. This kind of crap has gone way over the edge. I've never been more serious about losing my freedoms ever before.
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![[User Picture Icon]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/25528504/5888004) |
| From: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) shekkara |
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October 25th, 2008 04:42 am (UTC) |
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I don't know how new this is. We were in Texas a few years back and there was a highway check point about an hour (?) from the border of Mexico. I remember being surprised, but our Texan friend wasn't.
Interesting.
I guess what people are seeing now is an acceleration of this kind of aggressive behavior from the authorities.
As an anecdote, I've also noticed Border Patrol cars and officers all over the place in Michigan recently. What is a Border Patrol officer doing in Taylor or Monroe or Ann Arbor? It seems to me to a little outside their jurisdiction.
Since all constitutional protections go out the window at a border crossing (and rightly so) when the DHS decides that the borders extend 100 miles into the country they have given themselves the authority to do whatever they want almost anywhere they want. Without suspicion or evidence they can arrest and detain you indefinitely by labeling you an "enemy combatant." We have become an occupied country. A police-state if you will.
This is or should be illegal in the United States, and it shouldn't matter whether it happened yesterday or 10 years ago. Something needs to be done. These operations need to be reigned in. Otherwise our democracy is just a sham.
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| From: | shekkara |
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October 25th, 2008 04:08 pm (UTC) |
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How long have you noticed this? Last weekend was the Detroit Marathon, which crosses from Detroit to Windsor, and back again. So there some 10,000 plus runners and walkers from all over the world crossing the international border twice with no customs check at the time of crossing.
About 3 or 4 months. Mostly while traveling back and forth to work (I live in Monroe but work in Detroit) about once a week or so there's a green Border Patrol car in the median of I-75.
But I've also seen customs officials in strange places like walking around downtown Detroit. Which might not be suspicious if they were customs or immigration agents on official business,but it appeared more like they were the Border Patrol patrolling rather than having a law-enforcing goal in mind.
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| From: | shekkara |
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October 25th, 2008 04:20 pm (UTC) |
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P.S. I just read the ACLU fact summary, and yet I agree it's scary and wrong.
![[User Picture Icon]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/33961341/3640767) |
| From: | merle_ |
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October 25th, 2008 06:27 pm (UTC) |
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"Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders."
Uhm. No kidding? Since most large cities now were smaller cities back when most goods came in via.. the water? Since coastal areas tend to be more temperate? Access to seafood, longer growing season?
I'd bet dollars against pennies that if they extended it to include rivers, they could drop it to a 30 mile radius and still have two thirds of the population within it. That's just how cities came about, before the railroad. And most areas were settled by then, with railroads going to existing places.
I don't agree with the ACLU on a number of things, but when it comes to privacy, online security, and the like, they have a lot more clout than the EFF does. I just wish they'd stop phoning me.
you sir are now a crack pot.
And you sir are officially (by my authority) a curmudgeon.
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