Why Are We Repeating History?

Why Are We Repeating History?  

by C. A. Matthews 

 

Happy Black History Month!

Last year, we spent several weeks in the month of February discussing various topics that are of particular interest to African-Americans—reparations, critical race theory, and what it must be like to be considered only 3/5 of a human being (according to the US Constitution). We were still reeling from the deaths of George Floyd and many others. The Afghan War was winding down about that same time, but the upcoming proxy war in Ukraine was winding up. I held out still some hope the war hawk rhetoric would die down and the Minsk Agreements would keep things peaceful.

One year later, we find ourselves in a world of déjà vu. Critical race theory is under violent attack by right-wing pundits, reparations are still seen as an impossible (or at least a far-off) goal, and the police are killing an average of three ordinary Americans every day, many of them persons of color. (See last week’s blog about some of the latest police caused deaths, Targets On Our Backs.) Hundred of thousands have been left homeless or slaughtered in grueling, needless warfare in Ukraine thanks to a determined lack of diplomacy and billions of dollars of American military-industrial complex weaponry.

The rich got richer. The poor and POC got shot at and beaten up by thugs wearing cop uniforms. Endless warfare for control of fossil fuels continues. The more things change... 

It is said, “History repeats itself,” but that statement isn’t an imperative. We don’t have to keep repeating ourselves, especially when the event is destructive and immoral. So much of American history is just that—destructive and immoral. I don’t pull punches anymore. There’s no use lying about the filthy propaganda US government officials spew forth from their mouths like volcanoes full of molten shit. There’s no use lying about our blood-soaked history of killing our own and others across the globe simply for the sake of lining the pockets of capitalists who desire ever more blood money.

We don’t need militarized police forces or killer cops—we need social services and Medicare for All. We don’t need to pretend any longer we’re doing anything except money laundering for Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman, Boeing, etc., in a provoked proxy war in Ukraine to knock out Russia’s economy. And we certainly don’t need to pretend that we’re not gunning for another chance at starting World War III by antagonizing China this week over a lost weather balloon.

We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for the vast majority of human beings.

I read a couple of articles this past week that opened my eyes and made me think of how history and the present are intertwined. The first article ran in the New Yorker online in July 2020. The Invention of the Police tells the story of what we understand as “police” from ancient times to the present day. We learn how the American system of policing is based upon military practices. The article is well worth the few minutes it takes to read (or listen to) to see how the destructive, immoral patterns we witness in our world today have their roots in a history not worth repeating. 

My argument in Targets On Our Backs about how the police in the US are based on the slave patrols is further buttressed with some interesting facts:

In eighteenth-century New York, a person held as a slave could not gather in a group of more than three; could not ride a horse; could not hold a funeral at night; could not be out an hour after sunset without a lantern; and could not sell “Indian corn, peaches, or any other fruit” in any street or market in the city. Stop and frisk, stop and whip, shoot to kill.

Then there were the slave patrols. Armed Spanish bands called hermandades had hunted runaways in Cuba beginning in the fifteen-thirties, a practice that was adopted by the English in Barbados a century later. It had a lot in common with England’s posse comitatus, a band of stout men that a county sheriff could summon to chase down an escaped criminal. South Carolina, founded by slave owners from Barbados, authorized its first slave patrol in 1702; Virginia followed in 1726, North Carolina in 1753. Slave patrols married the watch to the militia: serving on patrol was required of all able-bodied men (often, the patrol was mustered from the militia), and patrollers used the hue and cry to call for anyone within hearing distance to join the chase. Neither the watch nor the militia nor the patrols were “police,” who were French, and considered despotic. In North America, the French city of New Orleans was distinctive in having la police: armed City Guards, who wore military-style uniforms and received wages, an urban slave patrol. (…)

It is also often said that modern American urban policing began in 1838, when the Massachusetts legislature authorized the hiring of police officers in Boston. This, too, ignores the role of slavery in the history of the police. In 1829, a Black abolitionist in Boston named David Walker published “An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,” calling for violent rebellion: “One good black man can put to death six white men.” Walker was found dead within the year, and Boston thereafter had a series of mob attacks against abolitionists, including an attempt to lynch William Lloyd Garrison, the publisher of The Liberator, in 1835. Walker’s words terrified Southern slave owners. The governor of North Carolina wrote to his state’s senators, “I beg you will lay this matter before the police of your town and invite their prompt attention to the necessity of arresting the circulation of the book.” By “police,” he meant slave patrols: in response to Walker’s “Appeal,” North Carolina formed a statewide “patrol committee.” —Jill Lepore, The Invention of the Police

