Tag: police state

Man Arrested for Legal ‘Anti-Police Meme’ as ACAB Declared Felony Gang Lingo

Two rather insidious moves by law enforcement recently have gone relatively unreported in the mainstream. Because the implications for attacking free speech associated with them are extremely important, we feel compelled to bring them to our readers. It appears that criticizing or speaking out against law enforcement is putting targets on the backs of police critics.

The first worrisome move by anti-free speech law enforcement has to do with the statement “All Cops Are Bastards” or ACAB. This phrase dates back over a century to 1920s England and has been used by those critical of police ever since, becoming the popular abbreviation ACAB in 1940s by striking workers who clashed with the police.

ACAB banners, shirts, posters, graffiti, and signs are frequent staples at police brutality protests worldwide. While the Free Thought Project doesn’t believe in blanket statements that insult vast swaths of people, we stand by everyone’s right to make them — and so does the constitution.

However, that constitutional right to say ACAB is under attack and could soon land people on watch lists or even years in jail. During a police brutality protest in Arizona in October, law enforcement made multiple arrests, which is quite common. However, after the arrests, prosecutors made an insidious move to criminalize the speech used by the protesters as felonious.

The protesters were hit with felony street gang charges because they used the abbreviation ACAB.

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5,000 National Guard Troops to Stay in DC Through March, Some Returning Home

Following a controversial deployment to the nation’s capital to defend and protect the inauguration, at least 5,000 National Guard members will remain in Washington through mid-march. 

“As we continue to work to meet the final post-inauguration requirements, the National Guard has been requested to continue supporting federal law enforcement agencies with 7,000 members and will draw down to 5,000 through mid-March,” Maj. Matt Murphy told the Epoch Times. 

“We are providing assistance such as security, communications, medical evacuations, logistics and safety support to state, district and federal agencies,” he added. 

One-thousand of these National Guard troops are from Virginia, according to Virginia National Guard officials. 

“Virginia National Guard personnel are remaining on duty following the Presidential Inauguration at the request of local and federal authorities, and they will remain on duty until those agencies no longer require our direct support,” Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams said. 

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Tulsi Gabbard: Domestic-Terrorism Bill Is “A Targeting Of Almost Half Of The Country”

Gabbard’s comments came during an appearance on Fox News Primetime when host Brian Kilmeade asked her if she was “surprised they’re pushing forward with this extra surveillance on would-be domestic terror.”

“It’s so dangerous as you guys have been talking about, this is an issue that all Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians should be extremely concerned about, especially because we don’t have to guess about where this goes or how this ends,” Gabbard said.

She continued:

“When you have people like former CIA Director John Brennan openly talking about how he’s spoken with or heard from appointees and nominees in the Biden administration who are already starting to look across our country for these types of movements similar to the insurgencies they’ve seen overseas, that in his words, he says make up this unholy alliance of religious extremists, racists, bigots, he lists a few others and at the end, even libertarians.”

She said her concern lies in how officials will define the characteristics they are searching for in potential threats.

“What characteristics are we looking for as we are building this profile of a potential extremist, what are we talking about? Religious extremists, are we talking about Christians, evangelical Christians, what is a religious extremist? Is it somebody who is pro-life? Where do you take this?” Gabbard said.

She said the proposed legislation could create “a very dangerous undermining of our civil liberties, our freedoms in our Constitution, and a targeting of almost half of the country.”

“You start looking at obviously, have to be a white person, obviously likely male, libertarians, anyone who loves freedom, liberty, maybe has an American flag outside their house, or people who, you know, attended a Trump rally,” Gabbard said.

The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021 was introduced in the House earlier this week in the aftermath of rioting at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month that left five dead.

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Impeachment trial to keep National Guard troops at Capitol

Former President Donald Trump’s upcoming Senate impeachment trial poses a security concern that federal law enforcement officials told lawmakers last week requires as many as 5,000 National Guard troops to remain in Washington through mid-March, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The contingency force will help protect the Capitol from what was described as “impeachment security concerns,” including the possibility of mass demonstrations coinciding with the Senate’s trial, which is slated to begin the week of Feb. 8.

Despite the threat, the citizen soldiers on the ground say they have been given little information about the extension and wonder why they are being forced to endure combat-like conditions in the nation’s capital without a clear mission.

“Quite frankly this is not a ‘combat zone,’ so combat conditions shouldn’t apply,” said one Guard member on the ground in D.C. who has deployed twice to Afghanistan.

Several National Guard units have seen their deployments extended involuntarily, though a majority of Guardsmen remaining in Washington will do so on a volunteer basis. Around 7,000 troops will continue to provide riot security through the beginning of February, with that number decreasing slightly to 5,000 by the time Trump’s impeachment trial begins.

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Heat to use COVID-19-sniffing dogs to screen fans at games

The Miami Heat are bringing back some fans, with help from some dogs.

The Heat will use coronavirus-sniffing dogs at AmericanAirlines Arena to screen fans who want to attend their games. They’ve been working on the plan for months, and the highly trained dogs have been in place for some games this season where the team has allowed a handful of guests — mostly friends and family of players and staff.

Starting this week, a limited number of ticket holders will be in the seats as well, provided they get past the dogs first.

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Biden signs executive order seeking the feasibility of implementing ‘certificates of vaccination’ for international travel

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Thursday which may be the precursor to requiring proof of vaccination for air travel.

The executive order was entitled “Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel.” Section 5 ‘International Travel’ subsection ‘e’ the order read:

“International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis.  Consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of HHS, and the Secretary of Homeland Security (including through the Administrator of the TSA), in coordination with any relevant international organizations, shall assess the feasibility of linking COVID-19 vaccination to International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) and producing electronic versions of ICVPs.”

The order also called for “agencies may impose additional public health measures for domestic travel.”

The order also mandates masks on airplanes, trains, ferries, ships, bus services and inside airports.

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Our Post-9/11 Response Deprived Us of Liberty and Didn’t Stop Terrorism. Let’s Not Venerate or Expand It.

Writing at The Daily Beast, Jeff Stein asks whether America needs a new federal spy agency focused on domestic threats in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Americans who refuse to accept that outgoing President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

But we already have such an organization. It’s called the FBI. Stein argues that the FBI is so focused on solving and clearing crimes that it’s not able to effectively engage in domestic intelligence gathering. He asks whether a new federal agency should be created for that purpose.

In reality, the FBI is set up just fine for intelligence gathering. In fact, under Trump, the FBI’s authority to secretly snoop on American citizens was actually expanded. The intelligence failures that preceded the attack on the Capitol involved a lack of communication between law enforcement agencies about the intelligence that had been gathered. It’s not entirely clear how yet another federal surveillance agency would fix that problem.

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