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Domestic Enemies

Members of Congress take an oath of office pledging to support and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. The President's oath of office affirms his intent to preserve the Constitution.

These oaths apparently do not include abiding by those words because the Bill of Rights is ignored in most government decisions and policies. Instead the current domestic enemy of most concern to the American government is the American people.

The NSA has been recording cell phone usage by Americans for a long time, at least since early in the Bush 43 administration, which is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."

In early 2013, a report surfaced that the Department of Homeland Security purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, including hollow point bullets that are forbidden by international law. DHS also purchased a number of armored personnel carriers.

The Executive branch now claims it can murder anyone, even an American citizen, without the bother of a trial to demonstrate the evidence of a crime or even that a possible crime is imminent.

For the past few decades, protesters are being arrested even before an actual protest, including before the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions, and people can be held indefinitely.

It is ironic that even actions against protesting about Wall Street regarding the disaster from the financial community are given the same justification, "in the interest of national defense or foreign policy." Police now seemed empowered to go after any possible offense.

With the loss of popular influence on elections, where the representatives are now bought and paid for by money from corporate and financial interests, the only other effective way for people to hold their government accountable is the use of large public demonstrations.

With militarization of many police forces and the current tendency for the nearby government entity to put up armed forces around any demonstrators, the likelihood of those guns firing on the unarmed people will increase, especially as the people become more vocal about the government corruption. The result of unarmed people meeting people with guns is not a pretty sight, like at Kent State in 1970, or Chicago in 1937.

However, the power held by the police forces also enables other inhumane actions (treating the demonstrators are not human beings worthy of respect), like the recent pepper spray incident.

The abuse of the Chicago 1968 demonstrators is well known. When a police officer is empowered in such situations, abuse is quite possible. The Chicago Study Team's report included this statement: "There is no question but that many officers acted without restraint and exerted force beyond that necessary under the circumstances. The leadership at the point of conflict did little to prevent such conduct and the direct control of offices by first line supervisors was virtually non-existent."

Unfortunately, in the current political situation in America the government (executive, judicial and legislative branches) is no longer accountable to the population. The only effective remaining check on misbehaviors in the government is public demonstrations. The DHS is now well armed, as are most police forces.

Human beings are inherently groupish, so an armed group of police standing against an armed group of demonstrators will naturally feel an 'us vs them' attitude. Empathy is required in moral judgment so if the police have absolutely no identification (or empathy) with the demonstrators then it is less likely the police will behave morally - or with consideration for those demonstrating.

As the American economy continues to degrade, as the government continues to show itself as ineffective and barely relevant to any solutions, it is difficult to expect peaceful public demonstrations being effective to bring about change. If the population is considered the enemy of the government then there is no 'consent of the governed' as expected in a democracy.

created - July 2013
last change - 07/13/2013
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