Forced lockdown
of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door
armed searches without
warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched
without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut
down. These were
not the scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic,
but rather the scenes just over a week ago in Boston as the United
States got a taste of martial law. The ostensible reason for the
military-style takeover of parts of Boston was that the accused
perpetrator of a horrific crime was on the loose. The Boston bombing
provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should
have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation
of an American city. This unprecedented move should frighten us
as much or more than the attack itself. What has been
sadly forgotten in all the celebration of the capture of one suspect
and the killing of his older brother is that the police state tactics
in Boston did absolutely nothing to catch them. While the media
crowed that the apprehension of the suspects was a triumph of the
new surveillance state – and, predictably, many talking heads
and Members of Congress called for even more government cameras
pointed at the rest of us – the fact is none of this caught
the suspect. Actually, it very nearly gave the suspect a chance
to make a getaway.
The “shelter
in place” command imposed by the governor of Massachusetts
was lifted before the suspect was caught. Only after this police
state move was ended did the owner of the boat go outside to check
on his property, and in so doing discover the suspect. No, the suspect
was not discovered by the paramilitary troops terrorizing the public.
He was discovered by a private citizen, who then placed a call to
the police. And he was identified not by government surveillance
cameras, but by private citizens who willingly shared their photographs
with the police. As journalist
Tim Carney wrote
last week:
“Law
enforcement in Boston used cameras to ID the bombing suspects,
but not police cameras. Instead, authorities asked the public
to submit all photos and videos of the finish-line area to the
FBI, just in case any of them had relevant images. The surveillance
videos the FBI posted online of the suspects came from private
businesses that use surveillance to punish and deter crime on
their property.”
Sadly,
we have been conditioned to believe that the job of the government
is to keep us safe, but in reality the job of the government is
to protect our liberties. Once the government decides that its role
is to keep us safe, whether economically or physically, they can
only do so by taking away our liberties. That is what happened in
Boston. Three people
were killed in Boston and that is tragic. But what of the fact that
over 40
persons are killed in the United States each day, and sometimes
ten persons can be killed in one city on any given weekend? These
cities are not locked-down by paramilitary police riding in tanks
and pointing automatic weapons at innocent citizens. This is unprecedented
and is very dangerous. We must educate ourselves and others about
our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands
that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend
to protect us.
Sadly,
we have been conditioned to believe that the job of the government
is to keep us safe, but in reality the job of the government is
to protect our liberties. Once the government decides that its role
is to keep us safe, whether economically or physically, they can
only do so by taking away our liberties. That is what happened in
Boston.
No comments:
Post a Comment