Tales from the Garrison State

[MKSheppard]

Tales of the Garrison State

During the period known as Reconstruction, when defeated Southern states
were ruled by military dictatorships, President Andrew Johnson declared:
"Whenever you hear a man prating about the Constitution, spot him as a
traitor." In our current environment, those engaging in loose talk about the
Constitution are likely to be branded as "terrorists."

While boarding a recent flight out of the Traverse City, Michigan airport,
James R. Otteson, a professor of philosophy at the University of Alabama,
was threatened with arrest, detention, and being permanently banned from air
travel within the United States. Otteson, a law-abiding U.S. citizen, had
provoked the wrath of airport security personnel by offering mild complaints
about the violation of his person and property when his family was subjected
to a "random" search at the departure gate.

Writing in the July 2002 issue of Ideas On Liberty, a publication of the
Foundation for Economic Education, Otteson recalls that after he removed his
sport coat and belt and surrendered his wallet, he "made [his] usual protest
about protections from unreasonable searches and seizures. `We’re just
following orders,’ I was told. That was the defense Nazi war criminals used,
I said. Following orders does not relieve you of responsibility for your own
actions." This comment provoked one of the airport security drones to
bellow: "Are you calling me a Nazi? … You call me a Nazi again and you’re
never getting on that plane!"
"Whose orders are you following?" Otteson asked the time-server. "The FAA’
s," came the reply. Otteson pointed out that it makes little sense to treat
a family of five – including three children ages eight and younger – as a
pool of potential suspects. By this time the local "homeland security"
contingent had been notified. Otteson narrates:

"I was surrounded by approximately half a dozen security guards and several
armed National Guardsmen. I was informed that if I did not `Shut up,’ I
would be made to `go Greyhound the rest of [my] life.’ I asked whether I was
suspected of a crime. I was informed that asking so many questions `about
the Constitution and all’ was making me suspicious."

"This is America now, buddy," blustered the cut-rate checkpoint Commissar.
"You better shut up and get used to it!" When Otteson asked if, in addition
to unlawful searches and seizures it was now standard "security" procedure
to suppress free speech, "I was then told – through clenched teeth – that
they were going to `lock me up’…. `I have that power,’ one security guard
growled at me ominously."

With his wife and children reduced to tears, and under the threat of missing
an important flight, Otteson relented. The triumphant guardians of airport
security conducted a particularly thorough search, during which their grimy
hands pawed through his wife’s intimate apparel.
There’s nothing particularly surprising here to anyone who understands what
happens when open-ended powers are invested in people with large-caliber
egos – and small-bore intellects. It is worth pointing out that the
ever-expanding "homeland security" apparatus is being filled with countless
individuals of the sort Otteson’s family encountered: Petty, officious
little dictators eager to impose their will on others; spiteful, arrogant
martinets who think nothing of literally making a federal case out of a
perceived personal slight.

From Washington State comes another instructive vignette regarding the
relentless encroachment of the "homeland security" garrison state. One
afternoon in mid-July, with temperatures in Yakima reaching 117 degrees,
Elizabeth Myer was pulled over by a policeman for having an expired tag on
her Chevy Suburban (the result of an oversight, rather than criminal intent
or misplaced political zealotry). During the routine stop, the officer
noticed that there was an unloaded ammo magazine for a semi-automatic rifle
on the dashboard. The officer asked for permission to search the vehicle,
presumably to check for weapons. Elizabeth declined permission, assuring the
officer that the magazine was empty and that she wasn’t carrying any other
weapons.

The officer, determined to search the vehicle, detained Elizabeth and her
four young children (all of whom are six years or younger) in the Suburban
for over an hour and a half. Insisting that the young mother posed a "flight
risk," the officer refused to allow her to turn the ignition key to run the
air conditioner. Jim Myer, Elizabeth’s husband, told Review of the News
Online: "It was 117 degrees that day, and in other circumstances a mother
who left her small children out in that weather for an hour and a half would
be charged with child abuse. But I guess it’s just fine when government
people do it." Myer reported that all four of their children had to be
treated for heat stroke.

What distinguishes this story from other – unfortunately common – accounts
of government abuse of citizens is the "homeland security" rationale invoked
by law enforcement officials as justification. According to Jim Myer, while
his wife and tiny children were illegally detained and being tortured, the
traffic stop was being examined as a "homeland security" matter by a
Washington Tri-Agency Counter-Terrorism Task Force. Supposedly they were
concerned that Elizabeth Myer was somehow involved in a nearby incident
involving illegal fully automatic rifles. Under normal circumstances, an
officer making a traffic stop involving a young suburban housewife and her
four tiny children would be able to exercise better judgment – but in this
instance, the rationale of "homeland defense" became irresistible.
Jim Myer, it should be noted, is a world-class sport shooter who provides
marksmanship training to local, state, and federal law enforcement agents.
He is exceptionally well versed in firearms laws and fastidiously obeys
firearms laws, however asinine or opaque their provisions may be.
Nonetheless, shortly after his wife’s punitive detention, Myer received a
visit from the ATF. "They were all over our house, demanding to see every
gun we have," Myer told Review of the News Online. When Myer asked about the
visit, he was told repeatedly that it was being treated as a matter of
"homeland security."

As this commentary is being prepared, Myer and his family are still under
investigation. Because of arcane provisions in laws governing public
disclosure of such investigations, Myer will not be able to learn the
details of the case being compiled against him until the case is closed.
(Parenthetically, the National Rifle Association, which was contacted by
Myer for legal help, told him that they are only interested in "sporting
firearms law" – and that his case didn’t qualify.)

In both of these cases, the subject of official abuse by agents of the
embryonic "homeland security regime" were white, middle-class, law-abiding
families. They fit no conceivable terrorist profile. They were engaged in
travel as part of peaceful family pursuits. In both incidents, security and
law enforcement personnel, invoking the threat of armed violence, browbeat
innocent parents in front of their children. The Yakima case involved what
could be characterized as illegal arrest and torture – including the torture
of children.

Bearing all of this in mind, the prospect of a vast, centralized,
militarized, and unaccountable "homeland security" apparatus should fill
freedom-loving Americans with mortal dread. The Bush administration has
already claimed the power to subject individuals – including American
citizens – to open-ended military detention, with no judicial review, as
"enemy combatants." It is seeking to abolish the Posse Comitatus statute
forbidding the military to carry out domestic law enforcement missions. It
is seeking to recruit tens of millions of Americans as informants for the
regime precisely because private citizens will be able to enter private
homes and inspect them for "suspicious" items and activities – and it’s a
safe bet that firearms will be high on that list.

If these measures were being carried out by Bill Clinton, the Republican
right would be screaming itself hoarse. But because the amiable dullard who
occupies the White House occasionally gives voice to a few conservative
platitudes – provided, of course, they are written out in advance, in small
words spelled with large letters, by one of his handlers – the Republican
right has swallowed its tongue. Some of those people, in fact, are among the
loudest voices proclaiming: "This is America now – shut up and get used to
it!"

------------------------------------------------

It's fucking funny, seeing the morons on http://www.democraticunderground.com
talking about getting guns, etc
to defeat the "fascist" bush regime.

Those stupid left-wing fucks were perfectly fine with seeing
OUR freedoms taken away as long as BILL CLINTON was
prez, but now that it's a Republican doing the freedom-seizing,
it's a TRAGEDY....

When will you all realize there isn't a dime's diff between
the Dem and Repub parties....that they both want to
CONTROL YOUR LIFE.......