Threats To The Fourth Amendment

[From article]
Although Americans now live in a soft police state, we may not understand how we got to this point, or why reclaiming the Fourth Amendment is essential to retaining our exceptionalism that flows from freedom. Also, a proposed 21st Century Fourth Amendment introduced in the Virginia General Assembly this year is a model that can restore this Bill of Right to its rightful status.
The Fourth Amendment is quintessentially American even though it is based in English common law. It inherently relies on the separation of powers, but that too comes from the common law, and was forged through centuries-old battles between freedom and tyranny.
[. . .]
Government violates our privacy, especially with its electronic surveillance and arbitrary interception of phone and digital records. The Fourth Amendment, however, is historically and correctly based in property rights and the law of trespass.

Government may engage in acts that otherwise would be trespass when there is imminent risk to persons or property, and that includes “plain-view” violations of the law. There is also a separate reasonable exception for the safety of police officers that daily risk their own security for us. When those reasonable exceptions do not exist, government is supposed to then follow the warrant process of the Fourth Amendment before any search or seizure.
It is of no small irony that government often relies on claims of security in order to violate the Fourth Amendment’s guarantees of security from government trespass under non-emergency circumstances. Security and good law enforcement, however, begin with law enforcement officials following the law themselves.
[. . .]
Laws are written by one branch, executed by another, and warrants for their lawful enforcement are issued by yet another.
It is of course accepted without question that police departments must obtain warrants from judges, yet federal law enforcement agencies unilaterally issue their own warrants called “administrative subpoenas.” These unilaterally issued warrants institutionalize evasions of probable cause. Even before 9-11, the Drug Enforcement Administration used judge-less warrants to harvest phone records. How can this be?
[. . .]
Institutionalized bureaucratic violations of the Fourth Amendment, however, can be directly traced to the expansion of the administrative state under the New Deal.
The Administrative Procedures Act enacted in 1946, and expanded since, has disemboweled the constitutional separation of powers and guarantee of republican government, giving bureaucratic agencies the power to not merely enforce, but make and adjudicate, laws affecting the public.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/04/americas_soft_police_state_.html

April 24, 2015
America's Soft Police State
By Mark J. Fitzgibbons

Noam Chomsky Laments National, Surveillance State

[From article]
Progressive hero Noam Chomsky is terrified of the surveillance state that has developed during the tenure of President Barack Obama, calling it a grave threat to our fundamental civil liberties.
In a column published Monday, Chomsky writes that the documents revealed to the public by Edward Snowden show a system that is flagrantly violating the principles of the Constitution.
“It is of no slight import that the project is being executed in one of the freest countries in the world, and in radical violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which protects citizens from ‘unreasonable searches and seizures,’ and guarantees the privacy of their persons, houses, papers and effects,” Chomsky said.
“Much as government lawyers may try, there is no way to reconcile these principles with the assault on the population revealed in the Snowden documents.”
[. . .]
“In other ways too, the constitutional lawyer in the White House seems determined to demolish the foundations of our civil liberties. The principle of the presumption of innocence, which dates back to Magna Carta 800 years ago, has long been dismissed to oblivion.”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/04/chomsky-obama-determined-to-demolish-the-foundations-of-our-civil-liberties/

Chomsky: Obama ‘Determined To Demolish The Foundations Of Our Civil Liberties’
10:43 AM 06/04/2014

