This book was a major eye opener. I'd read a little and check the Internet to assure what I was reading was grounded in facts. I read this book a few weeks ago and was so overwhelmed emotionally that I had to wait to be able to write about it. The emotional horror is starting to wear off and my logical side is taking over. Half way through the book, I realized the back 44% of the pages are references and links showing this was a scholarly work that was well researched. I feel like the blinders are off. Part of me is glad they are off but the other half wants to go back into my safe cocoon of naivity where I felt safe and protected in my original country.
There were five parts to the book, so I'll try to keep it to a paragraph for each.
Part 1: A Declaration of War
There is a lack of respect and trust between the citizens and the government. As that gap widens, the US is becoming more of a police state where the Bill of Rights is being ignored. The people sue and the courts find mostly in favor of the government. It's a slow ride like the "frog in water" - the frog swims along and as you turn up the heat, the frog doesn't realize it's in trouble until it is boiled and dead. The author felt the Boston Bombing that was possibly a government planned event to see if the populace would go along with losing their Bill of Rightst. Would they allow curfews? Invasion of their home? etc? The author had studied history and discovered all totalitarian regimes have started similarly. The author says the difference of the outcome of the Boston Marathon vs the outcome at Ferguson, Missouri, was not the different tactics of the police but the response of the people. The author says of the two events that both, "employed SWAT teams, armored personnel carriers, and men in camouflage pointing heavy artillery." The author writes about the founding fathers who were aggrieved because of how Britain treated them; and the best way to understand the magnitude of that is delineated in the Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights. He gave examples; one of the most shocking things I read was police stopped a woman with no police record for a minor traffic violation and they did a body cavity search, removed a tampon while on the side of the road with no privacy and her small children in the car watching. Another mother and daughter had a body cavity search after a rolling stop at a traffic sign and it was again public and the police used the same glove for the searches on both women. Other people stopped for minor traffic violations have had roadside body searches and the police decided to do more invasive tests, like barium enemas or a colonoscopy to assure there's no contraband hidden - the "victim" has to pay for the medical exam - even if the person is innocent or not given a citation. And the big shocker, is no warrant is required for such a search since the Patriot Act.
A Northwest and Princeton study of 2014 shows that the US Government is ruled by the rich and powerful and not by the people who elect them. Another chapter in this section talks about the FBI rescuing and hiring many of Hitler's henchmen to work for the FBI. He talks about confiscation without a warrant, the nanny state (surveillance of citizens), two-tiered system of government, or a lady in Florida for living off-grid and collecting rain water being arrested for it. Further, he puts part of the blame privatization of prisons.
The author says for a country to change from democracy to fascism or oligarchy, the people have to believe something is fearful: terrorism, etc. As for fear of terrorism, the author says, "You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack. You are 11,000 times more likely to die from an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane. You are 1,048 times more likely to die from a car accident than a terrorist attack. You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack. You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocating in bed than from a terrorist attack. You are 9 more times likely to choke to death in your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack. You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist."
Part II: The War on the American People
Originally the police were to serve and protect civilians; however, now they are being given military equipment - to use against whom? Apparently the law-abiding American people as NSA and TSF are the arms of government to round-up terrorists. He gives pages of examples of police breaking into homes, often incorrect homes where people are living their mundane lives, and shooting the civilian until dead. The author does not blame the police but the training they receive. He has had older police call him and talk to him about their concern that young police officers are not taught the constitution, especially the 4th Amendment. The author states, "the fatality rate of on-duty patrol officers is reportedly far lower than many other professions, including construction, logging, fishing, truck driving, and even trash collection. In fact, police officers have the same rate of dying on the job as do taxi drivers." In fact, police kill FIVE times more civilians then civilians kill police. Unfortunately, when police use deadly force (which happened for one 14-year old because he gave a "dehumanizing stare" at the police-person; however, if the surviving relatives take it to court, the Supreme Court upholds the rights of the police to kill whoever they want and even if the police-person doesn't know the law, they are forgiven by the courts; yet civilians who do not know the law can still get arrested. Statistics show that the US police kill 1,100 people per year; in pre-Nazi police only killed an average of 8. Hummm. In Britain and China with 191 million population; there was no police killings.
