Vince Ferrer: “...there is no reason for a lot of this patriot act stuff anymore after 12 years.”
Agreed. You’d think there would be popular support, from traditional liberals as well as people on the right, to roll this police state crap back. I grew up thinking the police were my friends. Now I want nothing to do with them, as I see any interaction as potentially negative. It doesn’t even matter if I’m a law-abiding citizen (as much as that’s possible in this day and age of laws for virtually everything). The best one can hope from an interaction with the police (or the completely arbitrary legal system) is that one escapes relatively unharmed.
Unless we want a true police state, we need leaders willing to tackle asset forfeiture, militarization of police, and criminalization of relatively benign acts. We need to restore the constitutional protections of private property and freedom from search and seizure without probable cause and a warrant.
If the psychology can be applied across the population, the act of creating a police state will create its opposite as well, terrorist organizations. Terrorists, and terror organizations will form that wouldn't have even existed had the police not become so militarized.
Well said.
Tragically, an increasing number of Americans still support the Patriot Act and its multiple infringements on our liberty.