The Big Stuff – mass arrests, openly lawless government – necessarily comes after the Little Stuff. When people tolerate the Little Stuff, or lose their capacity to be outraged by it, the Big Stuff seems to be a natural, logical progression – which is of course exactly how it’s presented to the increasingly resigned, passively accepting populace.
When we – when the courts – sanctioned random stops on the roads a quarter-century ago, it set the precedent (legally and psychologically) for the universal, probable-cause-free TSA gropes of today – and worse yet to come (such as the “malintent” profiling that reportedly is being tested for deployment and not just at airports, either).
We’ll see a similar progression as a result of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last month that “talking back” is a sanctionable affront to the Person of a cop – and not free speech.
Miriam Leverington, a nurse in Colorado, was stopped by Officer Duaine Peters (author’s note – absolutely no relation) who had been running a radar trap to catch “speeders.” Like so many victims of these snatch and grab operations, Leverington was not happy about being stopped for no good reason – and dared to tell the cop exactly that. As she was handed her piece of payin’ paper, she said that she hoped she never had to have him as a patient.
This affront to the Person of the cop was not acceptable. The prickly “public servant,” his dignity wounded, took the special effort to find out where Leverington worked, then called the hospital and got her fired – claiming Leverington “threatened” him.
Is it not amazing how easily some of these burly “heroes” feel threatened by helpless, non-violent citizens, often females half their size and older people three times their age? And more, how disproportionate their response? (See in this vein the recent and largely ignored by the media body-slamming and choke-holding of people visiting the Jefferson Memorial in DC who dared to dance).
Anyhow. The slighted cop got Leverington fired from her job, costing her thousands in lost pay in addition to the hundred dollar-plus ticket. She decided to go to court to see whether her free speech rights counted for squat anymore.
Of course, they don’t.
The court ruled that only statements expressing (wait for it) “public concern” fall under the tattered remnants of the First Amendment’s protections. And of course, “public concern” does not include criticism of things the public might actually be concerned about, such as being fleeced by useless eaters in costumes running radar traps. In other words, mouth off to a cop and it’s open season – on you – and the courts will rubber stamp their approval of pretty much whatever the cop does.
Meanwhile it’s ok – protected free speech – to screech that “God Hates Fags” at private funerals. Because no affront to the Person of a government flunkie is at issue.
It’s of a piece with the recent ruling in Indiana that citizens have no right to resist an unlawful entry by police into their homes. Justice Steven David, writing for the court’s 3-2 majority, said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer’s entry. The Indiana Times noted: ““On Tuesday, the court said police serving a warrant may enter a home without knocking if officers decide circumstances justify it. Prior to that ruling, police serving a warrant would have to obtain a judge’s permission to enter without knocking.”
In other words, if the cop wants your money, he’ll take your money. If he wants to bash down your door – and bash you in the head – he can do so. Provided he “feels” he has good reason, of course. And if you resist – even passively – or dare to talk back – it’s open season. On you.
All these Little Things will lead to Big Things, possibly very Big Things indeed. Not may. Will.
People watch the History Channel and marvel at the apparently inexplicable rising of the nightmare that engulfed Russia in 1917 – and Germany in modified form 15 years later. They think it could never happen here. America is exceptional. Special.”Our freedoms” are sacred, except they no longer exist in principle – and very soon, may not exist in fact.
It has taken events longer to progress here, but the process is no different and I suspect the end result will be much the same.
Since 9/11 the American public has shown a “remarkable indifference to being deceived” (George Soros). But this is changing. As Hugo Chavez put it: “The world is waking up. It’s waking up all over. And people are standing up.”
Millions around the world are realizing that they have been and are being lied to by the US government – not in a small, lazy way, but in BIG important ways.
Yes, but a problem (there are many, this is just one of them) is there’s no political outlet for people who want to reign in the system. We have a very ingeniously designed duopoly that gives the illusion of consent (“democracy”) which in turn legitimizes the system and keeps the masses passive and accepting. Every two, four or six years, we have elections; the voters are given the opportunity to “throw the bums out” but in fact only get to choose between statism from the right (a Republican) or statism from the left (a Democrat). Government always wins . There is no real choice. Oh, sure, there is occasionally a little fiddling with some particular policy; but the march toward less liberty, more government continues apace.