Scott Greer, Associate Editor

Police State Has Arrived, Jeh Johnson Is Commissioner

[From article]
If the United States is a police state, then the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is its national police force, with all the brutality, ineptitude and corruption such a role implies. In fact, although the DHS’ governmental bureaucracy may at times appear to be inept and bungling, it is ruthlessly efficient when it comes to building what the Founders feared most—a standing army on American soil.
The third largest federal agency behind the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, the DHS—with its 240,000 full-time workers, $61 billion budget and sub-agencies that include the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—has been aptly dubbed a “runaway train.”
[. . .]
A better plan would be to abolish the DHS altogether. In making the case for shutting down the de facto national police agency, analyst Charles Kenny offers the following six reasons: one, the agency lacks leadership; two, terrorism is far less of a threat than it is made out to be; three, the FBI has actually stopped more alleged terrorist attacks than DHS; four, the agency wastes exorbitant amounts of money with little to show for it; five, “An overweight DHS gets a free pass to infringe civil liberties without a shred of economic justification”; and six, the agency is just plain bloated.
[. . .]
An explosive growth in the use of SWAT teams for otherwise routine police matters, an increased tendency on the part of police to shoot first and ask questions later, and an overall mindset within police forces that they are at war—and the citizenry are the enemy combatants.
[. . .]
a surveillance program targeting veterans. The reports collectively and broadly define extremists as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.” In 2013, it was revealed that DHS, the FBI, state and local law enforcement agencies, and the private sector were working together to conduct nationwide surveillance on protesters’ First Amendment activities.
[. . .]
DHS has since requisitioned more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammo, “enough,” concludes Forbes magazine, “to sustain a hot war for 20+ years.”
[. . .]
Relying on private contractors to maintain a license plate database allows the DHS and its affiliates to access millions of records without much in the way of oversight.
[. . .]
Contracting to build detention camps. In 2006, DHS awarded a $385 million contract to a Halliburton subsidiary to build detention centers on American soil.
[. . .]
these Stingray devices enable police to track individuals’ cell phones—and their owners—without a court warrant or court order. The amount of information conveyed by these devices about one’s activities, whereabouts and interactions is considerable.
[. . .]
Carrying out military drills and lockdowns in American cities. Each year, DHS funds military-style training drills in cities across the country.
[. . .]
Under the direction of the TSA, American travelers have been subjected to all manner of searches ranging from whole-body scanners and enhanced patdowns at airports to bag searches in train stations.
[. . .]
Directing government workers to spy on Americans. Terrorism Liaison Officers are firefighters, police officers, and even corporate employees who have received training to spy on and report back to government entities on the day-to-day activities of their fellow citizens.
[. . .]
constantly monitor our communications, collecting and cataloguing everything from our internet activity and web searches to text messages, phone calls and emails. This data is then fed to government agencies, which are now interconnected: the CIA to the FBI, the FBI to local police. Despite a budget estimated to be somewhere between $289 million and $1.4 billion, these fusion centers have proven to be exercises in incompetence,
[. . .]
camera systems, installed on city streets, in parks and transit systems, operating in conjunction with sophisticated computer systems that boast intelligent video analytics, digital biometric identification, military-pedigree software for analyzing and predicting crime and facial recognition software, create a vast surveillance network that can target millions of innocent individuals.
[. . .]
the DHS has continued to expand its fleet of Predator drones, which come equipped with video cameras, infrared cameras, heat sensors, and radar. DHS also loans its drones out to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies for a variety of tasks, although the agency refuses to divulge any details
[. . .]
book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, the establishment of a national police force has served as a fundamental and final building block for every totalitarian regime that has ever wreaked havoc on humanity, from Hitler’s all-too-real Nazi Germany to George Orwell’s fictional Oceania. Whether fictional or historical, however, the calling cards of these national police agencies remain the same: brutality, inhumanity, corruption, intolerance, rigidity, and bureaucracy—in other words, evil.

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/friendswood/opinion/whitehead-has-the-dept-of-homeland-security-become-america-s/article_81acf508-4660-5e0a-87fc-fee9c447f61f.html

WHITEHEAD: Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America’s standing army?
Posted: Monday, June 16, 2014 11:36 am
By John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute

Massachusetts Police Merge Jurisdiction, Usurp Legislative Power

[From article]
the Massachusetts Interagency Mutual Aid Agreement, which will empower on-duty police officers in one jurisdiction to respond to public safety emergencies in other participating jurisdictions.
[. . .]
"Major events in Massachusetts and elsewhere have highlighted the need for police departments to work together more effectively, and these events have shown that we are indeed more effective when we work together," said Bedford Police Chief Robert Bongiorno
[. . .]
Cambridge has not signed the agreement at this time.

Is there a problem with the Massachusetts State Police? Who needs local police chiefs? Why not dress all police in the same uniform and make them answerable to one chief of police? And why is the Transit police, the MBTA officers, the constables, and the Harvard University campus police not included? 

http://belmont.wickedlocal.com/article/20140318/NEWS/140316506

Majority of Middlesex police chiefs sign mutual aid agreement
The Middlesex County Chiefs of Police Association has signed the Massachusetts Interagency Mutual Aid Agreement, which will empower on-duty police officers in one jurisdiction to respond to public safety emergencies in other participating jurisdictions.
Posted Mar. 18, 2014 @ 11:02 am
Updated at 11:45 AM

Ron Paul Concerned About Boston Police Action

US Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)

[From article]
They reminded of a “military coup in a far off banana republic,” he said, Politico reported. “Force 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.”
Mr. Paul reminded the surviving suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was ultimately discovered by a civilian, and not due to police crackdown, Politico reported.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/29/ron-paul-police-manhunt-boston-marathon-bombing-su/

Ron Paul: Police manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspect scarier than attack
By Cheryl K. Chumley
The Washington Times
Monday, April 29, 2013

Harvard University Students Clueless About Dangers of Police State

[Updated Monday April 29, 2013 3:56 PM ET]



JESSICA C. SALLEY, Photo
Harvard University Police Department officers Christopher Riccardi, Michael Rea, and Ryan Stanton are honored as "Heroes Among Us" at the Celtic-Knicks playoff game on Friday evening. Riccardi, Rea, and Stanton were recognized for the life-saving first aid that they provided to Richard H. Donohue Jr., a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police officer who was injured during last Friday's manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

[There are more comments than copied here, personal attacks from low information intolerant people in Cambridge. Go to the story to see them all.]

