Who Polices the Police?
December 14, 2006
By Wendy McElroy
Without police, there could be no police state. Every tyrannical
law needs flesh-and-blood enforcement agents who are willing to break
down
doors at midnight and spit on human rights. Without them, unjust laws
are
nothing more than ink on paper. But with them, no door is strong enough
to
stay closed against government; no home is safe.
America is no longer safe from its own police.
Consider just one law enforcement agency: the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) whose enforcement
agents use the acronym ATF. A secretive federal agency within the
Department of Justice, BATFE was thrust abruptly into the public's
awareness on February 28, 1993. That was the day ATF agents raided
the Waco, Texas compound of a religious group called Branch Davidians.
Four agents and six Davidians died; a 51-day siege ensued; on April
19, the compound exploded into flame, killing 76 people, including
27 children. The BATFE drew heavy criticism, with some mainstream
analysts accusing the agency of cold-blooded murder.
Yet among the messages that the average person took away from Waco
was that religious cult members had put themselves at risk by amassing
arsenals of explosives and weapons of dubious legality. Even if ATF
agents had been jackboot, the average person was certain such tactics
would never be used against him or anyone else who obeyed the law.
The message was false. The
evidence of ATF abuses against ordinary citizens has been growing,
and being law-abiding did not protect them.
Stories like that of Tucson
Police Lt. Michael Lara are coming to light. Earlier this year,
Lara testified before a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and
recounted how BATFE had "'absolutely devastated' his career and
his personal life, all because he gave a gun to a friend as a gift."
Even in the face of such stories, many people persist in believing
they are immune from police brutality. One reason: the American tradition
of freedom is now taken for granted.
For centuries, Americans have been shielded from a police state
by
Constitutional restraints on the behavior of government agents. Several
amendments in the Bill of Rights aim specifically at securing 'due
process'
to the individuals; these are the procedural rights that individuals
have a
right to demand from government in matters of law. For example, the
Fourth
Amendment guarantees that "[t]he right of the people to be secure
in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches
and
seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but
upon
probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to
be
seized."
Thus, many Americans grew up with a mother who told them "the
police are your friends" and with a father who advised "if
you get lost, go
to the first policeman you see." Parents entrusted their children
to
policemen because the laws being enforced were usually intended to
protect
people and property from harm. Abuses certainly occurred but there
was a
general sense that you were safer with a policeman nearby than you
were
being alone. This attitude sharply contrasts with totalitarian states,
like
East Germany, where no one felt safer with the Stasi at his elbow.
Ask Malisa
Knudson if she felt safer when 30 ATF agents swarmed her home
and insisted she abandon her baby in the bath tub while they handcuffed
and interrogated her for hours about the family's religious and political
views. BATFE finally admitted the raid was groundless.
Ask Harry
and Theresa Lamplugh whose home in rural Pennsylvania was raided
by 15-to-20 armed ATF agents who pointed automatic machine guns in
their faces despite the couple's co-operation. Their home was trashed,
their three cats died as result of the 'search' (one was stomped to
death), their identification papers, banking and medical records were
confiscated. The best explanation they could discern was that Harry
was in the business of promoting gun shows. The Washington Times quoted
Mr. Lamplugh as saying the "ATF was searching for records of
people who sell guns through the 40 shows he promotes in the Eastern
United States each year."
The examples of ATF agents acting as though they were 'above the
law' could scroll on. But the reality is worse than the appearance.
ATF
agents are not 'above the law'; they are the law. They wield such
weapons
as sealed warrants and governmental immunity from prosecution for
their bad
acts. BATFE is the new and naked face of police power. It is the brutal
face of an emerging police state.
Since 9-11, the traditional safeguards of freedom have been eroding
from American society. The right of an individual to own and bear
arms is
often viewed with particular suspicion. But a government that values
the
safety and independence of its citizenry has nothing to fear from
people
who can defend themselves. Quite the contrary. Governments that seek
to
impose unjust laws are the ones that must first disarm honest people
who
might disobey.
The right to bear arms and to be secure against government kicking
down your door were guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The men who
fought to
include those rights into the Constitution were not naïve idealists
but
hard-bitten practical men who knew too well the consequences of handing
power to government. Power corrupts; it turns good men into despots;
if
left unchecked, it becomes the BATFE.
JPFO wants to put power back where it belongs: in your hands. Boot
the BATFE is an ambitious campaign to eliminate the agency that
has made people afraid to "make a purchase at a gun show, own
an interesting collection of firearms, or effectively protect our
own home and family."
In partnership with courageous gun-maker Len Savage, JPFO has been
holding the BATFE's feet to the fire for the last year. We've documented
their chain of abuses, their capriciousness, and -- yes -- their vindictiveness
when cornered. It's already having an effect. A recent memo from the
Congressional Research Service on the
BATFE repeatedly references articles published by JPFO!
We're ramping up the heat, too. On June 20th, we began filming The
Gang: Using the Law to Destroy Your Freedom and Security,
an hour-long production that documents the history of abuse, violence,
incompetence and racism within the BATFE. This could very well help
deliver a death-blow to this arbitrary and capricious rogue agency.
BATFE wants you to be afraid and submissive. JPFO wants you to be
free to choose. That should make the choice obvious. Please support
"Boot the BATFE" and The Gang..
************************
To donate toward the production of The Gang, please visit
www.jpfo.org/thegang.htm
Wendy
McElroy [send her mail] is the editor
of ifeminists.com and a research fellow
for The Independent Institute in Oakland,
Liberty
for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century
Wendy
McElroy Archives
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