Related to this problem is the growing Maggot class; the American proletariat. Multi-generational welfare/entitlement recipients. Illegal aliens. Useless Eater government workers. Clovers. These people want all-embracing government. They don’t want liberty. And, they vote.
They will not go gently into that night – or leave their host organisms in peace, voluntarily.
The last several years have been entertaining as the masses toss out one party for the other expecting change each time and none occurs. And yet those of us who reject the premise of being ruled over by popularity contest winners are the ‘crazy’ people.
The Duopoly Con has been sickeningly effective. People – most people – continue to believe they have a choice; that voting matters and can make a difference.
In the old Soviet Union, it was obvious there was no choice because there was just the one party – the Communist Party. This was a crude tyranny that relied on force openly applied to keep the masses in check.
In the US, overt force is less necessary because the masses have been made to believe the government operates on “democratic” principles; that the system operates in response to “the people.”
To further cement the Duopoly’s hold, the once largely homogenous population of the country has been fractured; we now have a Hapsburg Empire-like polyglot population that bickers and fights endlessly, each agitating to protect and advance its own interests against the interests of the others – all this redounding to the benefit of the elites who control the Duopoly.
The only good news is that such empires are (historically) untenable in the long run, as ours is proving to be. I think there’s a better than 50-50 chance the United-by-force-States will deconstruct into regional blocs within the next 20 years.
Off topic, but here is a quote from a Huffingpost article: “Righthaven LLC, a law firm that targets the unauthorized use of news content on the Internet has filed 32 lawsuits in federal court in Colorado seeking to stop the use of a Denver Post photograph showing an airport pat-down.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/15/righthaven-llc-files-32-l_n_823778.html
I may be wrong, but I think the “pat-down photo” accompanying The “Little Things that lead to Big Things” is the Denver Post photo mentioned at Huffingpost.
P.S. I have no dog in this hunt one way or the other.
I really like that photo. It really captures the position and hold the government has on the people.
I love you Eric and Dom.
We’ll miss you too!
And that’s the facts! The Troof!
Feel safer with these watchmen?
Detained for photography in Baltimore
Please do not feed the troll. If we ignore him he might go away.
Eric you can insult away if you wish. Just do mot delete the facts and links that I post. If your ideals are so important to the betterment of our country then they should be able to stand on their own and live up against facts. The troof.
You mean like the “fact” about the “rights to the fallen solders” at the Jefferson Memorial?
Speaking of facts: How about revealing what it is you do for a living? I have no doubt the fact will be you’re either unemployed or a government drone/moocher of some sort. Perhaps a toll both attendant – in training to become a TSA goon.
So, how about it?
Let’s hear the Troof about what Clover does for money.
Clover is a troll. He gets his kicks by having the rest of us react to his point of view. There is no hope for clover. His head is so far up his ass that he can see his tonsills. If we ignore Clover long enough, he will go away.
Clover Bait:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18620_6-completely-legal-ways-cops-can-screw-you.html
Yeah. Also has too much time on his hands, living in the basement of his elderly mother’s house. He’s been there ever since he lost his job at the DMV….
It is said the smart Jews got out of Germany around 1932/33. In other words they made sure they didn’t wait too long to the point they couldn’t leave. So what are you going to do before it’s too little too late?
In the 1930s, there were still places to go. Free countries. Any Western country; not just America. Your own Australia among them. (They didn’t yet have citizen disarmament or “politically correct” codes as you do now.)
In modern Canada,one can be criminally prosecuted for “hate” speech (that is, opinions that differ from the orthodoxy as defined by the government.) Same – and worse – in “democratic” Germany.
In terms of living openly in freedom there are few options. Everywhere you go, there’s guuuuuvernment (read: Cloverism).