Eye-opening and thought provoking, isn’t it? What we’ve tricked ourselves into believing—that all police officers are the handsome cops on Law and Order or diligent Detective Joe Friday in the TV series Dragnet—is completely false. We do have an excuse. We’ve been taught to believe these lies all our lives through the clever use of novels and television/movie dramas which paint the police in strictly heroic and positive terms. If there’s ever a racist cop or a crooked cop or a super-violent cop portrayed in fiction, they’re almost always seen as the exception, never the rule.

Jill Lepore’s article demonstrates how destructive this “copaganda” (cop propaganda) truly is. When an organization is based upon protecting the property (that is, enslaved persons) and tasked with maintaining the safety of the ruling elites (that is, to prevent slave uprisings), it will always be a corrupt and violent organization. Poor and powerless persons will undoubtedly suffer and die from this organization’s practices. It’s what our true masters—the super-rich oligarchs—demand of their policing agencies.

A corrupt, violent organization must hire and train only those who are willing to do the job they’ve been tasked with, which is to keep us the poor and struggling workers, persons of color, and unwanted immigrants in their proper place, planted firmly beneath the heels of the ruling capitalist elite.

Are you starting to see why history should never be allowed to repeat itself in regards to the police? The time of rounding up “property” in order to keep the capitalist class safe and wealthy is over. At least, it should be.

Even very recent history should never be repeated. This is noted well in Caitlin Johnstone’s article US Surrounds China With War Machinery While Freaking Out About Balloons:

So everyone's losing their minds over a balloon that in all probability would be mostly worthless for spying, even while everyone knows the US spies on China at every possible opportunity. US officials have complained to the press that American spies are having a much harder time conducting operations and recruiting assets in China than they used to because of measures the Chinese government has taken to thwart them, and in 2001 a US spy plane caused a major international incident when it collided with a Chinese military jet on China's coastline, killing the pilot.

The US considers it its sovereign right to spy on any nation it chooses, and the average American tends more or less to see it the same way. This is highlighted in controversies around domestic versus foreign surveillance, for example; Americans were outraged over the Edward Snowden revelations not because spy agencies were conducting surveillance, but because they were conducting surveillance on American citizens. It's just taken as a given that spying on foreigners is fine, so it's a bit silly to react melodramatically when foreigners return the favor.

But, of course, the US is acting melodramatically over a lost weather balloon. They are attempting to provoke the Chinese into a “shoot first” situation, such as they did to Russia in February 2022 when, under the auspices of the NATO, they completely forgot about the Minsk Agreements and armed Ukraine to fight a proxy war. Yet again we are all living under the imminent threat of nuclear war.

We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for anybody.

Why are we repeating history like this on a yearly basis? Isn’t the military-industrial complex making enough money from armaments sales? Arms manufacturers' stock prices have skyrocketed on Wall Street. The idea that the US/NATO bloc can take on two nuclear powers at the same time is utterly insane. But here we are again, repeating history, attempting to provoke another super-power, while simultaneously riling up the American public’s emotions with over-the-top propaganda about a lost weather balloon. 

For example, my husband turned on ABC News Friday night. We rarely, if ever, watch mainstream media outlets, and he’d turned off the sound, but I noticed the first story was about the lost weather balloon. I went into the kitchen and a few minutes later I came back and noticed that the same video clip of the weather balloon was still plastered on the screen. I turned on the sound and heard nothing but hysterical “The Chinese are invading!” commentary. I promptly hit the mute button. Five minutes later, the weather balloon was still on the screen and “experts” were all screaming about how this lost weather balloon means war. ABC spent the entirety of its half hour newscast spewing inflammatory nonsense, probably at the behest of the Biden Administration. War propaganda bears repeating, apparently.

