Police State

[rb]

I mean fuck, you can storm police headquarters and destroy landmarks....but you dumbasses cant go ransack the neighborhood drug den and throw all the drug dealers out on their asses or engage in another "constitutional right", the citizens arrest, and drag those criminals asses to the precinct? Please....

Good point Greg. I am surprised no one else has chimed in on this. Not only would your solution be much more time/energy efficient, but it would also significantly increase the positive ripple effect of a proactive community and protest.

Forget to log into your alt account?

Taxpayers pay POLICE to do exactly what you are saying. When the police misbehave, taxpayers don't do their job for them, they find better police!

Either that or it's time to move this to the what are you drinking today thread. 

[Gregmal]

I mean fuck, you can storm police headquarters and destroy landmarks....but you dumbasses cant go ransack the neighborhood drug den and throw all the drug dealers out on their asses or engage in another "constitutional right", the citizens arrest, and drag those criminals asses to the precinct? Please....

Good point Greg. I am surprised no one else has chimed in on this. Not only would your solution be much more time/energy efficient, but it would also significantly increase the positive ripple effect of a proactive community and protest.

Forget to log into your alt account?

Taxpayers pay POLICE to do exactly what you are saying. When the police misbehave, taxpayers don't do their job for them, they find better police!

LOL Just pointing out that the absurdity(and crickets here), let alone stupidity of talking about "Black Lives Matter" and then focusing on something that accounts for less than 1% of black deaths annually, while you have a giant fucking gorilla in your living room that accounts for more than 75% of them....well, its about as intelligent as Andy Kaufman seeking out pseudoscientific treatments to cure his cancer. Soooo freaking dumb that your "stated" objective, cant possibly be your actual intended objective, simply because, there are SOOOOOO many other, much more productive and obvious ways to go about it.

[rb]

All I am saying is we will know the details over time & the situation they were picked up in had some rioting & vandalism.  Jumping to conclusions that we are in a police state is pretty extreme as was my response. Let’s see how this plays out over time when all the facts are known.

Packer

Yes. Jumping to conclusions is usually never prudent. Most will agree there. I think what concerns myself and others is the fact that Trump's DOJ did this in the first place, given it is a blatant violation of the spirit & letter of the Constitution.

I mean, if a government takes a "Do First, Ask Forgiveness Later" approach to breaking its own founding principles, that is pretty concerning at least in my opinion. But thank you for sharing yours as well.

Well I strongly disagree. When Little Green Men with unmarked vans show up you don't take a wait and see approach. That never worked out well.

In fact since we're going into constitutional things wasn't the 2A put in place specifically for something like this?

[Jurgis]

In fact since we're going into constitutional things wasn't the 2A put in place specifically for something like this?

2A was put in place so dudes with gunz could not wear masks. Or maybe so they could wear masks.

It's rather confusing nowadays.

[rb]

Oh look, snatch and grabs coming soon to a city near you.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-race-protests-trump/trump-plans-to-send-federal-law-enforcement-personnel-to-democratic-led-u-s-cities-idUSKCN24L1ZN

I'm old enough to remember a time. It was a simpler time. Some black guy was president, and the Gov of Texas (Greg Abbott) raised a big fuss and deployed the Texas National Guard in response to a planned military exercise just in case that guy would invade Texas and arrest political dissidents. Y'all remember that time?

Help me out here what do you think the reaction would have been if Obama or Eric Holder sent Little Green Men in unmarked vans to snatch people prancing with guns off the streets? Do you think we would have seen brains splattered all over the lenses of fox news cameras from all the heads exploding or would the reaction have been "we should wait, not jump to conclusions, let's have some more information."?

By the way, where's the NRA during all of this? For years they've been saying that we should all have guns exactly and precisely for a moment like this. One would think that the NRA would not be able to contain its excitement. If I was the NRA I'd be front and center with a big "I TOLD YOU SO!" message. But instead all of a sudden... crickets.

Finally, I'd like the big patriots around here to help me out a bit. As of right now i have: having to wear a mask=Tyranny, Little Green Men grabbing people off the streets in unmarked vans=Kinda OK. Do I have this freedom thing right?

[Jurgis]

2A and NRA iz for white dudez with Confederate symbolz, not for some sissiez in dem citiez.

[Castanza]

Let me ask those who think we are going down the path of Fascism, have you studied the tactics/methods & historical context that led to the rise of those regimes & compared to US today? If not, I would suggest you do as this comparison is as valid as comparing 2008/9 to the Great Depression. 

I think this includes a good amount of speculation & the result is what picking up people & releasing them in response to a riot? Was there an imprisonment without due process?  How that is comparable to black or brownshirts killing your political enemies & putting your opponents in concentration camps I do not know.

Packer

Border Patrol agents should not be picking American civilians off the streets, this should be left to the states. Of course there has been a mass countrywide protest against state police and national guard overstepping their boundaries for the past month or two, but this crosses a whole new line and a dangerous one. Again, no comparison to concentration camps but that was not the point. Were they released? I don't know. Were they taken without probably cause? Likely.

Where is Trump's deep bench other than his own mind?

The very topic of this thread is DOJ employees kidnapping US citizens. The AG himself has made complete mockery of the word Justice and functions as Trump's personal hit man.

Off topic, but the China comparison is not a convincing argument...by the same logic you could dismiss China's crimes against the Uyghurs by saying they pale in comparison to a "real" genocidal Nazi regime.

Bingo. When you have the most powerful law enforcement officer in the country acting as the personal attorney of the President, it is unprecedented. I am fearful of the shit he's going to pull during the election. Will the secret police be picking up liberal "protestors" (voters) off the streets? I don't think anything is out of the realm of possibilities, and it should be the #1 focus of the Democrats, but it's not.

Portland is on day 50? of riots, protests and property damage. Anyone bitching and complaining about "unmarked police" arresting these people is part of the problem. They aren't "secret police". It's department of homeland security and they announced their involvement.

The Left: "Trump will destroy America!"

The Left: Literally out looting, burning and destroying American cities across the country causing millions of dollars in damage. Most likely permanent or long term impairments.

I'm sure all the riots and looting would stop if we just sent out some social workers 

[Gregmal]

Yea, its quite incredible. Get your shit in order or someone else will do it for you. Its petrifying that people are content letting places like Chicago, NYC, LA, Portland, etc just rot and destroy themselves.

[Castanza]

Sheesh. First we've got Paul the Apostle over here defending Trump getting Americans killed as the "less dangerous" option, and now Castanza the Constitutionalist chimes in that blatant violations of Constitutional rights are totally OK.

It's either the twilight zone or you guys compromise your beliefs quicker than a starving vegan at a barbecue.

1A - Peaceably assemble and protest. When you break the confines of that you are no longer within your right and it should be put down. You said you're fine with Confederate statues being torn down because they were the enemy of the state, yet you still sit here in denial as if the majority of protesters are not peaceful? How at this point can you not see ANTIFA and BLM as enemies of the state?

By your standards it would have been "unconstitutional" to try and stop the confederacy right?

Complete nonsense....these riots and protests have violated so many rights of individuals with violence, property destruction etc. The job of the government is to hold that line, not allow it.

[Castanza]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO5lzKQqLt8

DHS head on CNN