There is another dance protest scheduled this Saturday:
Join massive dance protest this Saturday at Jefferson Memorial, Washington D.C.
http://www.naturalnews.com/032569_Adam_Kokesh_dance_protest.html
I hope huge crowds show up; this is perhaps the only way to challenge the Dicks.
The whole problem with compromise is this. Imagine your position is “good” or “Moral” or “right” Imagine a horizontal line, with Your position at one extreme end. Now imagine Bad, or Immoral, or wrong at the extreme other end. In order to compromise you have to move YOUR end closer to their end. They may have to do the same, but either way, in compromise you HAVE to become less right, less moral, or less good. Why would you want to do that? With compromise at best you end up half way as wrong, immoral evil as they were when they started. Not for me thanks. There can be no compromise with those that would destroy our society. It is becoming a battle of right and wrong. Our founders left us a legacy, that if maintained by the book (Constitution!!) would require NO COMPROMISE. This has been chipped away for more that 100 years now, and finally, they are moving into the open as they think the battle won. I say it has not even started…
Eric, I saw that this AM. Funny thing is that they (Cops) think that they are the “only ones” (Thanks David Codrea)that have the training-discipline-intestinal fortitude etc to be armed in our society. Fricken Brown shirts…Wish I knew what to do to head it all off. But sadly I do not.
I have back-and-forths with “them” (people like Clover) fairly often and when I do I’ll ask them whether they think its wrong to take what’s not theirs or to physically assault people in order to take their property or make them do something you want them to do and of course they’ll say no. But when I ask them why they believe it becomes ok – moral – to do those things when a “majority” (or its claimed representative) does exactly the same thing, I either get a blank stare or an effusion of double-talk about “democracy” and “voting,” the “public” and all the rest of it.
The same nice old lady who would never so much as pick a daisy from her neighbor’s flower bed without asking permission first will aggressively defend “her” Social Security.
That friendly guy you work with, with the wife and kids, who you trust absolutely in your home, even when you are not home, because you know that in his personal habits he’s scrupulously honest – will nonetheless belligerently demand that the county raise the taxes on real estate to “help” “our” (read: his) children at your expense.
Etc.
“Eric, I saw that this AM. Funny thing is that they (Cops) think that they are the “only ones” (Thanks David Codrea)that have the training-discipline-intestinal fortitude etc to be armed in our society. Fricken Brown shirts…Wish I knew what to do to head it all off. But sadly I do not.”
Here’s something of interest in re the above:
A cop is statistically more likely to use a gun for criminal purposes than a civilian CWP holder.
Civilian CWP holders are the least likely of all people to ever be accused of a crime involving a gun.
The typical CWP holder has more range time/experience (and is a better shot) than the typical cop.
You just make up these facts to suit your points and sugar coat your stories. This is NOT THE TROOF. Cops, government, and anyone in power never do bad! I need specific examples, pictures, stories, badge numbers, how this personally affects you, and how many times you’ve been shot and killed by a cop.
Leverington’s isn’t a free speech case. In fact a libertarian has no reason to disagree with the 10th Circuit ruling. The question before the court was whether the hospital had the right to fire her, and if you accept the primacy of private property it certainly did. Unless her contract specifies otherwise, it could fire her, or she could quit, at will. It would have been a violation of the property rights of the hospital owners to force them to employ her.
She might not have had a case against her employer but she certainly had one against the cop. A cop calling an employer like that is using the power of the uniform for his own petty revenge for feeling slighted. As to threats, ever refuse to contribute to one of those cop charities that call and not hang up immediately? My mistake when I was much younger was to politely decline upon which the very cop sounding person on the other end made a ‘shame if something should happen’ type remark.. Cops really make themselves easy to dislike.
As to the article in general I’ve been told time and time again that there is no such thing as a slippery slope while demonstrating it exists has become an almost trivial matter. Most americans can’t remember how things were 25 years or even 2 years ago it seems. Each step looks random to them. Nor do they see what “compromise” does over the long term.
