Tag: police state

H.R. 666 (115th): Department of Homeland Security Insider Threat and Mitigation Act of 2017

H.R. 666 requires the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish an insider threat program within the Department, mandates employee education and training programs, and establishes an internal DHS Steering Committee to manage and coordinate the Department’s activities related to insider threats.

The bill requires that the Insider Threat Program provide training and education for Department personnel to identify, prevent, mitigate, and respond to insider threat risks to the Department’s critical assets; provide investigative support regarding potential insider threats that may pose a risk to the Department’s critical assets; and conduct risk mitigation activities for insider threats.

The bill requires the Steering Committee, chaired by the Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, to meet regularly and discuss cases and issues related to insider threats to the Department’s critical assets. The bill also requires the Under Secretary, not later than one year after enactment, to develop a strategy to identify, prevent, mitigate, and respond to insider threats to the Department’s critical assets and develop a plan to implement insider threat measures.

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Scientific Authoritarianism Erodes Private Property And Human Liberty

“A fundamental difference between modern dictatorships and all other tyrannies of the past is that terror is no longer used as a means to exterminate and frighten opponents but as an instrument to rule masses of people who are perfectly obedient.”

~Hannah Arendt ~ (The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1966)

As a recipient of an E.C. Harwood Visiting Research Fellowship at the American Institute for Economic Research, I am inspired by tales of the principled battles that Colonel Harwood fought in support of the ideals behind the US Constitution. Taking his oath to support that great document as a lodestar, his support for the cause of human liberty and personal dignity led him to be a vocal opponent of the policies of FDR’s New Deal. As such, he continued doing so despite orders from his military commanders to cease his criticisms, eventually choosing to take early retirement from a promising military career as a graduate of West Point.

My lesson from his brave acts against the most powerful institutions in the US is that being a true patriot requires supporting an ideology of individual freedom rather than accepting partisan interests that violate foundational precepts. As such, Americans wishing for a united and prosperous country should follow Edward Harwood’s example to challenge the authority of government officials and question assertions of “experts” they use for support.

This contrarian behavior is even more urgent given the drift of public policy in recent years that would expand political powers beyond FDR’s wildest dreams, at the expense of private property rights and human liberty. As it is, public policies have become increasingly pointed towards responses to claims that irresponsible actions by humans are causing environmental degradation and climate change.

While the emergence of a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and the disease that it might cause, Covid-19, are now at center stage, they share equal billing with the former only slightly in the background. In all events, this pair of menaces offers a convenient pretense for government officials to seek expansions in their powers that give them greater control over human actions and private resources. Initially, the specter of climate change was not enough to induce most citizens to accept enhanced political power that would diminish their liberty and curtail their personal rights.

However, fear ginned up during the recent pandemic based on pronouncements reflecting “expert” authority caused individuals to stop thinking of health as a personal issue and to embrace “public health.” The notion that “public health” reflects an objective reality must be challenged, especially since so much focus is on only one among many viruses and on only one disease among many ailments that afflict mankind. It is troubling that these political feats of legerdemain have induced many citizens to accept an artificial collective construct, with solidarity dominating individual autonomy and security elevated over human liberty.

While human health and protecting or rehabilitating the natural environment are indisputably worthy goals, a holistic approach to these matters requires considering their impact on the individual lives of humans.

Curbs on individual behavior and resource use to serve “public health” or the natural environment involve an unhealthy confusion of politics and “science.” In the end, the nonpharmaceutical interventions related to the Covid-19 pandemic might turn out to have been a dress rehearsal that serves as a roadmap for “climate action” to offset global warming.

Even if there is agreement on problems arising from human activity, the debate should be about the efficacy of the range of remedial actions that are available. As such, the quest for solutions should begin with an understanding that government interventions can often cause problems rather than be an appropriate remedy.

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NEW FBI INITIATIVE WILL PUT “HATE CRIME” QUOTAS ON LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT

The Department of Justice and the FBI have a message for local police departments: start charging more white people with hate crimes or invite an investigation. 

