With respect to the apparent suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in Portland, Oregon over the past few weeks:
Members of the U.S. military (it is asserted) are rounding up and detaining uniformed protesters on the streets. This has been reported in Portland for some weeks now, and a few recent videos appear to demonstrate the truth of it.
(Full disclosure: Some of the recent videos appear to have been deliberately fabricated to draw attention to the problem, but the occurrences are real and well-documented. The personnel seem to be operating under Homeland rather than the military per se. TNFN has very little confirmed on this, but these are our present operating assumptions based on present sources. We will hope to update as we learn more. -Editor)
This has been legal since 2011. Barack Obama signed it into law — with reservations, true, but he reauthorized it every year from 2012 through 2016 so those reservations can’t have been all that strong, or perhaps he wasn’t all that sincere. In either event, what we’re now seeing is the result, whether unintended consequence or conspiracy theory or somewhere in between.
Lest you mistake my intent: I’m not exonerating President Trump, who also has reauthorized this provision in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Unless he acts swiftly to end this now that even the dullest among us have begun to notice, he’s equally culpable as those who wrote the abhorrent law in the mean while — including Pelosi and McConnell equally, mind you. This was originally written by Senator John McCain and forced through by both parties.
And I’m certainly not saying this isn’t a problem. I’m saying we didn’t complain much when it was Homeland doing it wholesale in the border zone because that was for public safety and to prevent terrorism. We notice when it’s trust fund kids in Oregon.
Some among us even approve when it’s trust fund kids in Oregon. I confess a form of visceral satisfaction myself.
But this is how tyranny begins: With public approval of the suppression of unpopular ideas and the people who promote them. This is the next step on the road to dictatorship, to Fascism, to the police state — and with more of our own people in prison than Stalin himself ever managed, we’re a long way down that road already.
It’s OK when it’s to filter out terrorists who are crossing the border. It’s perfectly fine when we’re infiltrating white power groups and the KKK. It’s marvelous when we’re rounding up prison gangs that are expanding outside the walls. But when the children of privilege get caught up in it, the news finally takes notice. The public begins to get outraged. But only “begins”; the Law And Order crowd, including many of those who advocate the right to keep and bear arms, still seem to be fine with it — just so long as it’s foreigners, terrorists, and those wiseass college kids.
To you I say: Remember Duncan Lemp. Remember Breonna Taylor. And if you can’t see that the Second Amendment cause is shared by Black Lives Matter right now, even if only on this one single point, you’re missing the glaringly obvious.
It’ll be you next, for refusing to wear a mask in a pandemic — and if we’re our normal stupid selves, the Left will cheer.
You might be thinking that it’s important for law enforcement to have extraordinary powers in extraordinary times, and to an extent you’d be right. You may believe that the people who burned down a police union headquarters in Oregon are little better than terrorists themselves, and there’s a valid position for discussion there.
But as Ben Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
It’s time to fix this, people. Right now.
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