I am not surprised by the actions of Dick Face Duaine Peters at all. This is the typical behavior I’ve come to expect from “protect and serve.” Hope this scum bag falls on a sword.
She might well have had a case against the cop, but that isn’t what the court was addressing. No person has a right to be employed against his employer’s preference. To use this case as an illustration of the erosion of rights is to misrepresent the case. The court property defended the employer’s right.
You know I’ve been using the wrong terminology. Zombie was the previous term I used to describe most Americans, but that is wrong. Zombies are not productive and don’t follow rules. I think a way better term is insects. This place is infested with insects.
It seems the Constitution is dead already. No first amendment. The fouth has been cancelled in preparation to ending the second… Better get ready, its very probably gonna get ugly in the USSA. Maybe even Clover will wake up (too late to be sure) and join the party.
Clover will welcome it. He is begging for it now. He is probably (as noted in a previous post) employed by it – and knows where “his” bread is buttered. The more I consider his comments here, the more certain I am he’s some species of useless eater “government worker” – or “works” for a “private” contractor that leeches off the government (and thus, us). I will eat my left shoe if Clover is employed in something other than make-work involving government, directly or indirectly.
Hey Jesse,
Here’s one for Clover; just imagine it… a cop (a hero!) who turns out to be a lot less trustworthy than me or you or probably anyone else here (none of us having killed anyone, etc.):
During a violent Memorial Day spree, an off-duty Franklin County deputy shot and killed his ex-wife in a Roanoke convenience store parking lot and then fled in his patrol car, police said.
Then, after a nearly hour-long pursuit that ended in Montgomery County, the deputy was stopped by police gunfire — after a state trooper was wounded and the resulting investigation shut down a northbound section of Interstate 81 for hours.
The Franklin County deputy, identified by state police as Jonathan Ashley Agee, 32, of Boones Mill was shot multiple times, likely by troopers, as he was being pursued into Ironto, said state police Superintendent Col. Steven Flaherty.
Agee was airlifted to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital where he was listed in critical condition Monday night.
He has been charged with murder in the case, according to Roanoke Police Chief Chris Perkins.
The wounded state trooper, Sgt. Matthew Brannock, 35, was shot by Agee during the pursuit, reportedly in the leg. Flaherty said Brannock’s injuries weren’t life-threatening.
The incident began about 11:30 a.m. when Jennifer Louise Agee, 30, drove into the parking lot of the Sheetz store on Williamson Road, according to Perkins.
Perkins said Jonathan Agee pulled in behind his ex-wife, got out of his marked patrol vehicle and shot her several times with a rifle. Jennifer Agee was pronounced dead upon her arrival at Roanoke Memorial.
An unidentified person in Jennifer Agee’s pickup truck, a child believed to be the Agees’ daughter, was unharmed, Perkins said.
After the shooting, Agee got back in his cruiser and left the scene, following U.S. 11/460 toward Christiansburg until he was spotted by Brannock, state police spokesman Sgt. Rob Carpentieri said. He said that when Brannock turned on his police lights to pull Agee over, Agee responded by turning on his police lights as well.
Rest here: http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/288225
I read your version of the policeman that shot his wife. What is the big deal? If he was not a policeman the same exact thing more than likely would have happened. Explain to me what is the difference. Explain to me what the difference of a uniform meant in this case.
This exact type of thing was what the Indiana court ruling was about. It was about a domestic violence case. It shows what can happen if the police did not try to protect the lady in the Indiana case.
Not “my version,” Clover. The news report of the incident. But the point I was trying to get across to your enfeebled cerebrum is that cops are sometimes psychopaths; or just corrupt. Which is why it is so crucial to not allow them to exert random and arbitrary authority. Cops are no better than other people and sometimes, worse. Having laws that require them to have a good reason before exerting authority over citizens is an essential check, a bulwark that limits what a bad cop can do – and at least provides some recourse to his victims after the fact.
And a “good reason” is not the cop’s whim. A good reason is some specific thing that can be pointed to which suggests that an individual may have committed some crime or may be about to do so. Not just that he is one of thousands trying to board an airplane – and doing absolutely nothing to indicate otherwise. Not just that he happens to roll up on a “checkpoint.”