All Americans can learn something from celebrating Black History Month. That feeling of “We’ve been here before. Déjà vu. History repeats itself. Things don’t change for the better for the vast majority of human beings,” is real. It proves that our gut feeling is correct. The ruling elite will do whatever it takes to get the results they want. 

If the elite want to keep their enslaved workers from running away, they’ll equip and arm a slave patrol. If they want to corner the LNG market in Europe, make huge profits from selling arms, and destroy Russia’s and possibly China’s economies, they’ll rev up the propaganda machine of the mainstream media (90% of which are owned by just six corporations) to create the necessity for a war in order to do so.  

The US is still the only industrialized country on Earth without a single-payer (Medicare For All) health care system, free education pre-K through college, and a Universal Basic Income because these programs have been deemed unnecessary by our masters. We breath polluted air, drink water full of plastic particles, and eat cheap processed food infused with high fructose corn syrup because its all we can afford. If we should ever act out because of these injustices and protest, the elite's "slave patrols" stand ready to put us back into our place, swiftly and violently, if they deem necessary. 

Whatever the ruling capitalist elite want they will have it. They will have their way, and they won’t lose any sleep over how many are starved, killed, or maimed in the process. You can be sure about that, as history repeats itself.

Happy Black History Month, America. Our sordid history doesn't need to keep repeating itself. Abolitionist David Walker had the right idea for a rebellion, don’t you think? Watch out for those slave patrols.

 

Related Links:

Teach Black History--Don't Ban It https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/04/teach-black-history-dont-ban-it/ 

New Advanced Placement African American Studies Course is Watered Down Version of Itself  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/new-advanced-placement-african-american-studies-course-is-watered-down-version-of-itself/

The Invention of the Police https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police

US Surrounds China with War Machinery While Freaking Out About Balloons  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/caitlin-johnstone-us-surrounds-china-with-war-machinery-while-freaking-out-about-balloons/ 

The Pentagon's Balloon Floats On  https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/05/patrick-lawrence-the-pentagons-balloon-floats-on/

Chris Hedges: WikiLeaks Exposed the Extent of US Meddling Abroad and Corruption at Home. Why Have We Forgotten It? https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/04/chris-hedges-wikileaks-exposed-the-extent-of-us-meddling-abroad-and-corruption-at-home-why-have-we-forgotten-it/ 

 

Nuclear War Imminent? https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/03/nuclear-war-imminent/ 

 

More Evidence That The West Sabotaged Peace In Ukraine

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/more-evidence-that-the-west-sabotaged 

 

How the US Instigated the Ukraine Crisis https://popularresistance.org/how-the-us-instigated-the-ukraine-crisis/

 

Uncomfortable Truths: Critical Race Theory https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/uncomfortable-truths-critical-race.html

Why Not Reparations? https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/why-not-reparations.html

 

What's It Like to Be 3/5 of a Person? https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/02/whats-it-like-to-be-35-of-person.html

 

Targets On Our Backs https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2023/01/targets-on-our-backs.html

 

Do the Police Have an Obligation to Protect You? https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/do-the-police-have-an-obligation-to-protect-you/

 

Quote of the week:

Ask an empire apologist to show you how China is aggressing against the US and they'll start babbling about TikTok and balloons. --Caitlin Johnstone

 

 

Comrades, can you spare a dime? Or the cost of a cup of coffee? Help us keep The Revolution Continues going another eight years by donating once or becoming a regular supporter. You can do so via our Substack account or through the link below. 

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TRCblog 

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https://paypal.me/camatthews  

Thank you. Power to the People!

Targets On Our Backs

Targets On Our Backs

by C. A. Matthews 

 

Five cops brutally beat up and killed a young black man named Tyre Nichols in Memphis after a routine traffic stop. A large contingent of police shot and killed a climate activist, Manuel Teran, while he camped in the Weelaunee Forest (a.k.a. “Cop City”) in Atlanta. In Florida, officers handcuffed Jose Ortega Guiterrez, a homeless man not charged with any crime, then took him to an isolated location and beat him until he was unconscious. These recent incidents have made it readily apparent that ordinary Americans are walking around with targets on their backs.