Part III: The American Police State
In 1980, there were 3,000 SWAT team style raids by police in the US; in 2001, there were 45,000 and for the past few years there was more than 80,000 per year. SWAT teams have grown in the federal level, too: the Consumer Product Safety Department, NASA, Dept of Education and Dept of Health, Education and Welfare. I've known for about 25 years that IRS has their own swat team that is used to confiscate computers to prove people didn't file their taxes properly; or to catch crime rings for tax fraud because the appropriate organizations can't figure out how to catch them for drug running, pimping, money laundering, etc. What amazes me is crime in the US is at an all-time low; yet the police are expanding their militarization. Los Angeles has 469 police per square mile - and other cities aren't far behind. The courts are upholding the police when they breech of the Bill of Rights; even to the point police no longer have to read you your Miranda rights (right to remain silent) if they question you prior to arrest - and they no longer have to arrest you to detain and question you thanks to the Patriot act. The courts have upheld the right of the police to stop, search, seize and arrest somebody for driving with "stiff posture." The courts have upheld that any person can be strip searched no matter what the "crime" - even minor traffic violations. The courts have upheld police no longer need a warrant to break in and search a home - even if it's the wrong home. They've also upheld a minor child can be interrogated without a parent, guardian or parent in litium present. The Department of Homeland Security started after 9/11 and now has over a quarter million employees. The US military has 250 rounds of ammunition per soldier where the DHS has 1,200 per officer; and in addition to those, requisitioned 1.6 Billion more rounds. We should feel really, really secure, eh?
Part IV: The American Survellance System
This section was amazing to me. The DHS has given grants to many cities to have surveillance systems that feed into a national database. Not just people who are suspects but all people. The DHS's grants cover traffic cameras that check car license plates, street cameras, drones, satellites, GPS, etc. I found it intriguing that one of the first methods they used to monitor civilians is Google/g-mail - both receiving and sending to a g-mail address. Not only do they use the information gleaned from what we search, they then advertise what we've viewed as marketing strategy. Starting at $80K a year salary, data analysts check for code words we type on our computers, say on our cell phone, or places we go in our GPS cell or car and catalog for future reference. Soon cars will have black boxes that will track our movements and feed it into the database; under the guise of safety and anti-terrorism and in Europe devices are being made that can remotely take control of your car; and Google is creating a car that needs no driver. If Google can chose which ads I see on social media by what I've viewed; does that mean if I'd get a car that I didn't drive that it would drive me to the drug store to buy the Lugol's Solution I'd been viewing online? As for drones, having a drone bring my pizza from Dominos so it arrives still hot sounds like a good idea; but having a drone flying 20,000 feet overhead with both surveillance gear, heat sensors to track me in my home and with weapons in case the programming decided I needed stopped - well, that's frightening. That's why I won't use a finger print for my cell phone passcode. Of course mine are on file from my time in the military, civil service and even on my children's footprint - mom's thumbprint document and my immigration paperwork. I've had my DNA taken at one time; but now police can take a person's DNA if they are arrested - not convicted; and not arrested for major crimes but even for minor traffic violations.
Part V: The Resistance
The author says, "For there to be any hope of real change, you’ll have to change how you think about yourself, your fellow human beings, freedom, society, and the government. This means freeing your mind, realizing the truth, and unlearning all the myths you have been indoctrinated with since the day you were able to comprehend language. Unfortunately, the truth, although painful and depressing, can and should be liberating."
Part of me wishes I wouldn't have read this book. Being naive was nicer then knowing. Now that I know; I have to do something about it. It has changed how I vote and what are my platform priorities. It has me hunting for petitions to sign and ready more and more. It doesn't make me want to go buy a gun; but it does want me to use non-violence and use my US 1st Amendment right of free speech.... that is shrinking yearly.
As a dual citizen, Canada's recently passed bill C-51 is similar to the Patriot Act. There has been an puny outcry and some political platform was amending this piece of trash. I pray they do it. I'm not against the government protecting its population from terrorism; however, I am against losing my freedoms from the Charter of Rights (Canada) or Bill of Rights (USA) when I haven't done anything wrong.
I encourage the few people who read here, to please check out the TPP (Trans-Pacific Pact) and see how it neatly dove-tails to these anti-freedom acts and encourage your legislators to not sign it.
If you think I'm wearing an aluminum foil hat and living in a conspiracy theory dream-world; I wish that were so - some psychiatric drugs would make it go away. It grieves me to see all the things my county of origin is doing and just pray we can all come to live in unity and peace throughout the whole world.