You think “it can’t happen to me” and that the government is essentially good and never or rarely abuses its authority. But it can happen to you, Clover. And when it does, thanks to your Clover endorsement of random and arbitrary enforcement, your careful chewing of cop balloon knot, there will be nothing and no one to help you.
And PS: Even if you are not bothered by dealing with random stops/interrogations/feel-ups and other such things yourself, if you had a grain of common decency you’d object to such things being done to innocent people, including little kids and the elderly. But you don’t.
Because you’re a Clover.
Eric, give me the examples of what the police did to you. Since you could care less about what happens to others, tell us your story.
You should not be allowed to drive. Since drivers drive drunk, drive recklessly and possibly endanger others, you should not be allowed to drive at all. Funny, that sounds about like your theory on cops.
I try hard to not be insulting but with you it is extremely difficult. You literally have to be dull-witted to make comments such as this. The fact that – so far – I personally haven’t been the victim of police abuse (or abuse of government authority) does not obviate the fact that I – or you or any other person – could be if anyone can be. That is precisely the point about arbitrary and random laws that by definition give arbitrary authority to cops to do whatever they wish to anyone, randomly, for any (or no) reason beyond some vague assertion that such is necessary to “keep us safe” or “fight terror.”
A free society – the rule of law – cannot coexist with arbitrary and random laws that target everyone and anyone as opposed to specific people who have specifically given a reason for cops to suspect them of having committed or possibly be preparing to commit some offense.
If you take the position that it’s reasonable and justified to (for example) arbitrarily and randomly grope travelers’ genitals because “we might stop a terror attack” then you have already agreed in principle to further random and arbitrary actions, such as detaining people at random and arbitrarily; or even interrogating them “just because” – after all, they might know something.
This is the door you’ve opened, you moral imbecile and epic ignoramus.
You are exactly like the Clovers of Weimar Germany, who, not being Jews or Communists, figured they had nothing to fear from the Nazis – who after all were only going after “enemies of the state.”
They later learned what a mistake they’d made.
“Eric, give me the examples of what the police did to you.” I will need specific examples, badge numbers, names, photographs, DNA samples, and various other tidbits of unimportant information here. You see I am forming a report on the Troof and it will be filled with the Facts. Albeit none of this recorded/documented information will ever come close to leading me to enlightenment I will take comfort in the Troof and Facts. I don’t care about reason and motives.
Love,
Clover
P.S. We should be together!
Perhaps you are Clover, so long as you decide not to act as if you are a free person. Once a person acts as though he were free and makes decisions that are different from the vast majority of people, outside the parameters we are given, then the odds of harassment by the uniformed class go way up. Try it some time, see what it is like to actually exercise freedom.
Then again, that other driver that may kill you might be a cop. I was nearly killed a couple times by badly driving cops.
JV’s right.
Clover is either a troll – deliberately argumentative just for the sake of being argumentative. Or he’s an idiot not capable of understanding the plain meaning of words. I’ve tried multiple times to get across to him that by definition arbitrary and random police actions are the essential characteristics of a police state and incompatible with the rule of law and a free society. That you’re conceding – by definition – unlimited, open-ended, unaccountable power to the state, because the state no longer has the obligation to justify what it does by pointing to evidence (or even intent). It has been empowered to do whatever it likes to whomever it likes whenever it likes – just because.
This is the nature of things like TSA pat downs and “safety” stops. Clover does not understand that depersonalization leads to dehumanization – and once you have dehumanized individuals by turning them into a mass it is easy to treat them like cattle. And what happens to cattle?
I’m taking JV’s advice. I think the rest of us should, too. Ignore the troll.
Yes where are the rights to the fallen solders? If you have a memorial and you have a bunch of idiots there only to cause problems who would back them? Oh, libertarians. When someone is at a location ONLY to cause problems then they should be put in jail. If a family member went to visit the memorial of a fallen solder and you have people there only to cause problems, the police may be the safest thing the troublemakers see. A family member may take things into their own hands and the trouble makers would see where the real trouble is.
