It has become way too easy to lockdown this Nation.
Five years ago, Boston was locked down while police carried out a military-style manhunt for suspects in the 2013 Boston Marathon explosion.
Four years ago, Ferguson, Mo., was locked down, with government officials deploying a massive SWAT team, an armored personnel carrier, men in camouflage pointing heavy artillery at the crowd, smoke bombs, and tear gas to quell citizen unrest over a police shooting of a young, unarmed black man.
Three years ago, Baltimore was put under a military-enforced lockdown after civil unrest over police brutality erupted into rioting. More than 1,500 national guard troops were deployed while residents were ordered to stay inside their homes and put under a 10 p.m. curfew.
This year, it was my hometown of Charlottesville, Va., population 50,000, that was locked down while government officials declared a state of emergency and enacted heightened security measures tantamount to martial law, despite the absence of any publicized information about credible threats to public safety.
Tess Owen reported for Vice:
“One year after white supremacists paraded through the streets, the face of downtown Charlottesville was transformed once again, this time with checkpoints, military-style camps for National Guard, and state police on every corner. When residents woke up Saturday, all entrances to the downtown mall were blocked off, apart from two checkpoints, where police looked through people’s bags for lighters, knives or any other weapons. Up above, standing atop a building site, two national guard members photographed the individuals coming in and out…. A National Guard encampment was set up in McGuffey Park, between the children’s playground and the basketball court, where about 20 military police officers in camouflage were snoozing in the shade of some trees. A similar encampment was set up a few blocks away.”
Make no mistake, this was a militarized exercise in intimidation, and it worked only too well.
For the most part, the residents of this city, once home to Thomas Jefferson, the Nation’s third president, author of the Declaration of Independence, and champion of the Bill of Rights, welcomed the city-wide lockdown, the invasion of their privacy, and the dismantling of every constitutional right intended to serve as a bulwark against government abuses.
Yet, for those like myself who have studied emerging police states, the sight of any American city placed under martial law, its citizens essentially under house arrest, officials used the Orwellian phrase “shelter in place” in Boston 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, leaves us in a growing state of unease.
Watching the events of the lockdown unfold, I couldn’t help but think of Nazi Field Marshal Hermann Goering’s remarks during the Nuremberg trials in the 1940s. Goering noted: “It is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
The events in Charlottesville have made clear, it does indeed work the same in every country.
Whatever the threat to so-called security, whether it’s civil unrest, school shootings, or alleged acts of terrorism, government officials will capitalize on the Nation’s heightened emotions, confusion and fear as a means of extending the reach of the police state.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much for the American people to march in lockstep with the government’s dictates, even if it means submitting to martial law, having their homes searched, and being stripped of one’s constitutional rights at a moment’s notice.
In Charlottesville, most of the community fell in line, except for one gun-toting, disabled, 71-year-old war veteran who was arrested for purchasing cans of Arizona iced tea, a can of bug spray, and razor blades, all of which were on the City’s list of temporarily prohibited, potentially “dangerous” items. Incidentally, the veteran’s guns, not among the list of prohibited items, caused no alarm.
Talk about draconian.
This continual undermining of the rules that protect civil liberties inevitably will have far-reaching consequences on a populace that not only remains ignorant about its rights but is inclined to sacrifice liberties for phantom promises of safety.
Be warned: These lockdowns are just a precursor to full-blown martial law.
The powers-that-be want us acclimated to the sights and sounds of a city-wide lockdown with tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, Blackhawk helicopters, and armed drones patrolling overhead.
They want us to accept the fact that in the American police state, we are all potentially guilty, all potential criminals, all suspects waiting to be accused of a crime.
They want us to be meek and submissive.
They want us to report on each other.
They want us to be grateful to the standing armies for their so-called protection.
They want us to self-censor our speech, self-limit our movements, and police ourselves.
Make no mistake: These are the hallmarks of a military occupation.
We are already under martial law, held at gunpoint by a standing army.
Take a look at the pictures from Charlottesville, from Baltimore, from Ferguson and from Boston, and then try to persuade yourself that this is what freedom in America is supposed to look like.
We’ve already gone too far down this road.
Remember, a police state does not come about overnight.
It starts small, perhaps with a revenue-generating red light camera at an intersection.
When that is implemented without opposition, perhaps next will be surveillance cameras on public streets. License plate readers on police cruisers. More police officers on the beat. Free military equipment from the federal government. Free speech zones and zero tolerance policies and curfews. SWAT team raids. Drones flying overhead. City-wide lockdowns.
No matter how it starts, however, it always ends the same.
Remember, it’s a slippery slope from a questionable infringement justified in the name of safety to all-out tyranny.
These are no longer warning signs of a steadily encroaching police state.
I make clear in my book, “Battlefield America: The War on the American People,” the police state has arrived.
—The Rutherford Institute