“To protect and serve” is a slogan painted on many cities’ cop cars. But who are the police really “protecting” when they are, in fact, beating and shooting just as many people as the so-called criminals are doing? Who are these cops “serving” when they take an innocent life or destroy their victim's health by beating him into unconsciousness simply for being homeless? 

We’re on a record pace this year for mass shootings already. Did we really have to add to this shameful total, officers?

Don’t worry—there won’t be any cuts in funding or manpower at your local police department anytime soon. In fact, we might actually witness yet another round of increases in police budgets. Mayors and police chiefs will explain their reasoning for these increases in these words, more or less: “We just have to give our officers more weapons, more riot gear, more lethal fire power because… It’s dangerous out there.” 

It sure is. It’s dangerous to be a young black man driving a car. It's dangerous being a homeless person on the street. It’s dangerous to be a climate activist who is expressing his opinion that a forest shouldn’t be chopped down and destroyed for the sake of building a police training center to teach even more killers in uniform to kill even more of us for the sake of… protection and service? 

You would think after the horrible death toll of students and teachers in Ulvade, Texas, not that long ago that most Americans would have caught on to the truth of the matter. Many of us sat horrified as we observed the lack of concern the school police officer displayed while a shooter roamed the halls of the elementary school. We should have known better. That cowardly cop was acting completely in character. 

The police in the United States of America aren’t tasked with protecting you or your loved ones from harm. They’re tasked with protecting the property of the wealthy and powerful. They’re tasked to serve those with wealth and power. Working class kids in small town Texas aren’t all that wealthy or powerful now, are they?

That’s why the police in the US carry guns—and aren’t afraid to use them usually. Their rich masters expect them to keep poor folks away from their expensive material possessions and off their exclusive property. The upper classes expect the working classes to respect their authority and to defer to their taxpayer-provided bodyguards. 

In contrast, police officers in many countries don’t even carry firearms while performing everyday traffic control stops or safety patrols of neighborhoods. It's possible these cops view their citizens as actual human beings worthy of protection and service and not as targets. You never know. 

There's also one big difference that's never mentioned by mainstream media pundits when trying to explain away American police brutality. Police in other countries have never been tasked with returning runaway slaves to their masters, dead or alive, like the officers of the Slave Patrols once did. The US police system is based upon the Slave Patrols and slave catching. It's not based on protecting and serving the public as a whole. American policing is all about protecting and returning property (read: "slaves") to their owners. 

That bit of history might explain why ordinary Americans are often seen as bullseyes and not as human beings. The only human beings who count in the eyes of American law enforcers are those who can afford to keep slaves. Police forces who do a good job protecting the property of the wealthy are usually well-paid for their service, too. This payment goes beyond mere salaries and health benefits. It includes such things as "qualified immunity" or getting away with murder simply because a person is wearing a cop uniform with a shiny badge on his or her chest.

What’s the solution to this dilemma? If the solution to ordinary people shooting each other on a regular basis is to institute some kind of gun control, then the same solution could be applied to the trigger-happy, violent cops. Take away their guns. 

I'm serious. If British "Bobbies" can survive their shifts without a firearm at their side, then why can't American cops?

I mean, who needs an AR-15? Nobody—and I mean nobody. It’s a firearm for killing people as quickly and efficiently as possible. A deer hunter doesn’t need an AR-15. A police officer certainly doesn’t need one. And I’ll go out on a limb here and say even a soldier doesn’t need a weapon that is capable of mowing down hundreds of human beings in a matter of minutes. 

Nobody should have the right to kill or injure anybody with handguns, rifles, semi-automatics, automatics, knives, tasers, batons, or with their bare fists, knees, boots, or whatever object they may have on them at the time. Nobody. 

American taxpayers shouldn't be forced to furnish police forces with military-grade killing machines that could be used against them later. Our communities need more mental health care workers and social workers to go out on calls whenever a person is experiencing a crisis such as homelessness. We need peacemakers to deal with activists/protesters, not trained killers.

We must hire more people who can provide quality mental health care and defuse tense situations between ordinary people. No one has ever been killed by a person carrying a clipboard and speaking in a calm and reassuring manner to all parties. (At least, I hope not.)