The “rights to the fallen solders”?
Hmm.
Maybe next to the Benz-o-Matic torch?
PS: The Jefferson Memorial is a memorial to – wait for it, now – Jefferson. Author of the Declaration of Independence and – wait for it – vociferous opponent of repressive, arbitrary government and defender of individual liberty.
You’re beyond help, Clover.
Jefferson would be for rights for all, not for the rights of only a few idiots. If a handfull of people disturb hundreds of others then who’s rights are being violated?
Clover, you understand nothing about Jefferson – or rights.
If you did know anything about Jefferson, you’d know important things about him such as his fight against the Alien and Sedition acts (passed by the colonial-era Chimp, John Adams). It made criticism of the government (even if true) a criminally punishable offense. It was very much of a piece with the (cough) Patriot Act. Jefferson would have reviled that, too.
And rights? They are not claims on other people – which is the way you view them.
Rather, they are a way of expressing each human being’s natural entitlement to liberty; including to be free to speak and write without fear of government censure. To pursue whatever honest work you wish to pursue – and to keep that which you have earned through honest labor. To own property, without condition or permission or fee.
And most of all – to be left in peace so long as you yourself are peaceful and not causing harm to others.
If you knew anything about Thomas Jefferson, you’d know this was how Jefferson viewed rights – and you’d also know he would find such things as the random searches and arbitrary stops of people just trying to go about their business that you cheer utterly despicable and tyrannical.
And there we have it! Perfect regurgitation. Internet is working well in mom’s basement. Nice footwork.
My brother hasn’t faced up to his Troll status and continues to Teppischfress … sometime soon he’ll hit the baseboards…. hopefully he’ll bust a toof... an dat’s de troof!
And some more fodder for Clover to chew on:
In Hyannis, Massachusetts, a group of men attending the New England Narcotics Officers Association is accused by a Cape Cod DJ of twice attacking him at a bar after he tried to non-violently intervene on behalf of a woman being harassed by one of them. The narcs were in town for a convention. Duane Alves, better known as DJ Alvzie filed a report with Barnstable Police after the incident in which he said one of the men dumped a drink on his head, then punched him. The man’s comrades joined in the beating. Alves also said that the men then blocked the exits from the bar and attacked him again when he tried to leave. The second attack resulted in serious injuries, including broken bones around his right eye and a damaged nasal cavity. Alves managed to grab a cell phone of his attackers dropped, and Barnstable Police confirmed it belonged to someone who attended the narc-fest, but would not identify the owner. Barnstable Police continue to investigate.
In Napoleonville, Louisiana, a former Assumption Parish sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty May 24 to a whopping 438 malfeasance and drug charges for using seized drugs to feed his own habits. Louis Lambert, 48, had been the evidence room technician for seven years when deputies discovered missing drug case evidence in April 2010. Lambert was arrested in June 2010 and fired and indicted in October. He copped to 336 counts of malfeasance for evidence tampering, 35 counts of pot possession, 24 counts of cocaine possession, 11 counts of prescription drug possession, one count of Oxycodone possession, one count of steroid possession, once count of Alprazolam possession,10 counts of drug paraphernalia possession, 14 counts of possessing a firearm while in possession of illegal drugs, four counts of firearms theft and one count of theft under $300. Charges against about 20 drug suspects had to be dropped because of the missing evidence. He faces up to 1400 years in prison when sentenced July 6.
In Yorkville, Illinois, the Yorkville Police deputy chief was arrested last Friday on charges he stole pain relieving pills from the department’s drug collection program. Deputy Chief Dave Delaney is charged with possession of hydrocodone and theft of government property. Yorkville Police had become suspicious that some of the drugs turned in were missing and contacted the Illinois State Police, who conducted a week-long investigation. They marked some of the hydrocodone pills, then confronted Delaney and found he had several on him. He faces up to three years in prison on each count.