An epiphany: Those who claim the U.S. is now a police state

[Savannahmann]

86. The purpose of civil rights is not what happens most of the time

But what happens all the time. In every case, our civil rights are in danger. In every case, we must demand appearance to the spirit. We can't wave them once, not for any reason, because that has led us to where we are now.

We are not yet in a fully fledged police state. We are traveling down the path. There are those among us who have seen it. There are those among us that have protested it, and there are those among us who have endured it. Yet when we as a nation announce a new power for our police, we edge ever closer to that destination, the Police State.

That path is not traveled in one step, or two. We travel it in thousands of little steps. Each one an exception to a right, each one an exception to the law we have all known and counted on to protect us. Each illegal wiretap was a step in that direction. Each person put secretly on a no fly list, with no accountability in sight, and no explanation given is a tiny little step. Each child groped notionally for our security is another tiny little step. At first, we welcome those things, because we believe, we believe that the Government is out to protect us from some shadowy danger lurking and plotting against us out there.

At first, we welcome the changes. Then we notice something, the changes are not just those little things, how they are being carried out is very different. We understood and our Elected Representatives voted to allow the Federal Government to use National Security Letters. The threat we were told, was that while we were trying to get enough evidence for a warrant, Terrorists would have time to carry out their nefarious plans. We had to circumvent the Fourth Amendment, we had no choice, if we were to be safe.

Then we learned, that the FBI carried out tens of thousands of illegal searches with the National Security Letters, and some of us saw that none of those letters led to an arrest for Terrorism. They were being used as a handful of us thought they might, when the Feds did not have enough evidence for a Warrant, they just get a NSL. We took steps closer to the Police State destination. If you believe that the Federal Agents are now refraining from that terrible violation of the law, then you delude yourself, because the Government has never stopped using a power as long as it was available. They may not do it tens of thousands of times a year, but they still break out the letter when they don't yet have enough information for a warrant.

We protested, and we objected. Many of us claimed that Bush was the same as Hitler, and then we had salvation. President Obama was a reality, not a dream. He said that the letters would be no more, but they still are. We didn't walk back along the path, turning away from the Police State, we slowed our rate of travel, and we felt uncomfortable with that, but we trust President Obama, but who is next to hold that power, that throttle on the travel to the dreaded Police State destination?

We have limits on when the Police may use Thermal Imaging to watch inside of houses. But those limits don't apply to the drones that soon will fill the sky. The Government can and does turn on cell phones, and monitor conversations. Isn't that a great listening device? One you purchased, and one you carry with you at all times. Best of all, you even charge the battery and pay for the wireless network that they use to follow you.

They plant GPS trackers on cars, and when the trackers are found, present the one who found it a National Security Letter to keep him quiet. We are in a heightened state of fear, and the fear is rapidly shifting from nefarious shadow figures who seek our destruction, to the forces we have enabled, and empowered to protect us.

So we aren't in a police state, but you can't deny we are on a dangerous path, one that leads to that terrible destination.