Our tax dollars should be poured into fixing our neighborhoods, schools, hospitals and healthcare facilities (and not into the hands of private health insurance corporations who profit from our suffering). We need to spend more on housing those who are homeless and focus our energy into preventing others from becoming homeless because of the greed of landlords. 

We certainly don’t need to keep pouring our money and resources into endless wars to kill even more people overseas. Everybody on Earth deserves to live in peace and relative prosperity. We must learn to act like good neighbors, not bullies. 

We the People need to take the targets off our backs and place them where they belong—on the backs of the sociopathic billionaire capitalists. After all, they’re the ones causing all the trouble. We the People shouldn’t been seen as practice targets by their bodyguards in blue any longer. We must stand up to these injustices and speak out against all levels of government constantly raising police funding and adding lethal weapons to their arsenals. 

If we don't, the next victim of a police killing or beating may be one of your loved ones. Or it could be you. Why take that chance? #DefundThePolice #DemilitarizeThePolice #AbolishThePolice

More insight into the police murder of Tyre Nichols:

From The Class Issues in the Police Killing of Tyre Nichols https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/28/ucde-j28.htm

So far this year, at least 79 people have been killed, according to a tracker maintained by the Washington Post. At this pace, roughly three killings a day, 2023 will meet or top the 2022 toll of more than 1,100 people killed by police officers in the US. (…) 

Police violence, like every other social evil under capitalism, is fundamentally a class question. There are more white people killed by police in the US than blacks or Hispanics, although blacks and Hispanics are killed in numbers disproportionate to their percentage of the population. Racism plays a part, but a part secondary to social class. The police are recruited from more backward layers of the population, and police departments are known to be riddled with fascistic and white supremacist elements, including many veterans of US imperialist wars around the world.

What the overwhelming majority of victims of police violence and murder have in common is that they are part of the working class. Racism is itself an ideological and political weapon long employed by the capitalist class to divide the working class, in accordance with the strategy of “divide and rule.”

Racialist politics buttress this ruling class strategy. Memphis is a clear example. The second largest city in Tennessee has a population of 635,000, over 65 percent of which identifies as African-American. Roughly 56 percent of the police likewise identify as African-American, including female police chief Cerelyn Davis. Within four months of being sworn in as police chief on June 14, 2021, Davis created the Scorpion unit, which has become notorious for its brutal and repressive methods.

More insight into the police ambush of the Atlanta Forest Defenders:

From NLG Statement In Solidarity With Atlanta Forest Defenders https://popularresistance.org/nlg-statement-in-solidarity-with-atlanta-forest-defenders/

National Lawyer Guild National joins our Atlanta and University of Georgia Chapters and comrades in mourning the devastating loss of a beloved community member. Tortuguita was a kind, passionate, and caring activist, who coordinated mutual aid and served as a trained medic. The Atlanta Community Press Collective is compiling memories and accounts of their life, and we encourage everyone to honor and remember Tortuguita through the words of those who love them.

As radical movement legal activists, NLG recognizes that this horrific murder and the related arrests are part of a nationwide attack on protesters, land defenders, and marginalized folks, especially Black, Indigenous, and other activists of color. Labeling these demonstrators “domestic terrorists” is a harrowing repetition of No DAPL activist Jessica Reznicek’s terrorist enhancement last year, and both are clear indicators that the people in power view protesters and environmental activists as enemies of the state.

Related Articles:

Five Memphis Cops Arrested and Charged with the Murder of Tyre Nichols https://popularresistance.org/five-memphis-cops-arrested-and-charged-with-the-murder-of-tyre-nichols/ 

Memphis Police Shutter SCORPION Unit, Activists Say That’s Not Enough  https://truthout.org/articles/memphis-police-shutter-scorpion-unit-activists-say-thats-not-enough 

 

Movement to Stop Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ Calls for Support After Police Kill Forest Defender https://scheerpost.com/2023/01/26/movement-to-stop-atlantas-cop-city-calls-for-support-after-police-kill-forest-defender/ 

 

NLG Statement In Solidarity With Atlanta Forest Defenders

 https://popularresistance.org/nlg-statement-in-solidarity-with-atlanta-forest-defenders/

 

The Class Issues in the Police Killing of Tyre Nichols https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/01/28/ucde-j28.htm

