The Boston Police State

[allingeneral]

Not sure if this has been discussed elsewhere or not regarding the de facto implementation of Martial law in Boston a few days ago. This article seems to cover it pretty well.

Caught up in the televised drama of a military-style manhunt for the suspects in the Boston Marathon explosion, most Americans fail to realize that the world around them has been suddenly and jarringly shifted off its axis, that axis being the U.S. Constitution.

For those like myself who have studied emerging police states, the sight of a city placed under martial law—its citizens under house arrest (officials used the Orwellian phrase “shelter in place” to describe the mandatory lockdown), military-style helicopters equipped with thermal imaging devices buzzing the skies, tanks and armored vehicles on the streets, and snipers perched on rooftops, while thousands of black-garbed police swarmed the streets and SWAT teams carried out house-to-house searches in search of two young and seemingly unlikely bombing suspects—leaves us in a growing state of unease.

Mind you, these are no longer warning signs of a steadily encroaching police state. The police state has arrived.

Read more: http://www.conservativeactionalerts.com ... ice-state/

[FiremanBob]

The article would have been better without the gratuitous backhand swipe at Dick Cheney.

[KaosDad]

Allow me to play Progressive Advocate . . .

Let's say "The Autoritehys" did not act as they did and the brothers managed to set off another few explosives killing and maiming hundreds more- what would we be saying then?

[dusterdude]

We would be saying as unfortunate as it may be,stuff like that happens in a free state.the u.s. isnt the soviet union....yet.

[Wallace]

I think this is serious business, and something our General Assembly should look at very closely. What if something like this happened in Northern Virginia? Being as close to DC as some very highly populated NOVA areas are, it can easily happen here. It is not a matter of if something like this will happen again, it is only when.


Question, is there any text of the orders that were given to conduct those searches in Boston? Things like that have a paper trail dont they? Or can verbal commands be sufficient?

[MarcSpaz]

In an emergency, a verbal starts it, but paper being filed with the correct procedures must follow. I have been out of the local government seen for awhile, so I can't really speak to that. On the federal side, for emergencies, I see branch chiefs and GWO's issue orders verbally all the time with no immediate paper trail.

I am often the person who submits the paperwork for my team and as of today, I have yet to see in writing or even a verbal as to if there is a maximum time window to submit the paperwork backing up the verbal. I have submitted documentation 2 or 3 weeks after the fact due to workload, with minimal reminders from the internal watchdogs.

[FiremanBob]

KaosDad, allow me to play conservative advocate: If the citizens of Boston were free to keep and bear arms, they could have organized their own search parties and found the perp much earlier and without the invasion of their homes by militarized police.

Note that the perp was only found AFTER the lockdown was ended and the boat owner went outside for a smoke and to check on his boat.

[OakRidgeStars]

"Emergencies have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded."

- F.A. Hayek

[dorminWS]

This issue certainly troubled me during the Great Boston Manhunt.

I kept thinking, "What if it were me, locked in my home in Boston, when a SWAT team knocked on my door and demanded to search my hearth and home?"

I think my natural inclination would have been to stand on my 4th Amendment rights. But I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that would have turned out well, and I think I would have had the horse-sense to see that. So I would have been confronted with Hobbs' choice. Acquiescence would abrogate my rights, and refusal would obstruct the search and raise the inevitable inference that I was in league with and hiding the bombers. If I refused, they would surely search anyway - undoubtedly more thoroughly and destructively than if I had given my permission; and perhaps after detaining and removing me from the premises. And, of course, in either case, if I had a firearm, fireworks, a little moonshine, or any number of other types of thing that we in the south regard as common and harmless contraband in my private home, I guess I'd be busted. I don't even smoke tobacco, but these days I'd guess the most common form of "common and harmless contraband" in most yankee urban yuppy households would be pot or other recreational drugs. Whether these new age Gestapo would seize and arrest or just seize and smoke later is anybody's guess, but the situation would in any event be an extremely excrementitious one for the homeowner, IMO. All the more so because all those thousands of storm troopers and all that overbearing intrusion was a total failure. The bomber evaded them and was caught by total accident after the damned gub'mint gave up and called off the house arrest. At the same time, the bastard absolutely did need to be found and stopped.

It was, in fact, a thorny proposition with no satisfactory answers. And all because the damned gub'mint disregarded the 4th Amendment.

And of course, next time the damned gub'mint, having gotten away with it last time, will be even less inclined to brook objections.

[dorminWS]

BOSTON NEWS ALERT - This just in. (a little late, but more accurate than recent reports)

BOSTON - National guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed on April 19th by elements of a para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.

Speaking after the clash Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group's organizers as "criminals," issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government's efforts to secure law and order. The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.

Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting in early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.

One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that "none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily." Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government's plans. During a tense standoff in Lexington's town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists. Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange. Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces overmatched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat. Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as "ringleaders" of the extremist faction, remain at large.

April 20, 1775

[MarcSpaz]

Nice re-mix.

[KaosDad]

KaosDad, allow me to play conservative advocate: If the citizens of Boston were free to keep and bear arms, they could have organized their own search parties and found the perp much earlier and without the invasion of their homes by militarized police.

Note that the perp was only found AFTER the lockdown was ended and the boat owner went outside for a smoke and to check on his boat.

No argument there. The question remains: BPD issues no lock down, conducts no searches, perps set off two more bombs - what's the sound track? "These are the risks of a free society" may not cut it. Let me put it this way: You are the Boston Mayor - what's your battle plan?

[FiremanBob]

If we did in fact have a free society in which a large percentage of the population kept and bore arms, I would deputize the militia to assist the police.

The fact of the searches is not necessarily the problem. The stormtrooper style of them is the real problem. There were serious Fourth Amendment violations that people put up with because they were cowed. And they were cowed because they were indoctrinated from an early age to trust and obey the government.

[UnderwaterMike]

Take a look at this pic of the house-to-house, taken by someone peering out of their window.

I want to know WTH situational factors possibly justify the guy in the hummer (Guardsman?) drawing a weapon on someone observing events out of the window of his own home? I don't care what the situation was, that clown should be disciplined.

[MarcSpaz]

Wow! I could see if they didn't know where the perp is/was or if there was a "shoot-out" potential and they were not sure if there were hostiles behind them. That clearly does not appear to be the case in that photo. It doesn't look like a moment in time when tension was very high at all actually, seeing as how the rest of the unit and SWAT members are just walking around casually.

Looks like his finger is on the trigger ready to fire too.

[OakRidgeStars]

"Weapons of war have no place on our streets"

Barack Obama