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta told an assembly of FBI agents yesterday that they are now tasked with hounding police departments in their district if they do not register any “hate crimes.” 

Gupta and FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division Jay Greenberg have declared “hate crimes” by “racially motivated violent extremists” (a euphemism generally reserved for right-wing white men) to be a national threat priority — a rare designation.

According to Greenberg, the FBI will be increasingly specialized in pursuing “hate crimes” through increased training in the matter, an aggressive media campaign designed to recruit victims in “underrepresented and targeted populations,” and putting federal pressure on local law enforcement to charge and report hate crimes when they otherwise wouldn’t. 

Hate crimes laws are political and racially motivated. Blacks and Jews are heavily overrepresented as supposed victims in the FBI’s “hate crime” database, while whites are charged at higher rates than general crime rates. Blacks are rarely charged with hate crimes when they commit bias crimes against whites. For example, last month a black man who shot five white men in a multi-state shooting spree told police his sole motive was that he hated white people, yet neither local prosecutors or the FBI have charged him with a hate crime.  

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When the Supreme Court Ruled a Vaccine Could Be Mandatory

In 1901 a deadly smallpox epidemic tore through the Northeast, prompting the Boston and Cambridge boards of health to order the vaccination of all residents. But some refused to get the shot, claiming the vaccine order violated their personal liberties under the Constitution.

One of those holdouts, a Swedish-born pastor named Henning Jacobson, took his anti-vaccine crusade all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s top justices issued a landmark 1905 ruling that legitimized the government’s authority to “reasonably” infringe upon personal freedoms during a public health crisis by issuing a fine to those who refused vaccination.

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GOP Senator Kevin Cramer Says He’s ‘Grateful’ for Capitol Cop Who Killed ‘Criminal’ Ashli Babbitt for ‘Not Complying’

While fielding questions as part of a radio program, North Dakota GOP Senator Kevin Cramer called 14-year Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt a “criminal,” and said he’s “grateful” for the Capitol Police Officer who killed the unarmed January 6th protestor for “not complying” with his orders from the other side of a barricaded door.

The comments from Senator Kevin Cramer came as citizens of North Dakota called in to “The Jay Thomas Show” to speak with their elected official directly. While on the line with the Senator, one caller asked that Cramer reveal the identity of the Capitol Police Officer who shot an unarmed election integrity protestor, Ashli Babbitt, to death from the opposite side of a barricaded door inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th.

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‘I Caused the Death’: Cop With Beer in Car, Admits He Killed Woman in Crash, NOT Arrested or Fired

In June of 2020, Sgt. Ryan Hartman was drinking and driving when we stopped “paying attention” and crashed into a car occupied by Jennifer Miller and her life partner, Pam Watts. The crash would put Watts in the hospital and her partner in the ground. It has been over a year since Hartman killed Miller and not only have police refused to arrest him, but he’s back on duty.

This is not some case with no evidence or disputed facts. According to body camera footage that was released this week, Hartman admitted that his lack of attention caused Miller’s death and police found an open Dos Equis beer in his truck.

“I caused the death of somebody buy me not paying attention,” Hartman says according to the newly released video. According to a search warrant carried out on Hartman’s phone after the crash, he was using his phone whilst drinking a beer.

Despite finding a beer can in his truck and admitting that he caused Miller’s death, Hartman was not arrested that day — or any day after. Instead, he was put on paid vacation for five months while his office “investigated” the crash. Hartman received blue privilege from the start.

After the crash, Hartman refused a breathalyzer and police waited over eight hours to get a warrant for a blood draw. Since so much time had passed after the crash, Hartman still had alcohol in his system but his levels had fallen below the legal limit.

Highlighting the nature of Hartman’s blue privilege was the fact that the neighboring department who responded to the crash, the Lockhart Police Department, recommended charges of negligent homicide. However, the investigation was turned over to Hartman’s department, the San Marcos Police Department.

That investigation was subsequently passed to Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz, who chose not to send Hartman’s case before a grand jury.

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