Tyre Nichols' brutal killing proves America's addiction to specialized police units has to end (video) https://youtu.be/TrLtpGO8UY0

 

How White Supremacy Murdered Tyre Nichols (video)

https://youtu.be/0CKSh39tT-s  

 

Florida Officers Charged with Battery After Allegedly Beating Homeless Man https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/29/florida-officers-kidnap-assault-homeless-man

 

Hialeah Officer Accused of Kidnapping, Beating Homeless Man Denied Bond  https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/2-hialeah-police-officers-accused-of-kidnapping-and-beating-homeless-man/2959166/

  

With Whom are Many U.S. Police Departments Training? With a Chronic Human Rights Violator – Israel 

https://www.amnestyusa.org/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel

The Crackdown on Cop City Protesters Is So Brutal Because of the Movement’s Success https://theintercept.com/2023/01/27/cop-city-atlanta-forest/

 

Ulvade Police Didn't Move to Save Lives Because that's Not What Police Do  https://www.rsn.org/001/uvalde-police-didnt-move-to-save-lives-because-thats-not-what-police-do.html

 

All Guns Are B*stards https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/2022/05/all-guns-are-bstards.html 

Seen on Twitter:

The police killings of Tyre Nichols and climate activist Manuel Teran are deeply connected. Both derive from the same culture of police brutality in the US that has its origin in slave patrols.

It is a system designed to protect power and terrorize those who challenge it. pic.twitter.com/heqKEY2LJf

— Steven Donziger (@SDonziger) January 28, 2023

Again, the USA police are not here to protect you. They are here to protect the 1% elite FROM you.

— Jory Micah (@jorymicah) January 28, 2023

White politicians like Biden always use terms like “heartbroken” in regards to their feelings on police violence instead of anger or rage. They dont want any structural change. They act as if police killings are a sad inevitibility.

— Joel Margulies (@jmarg25) January 28, 2023

Statistically, at least 3 people will be murdered by an American police officer today.

— 🅹🅾️🅴🆈աrecκ ☭ (@joeywreck) January 30, 2023

Welcome To The Fascist State Of America

 

Liberals are fascistic tyrants and conservatives are whiny little bitches who run around looking for excuses to get offended. -- Caitlin Johnstone, Study US Foreign Policy By Looking At Oil Reserves

Happy Seventh Anniversary, TRC! It's been seven years since this blog began with a handful of enthusiastic Bernie Sanders supporters. Who knew it would last this long? Not us! Of course, there's been some changes over the past seven years, starting first with a name change in mid-2016 after Bernie dropped out of the race and backed *cough* Hillary. 

We never looked back after that. In fact, we continued to grow, discover, explore, and learn more about neoliberalism, capitalism, and then socialism. It's called just socialism or eco-socialism by us, as the term "democratic socialism" makes it sound as if we're acolytes of the poorly-named party of the duopoly who wouldn't know what democracy was even if it hit them over the head repeatedly. After Bernie's screw over by the DNC, we've never considered returning to either of the corrupt establishment's factions. 

We're loud, we're proud, and we're proudly independent and pro-third party. And this week, we're taking a look at how (once again) our government tramples human rights and expects us to shut up and take it lying down. As if!

Welcome to the Fascist State of America
by C.A. Matthews

You live within 100 miles of Canada, Mexico, a coastline, or an international airport. There is no knock on the door. CBP or Border Patrol agents come bursting into your home without warning, without a warrant, and without fear that they'll ever be held accountable for damages or violating your rights in a court of law. They ransack your domicile and take what they will and you can't stop them--they're within their rights. 

Welcome to America 2022.

Why does Homeland Security believe the US "border" is 100 miles wide? Why does it believe that an international airport in the middle of the country is also "on the border" and so 100 miles around it is also the Border Patrol's domain? Why indeed.

Dr. Reece Jones, author of White Borders (2021) and Nobody Is Protected (2022) tells us more about how this concept of the US border zone came about:

"Preserve Racial Types As It Exists Here Today."   (Yes, our immigration laws are inherently racist. This bill was passed less than 100 years ago and remains on the books. Do you feel better or worse about the US as a "democracy" now?)