Grotto • April 27, 2013
Where's Meckenlite to rail the HUPD (and all other law enforcement)?! Noticeably silent! Shill.
[Reply]
Aside from the Arsenal Mall, what property does The President and Fellows of Harvard College own that gives rise to jurisdiction for these campus officers? Their jurisdiction ends at the property line with one exception, traffic stops when "traveIing between Boston and Cambridge campuses." Officers from Lexington, Lincoln, Brookline and HUPD were in Watertown, to make up for a lack of training with an overwhelming show of force. Young Americans who never lived under a police state stood and cheered the hundreds of officers using their authority without the quaint notion of jurisdiction. The Governor, a Harvard trained "lawyer" selectively chooses which laws to support and which ones to ignore. This is an abomination. Support and love your country, and beware of the government. See issue discussed by others, using any search engine.
* * *
duh April 29, 2013
HUPD can respond to disturbances of the peace in Middlesex and Suffolk Counties. They had all the jurisdiction they needed.
[Reply]
Wishful thinking. More negligent training by HUPD.
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trollbuster April 29, 2013
There's always one in every group. A jealous troll. Lack of training? Sounds like their training kicked in and saved that officer's life. Here's some knowledge for you troll. When a call goes out for shots fired/officer down, EVERYONE is going. It's a brotherhood, something you'll never experience sitting in your office max desk chair typing away on your computer. Jurisdiction? If you're saying hupd was out of jurisdiction then so was every other department that was there, except for state. Job well done by hupd. Love our country and love our state.
[Reply]
You change the subject with a misguided personal attack. HUPD was negligently trained abusing their limited authority for a long time. This is one more example. Yes there were dozens of officers in Watertown outside of jurisdiction, not everyone as you suggest. It was like the scene in The Professional when the corrupt DEA agent said, "Bring everybody." The issue is law not loving the police more than others. Selective enforcement of laws is pervasive in many jurisdictions including but not limited to Massachusetts. A couple of persons' lives were destroyed by police misadventures. Police are paid to save lives. They did their job. Great.
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Sara parker April 29, 2013
You are really very stupid, all police officers are trained to react to the call for help when it came in, and put their own safety aside. HUPD police are among the finest to react so quickly to the call for more police officers.
[Reply]
Are you really smart? So much intolerance, and personal attacks, for criticism of police. Police have a difficult job. There is no shortage of people who want the job. Have you any concept of how much power police have? They can shoot you dead and say they feared for their lives. Are they serving under duress? They can put you in jail, lie about why, beat you along the way, as a favor for a professor or a politician. Police are paid to save lives. That is their job. They did their job.



http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/4/26/hupd-officers-honored-celtics/#

HUPD Officers Honored as 'Heroes' by Celtics for Role in Marathon Bombing Manhunt
Three HUPD Officers Administered First Aid To Injured MBTA Police Officer
By MATTHEW Q. CLARIDA,
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
April 26, 2013

Bill Maher Criticizes Boston Police State

Police activity during search for Boston Marathon bombing suspect


Television celebrity Bill Maher

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/bill-maher-boston-police-90700.html

Bill Maher slams Boston police
By KEVIN CIRILLI
4/27/13 1:25 PM EDT

No End to Police State in US

[From article]
"Oh, but a little before the whole body scan debacle was of course the hush-hush hiring of Ex-Stasi Spy Markus Wolf by the DHS. Who better to know how to teach the government how to spy on its own citizens and invoke citizen to citizen tattle telling than an ex-East German communist?
Is it any surprise that in the years following Wolf’s tenure as a consultant to DHS prior to his death we have now seen programs develop out of DHS that include the government asking its citizens to report on their neighbors,"

http://biggovernment.com/nrbrown/2011/09/10/dhs-no-return-to-pre-911-freedom-ever/

DHS: No Return to Pre-9/11 Freedom. Ever.
by Nick R. Brown
BigGovernment.com
September 10, 2011