I had only been tossing around the idea of writing this piece, until today. When I was talking with my better half and mentioned I had something rolling around in my head about Posse Comitatus and what it's going to mean as the powers that be render the Act in effect, neutered. When her 2 beautiful girls, having overheard what I said asked me with all the innocence of a child, who's not being taught proper civics in school, asked me "What's that?"
Well, needless to say, that solved that one for me. Let me put on my teachers cap (still tinfoil) and we'll go sit under the learning tree.
So lets start from the beginning. Posse Comitatus is Latin. It's meaning is basically "a support group of citizens for law enforcement. Hence, "A posse". The act itself wasn't passed until 1878 in response to the resistance of the southern states being ( and this sounds familiar) ruled over by the corrupt and inept while under military authority, during the period of reconstruction.
The purpose of Posse Comitatus is to, specifically, exist as prohibition against the military blocking them from exercising police powers on non-federal lands within the United States. The only exception to this is granted, of course, to the coast guard... you know, ummm... because they're guarding the coast!
The first real attack on the Posse Comitatus Act took place in 1981, when " exceptions " were made in order to accommodate the first real war with no end, the federal war on drugs. These concessions were to allow the military to be used in the basic concept of drug interdictions along the borders. (Don't get me started on the war on drugs, different post, different day.) While this appeared to be small and even sensible "You're not for illegal drugs and drug dealers getting cocaine to sell to children are you?", the action at the time soon ballooned to out of control proportions. The Chupracabra in Congress (trust me, most of these folks are goat suckers) , no surprise here, were not intellectually capable to come to an honest assessment as to the true nature of the causes of drug abuse in society. Therefore, by 1989, they designated the DoD as the agency to lead the war on drugs.
Don't forget at this time, that they were setting up Rex-84, which is also another topic for another day... fema camps.... but fast forward with me now, to '93. Waco, Tx Apr. 19th Military snipers were on duty and now Retired General Wesley Clark was allowed to utilize tanks from Ft. Hood to bulldoze the burning compound, regardless of the people trying to escape or the women and children inside. Clark's command was authorized by Federal Officials under the trumped up charges of there being drugs involved in the standoff. For the record, no drugs were ever found.
That, obviously, leads us to another Apr. 19th... the year is '95 and the Murrah building in OKC suffers a mortal blow from bombing. President Bill Clinton uses this event as his pretext to circumnavigate the Posse Comitatus Act under the umbrella of aiding the civilian investigators as they searched for more potential explosives. Almost simultaneously Congress was floating around the house, a bill that would allow the troops to enforce customs and immigration laws on our borders (Be careful what you wish for illegal immigrant opponents) at this time, the legislation failed.
Over time there were some other minor offense's, you could spend hours... trust me, digging up both legitimate and perceived offenses against the letter of the Posse Comitatus Act. So lets take a little jump forward again, into some more recent offenses, because these are the really big ones, in my mind. In 2010 Northern Command, or NorthCom was given authority to issue order for the Third Infantry Division's First Brigade Combat Team from underneath Active Army units, to and I quote "help with civil unrest, crowd control, or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning, nuclear, chemical or biological attacks, high yield explosive (CBRNE), to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals." They are, in the descriptions, to be armed with the equipment to construct roadblocks, spike strips in order to be able to control traffic, as well as the typical riot gear of shields, batons, and the lovely "less lethal" beanbag bullets. By the way, this group spent 60 months in Iraq doing some of these very things... but the media would define it as " breaking the insurgency". Remember all that "patriotic" footage of soldiers kicking in doors and dragging families out at gun point? No? Well, you just might get to experience it first hand.
As I dug around for some things on this topic I discovered this: "The need for reaffirmation of the PCA's principle is increasing because in recent years, Congress and the public have seen the military as a panacea for domestic problems. 4 Within one week of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, 5 President Clinton proposed an exception to the PCA to allow the military to aid civilian authorities in investigations involving "weapons of mass destruction." 6 In addition to this proposal Congress also considered legislation to directly involve federal troops in enforcing customs and immigration laws at the border. 7 In the 1996 presidential campaign, candidate Bob Dole pledged to increase the role of the military in the drug war, and candidate Lamar Alexander even proposed replacing the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol with a new branch of the armed forces ." Matthew Hammond wrote in the Washington University Law Quarterly https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=Docum... and here http://lawreview.wustl.edu/inprint/75-2/752-10.html Mr. Hammond stated: " Though a criminal law, the PCA has a more important role as a statement of policy that embodies "the traditional Anglo-American principle of separation of military and civilian spheres of authority, one of the fundamental precepts of our form of government." [13]
Major and minor exceptions to the PCA, which allow the use of the military in law enforcement roles, blur the line between military and civilian roles, undermine civilian control of the military, damage military readiness, and inefficiently solve the problems that they supposedly address.[14] Additionally, increasing the role of the military would strengthen the federal law enforcement apparatus that is currently under close scrutiny for overreaching its authority.[15] Although it seems benign, such an increase in military authority revives fears of past overreaching during the late 1960s.[16]"
Let's not forget that in the aftermath of 9/11 and prior to the creation of that unconstitutional entity known as the TSA, military was regular in airports and even other means of travel, without much of a reaction. Just a thought, but how close do you think we were to martial law at that point? Anyways, that led President Bush to "deciderify" the he would use military personnel if it were to happen that we would be graced with the presence of a pandemic. Does anyone else recall the preparations that were made during the swine flu hoax of '09? Forced inoculation's and/or quarantine ring any bells?
Skip to today? We have a President who kills Americans with impunity. We have a Congress and a Senate that authorized the already practiced tactic of indefinite detentions of Americans with the passage of the NDAA military appropriations bill. This authorizes any of us, by order of the President... or the Sec. of Def. to declare you, me, or the guy selling raw milk a domestic threat or guilty of some belligerent activity and the military can "legally" seize us and lock us away until "hostilities end".
Unless we can overturn such horrific and might I add unconstitutional legislation, until we remove those who've violated their oaths of office by way of damaging the Constitution of the United States by way of crafting and voting to approve this draconian work. We are all living under the rule of a infant police state and are in fact in danger. To give any one human being the ability to lock you up for any amount of time, without trial, without representation... in fact, without anyone you know or care about being aware that you've been seized, is by it's very existence tyranny in it's purest form.
While this is the potential deathblow to the Posse Comitatus Act, Sen. Joesph Liebermann seeks to make it even easier for them to grab folks, by floating a bill around that would allow the very same men the power to strip you of your rights... to expatriate you.
So there it is, in a nutshell, how they by color of law, killed the Posse Comitatus act. Americans potentially policed by the military. Thought that was for North Korea... Thought that was for Saudi Arabia... Thought that was for Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, Mao's China... and King George's England?
R.I.P.
Posse Comitatus.
We'll surely miss you,
Kerry "The Conspiracy Theorist" Corn
Have A Nice Day!