The Border Patrol was established two days after the eugenics-derived national origins quotas in the 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act was signed, in order to enforce the new restrictions. The original authorization for the Border Patrol was meant to keep the agents at the border line itself. Senator David Reed explained: "They have no right to go into the interior city and pick up aliens on the street and arrest them."

Nevertheless, the agents did go into the interior. In 1930 Treasury Undersecretary Ogden Mills proposed a new law to stop it. "You will not have a Border Patrol operating 20 miles inside the United States. You will have a border patrol where it belongs, and that is on the border."

Mills' and other efforts to rein in the Border Patrol failed in the 1930s. In 1946, Congress revised the Border Patrol's authorization and clarified (kind of) how far inside the US they could go: “within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States.” At the time, the Border Patrol was part of the Department of Justice. In July 1947, the DOJ released a routine update to its policies in the Federal Register. In tiny print on page 5071, they defined the term reasonable distance.

Without public comment or consultation, the Department of Justice defined the reasonable distance for the Border Patrol as “a distance not exceeding 100 air miles from any external boundary of the United States.” Since 1947, the reasonable distance has remained unchanged at 100 miles from borders and coastlines. If DHS Secretary Mayorkas wanted to change it, he could do so immediately himself.

This 100 mile "border" includes about two-thirds of the population. That's about 200 million Americans. Our largest cities, largest ports, and airports are included in this zone CBP can "police" within its confines. They don't have show a warrant to search or arrest you like your local cops. Why can't Americans protect themselves from a government agency with seemingly infinite powers?

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects Americans from random and arbitrary stops and searches. According to the government, however, these basic constitutional principles do not apply fully at our borders. For example, at border crossings (also called "ports of entry"), federal authorities do not need a warrant or even suspicion of wrongdoing to justify conducting what courts have called a "routine search," such as searching luggage or a vehicle. 

Even in places far removed from the border, deep into the interior of the country, immigration officials enjoy broad—though not limitless—powers. Specifically, federal regulations give U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authority to operate within 100 miles of any U.S. "external boundary." The regulations establishing the 100-mile border zone were adopted by the U.S. Department of Justice—without any public comments or debate. At the time, there were fewer than 1,100 Border Patrol agents nationwide; today, there are over 21,000. 

That's 21,000 federal cops free to use their "broad powers" to search, harass, and arrest citizens and non-citizens alike. Who keeps these modern-day "American Brown Shirts" in check? Anyone?

"The Constitution-Free Zone of the United States"

ACLU ominously states:

The Border Patrol often ignores this (100 mile zone) regulation and, aside from limiting interior checkpoint locations to within the 100-mile zone, rejects any geographic limitation on agents' authority. At least two federal circuit courts condone Border Patrol operations outside the 100-mile zone, federal regulations and Supreme Court precedent notwithstanding.

Federal border agents are stopping, interrogating, and searching Americans on an everyday basis with absolutely no suspicion of wrongdoing, and often in ways that our Constitution does not permit.  For example, Border Patrol, according to news reports, operates approximately 170 interior checkpoints throughout the country (the actual number in operation at any given time is not publicly known). The ACLU believes that these checkpoints amount to dragnet, suspicionless stops that cannot be reconciled with Fourth Amendment protections. 

The spread of border-related powers inland is inseparable from the broader expansion of government intrusion in the lives of ordinary Americans. For example, CBP claims the authority to conduct suspicionless searches of travelers' electronic devices—such as laptops and cell phones—at ports of entry, including international arrivals at airports. These searches are particularly invasive as a result of the wealth of personal information stored on such devices.

Americans do not have the right to privacy. Border Patrol agents are free to search your personal information. They can confiscate your computer, cell phone, or other electronic devices to look even deeper for juicy tidbits on you or others. You'd better delete those embarrassing personal photos and text messages now--and I mean now.

Seeing the maps and digesting these facts are sobering. Americans might have thought we lived in a democracy--a flawed one, but at least it had its heart in the right place. But think again: the Border Patrol can enter your home, your vehicle, your business and take whatever items it deems "necessary" for their investigation and arrest you without a warrant. The federal courts will back them up as did the Supreme Court in its recent ruling.  

Is the US a democracy? (Was it ever? Ask a person of color.)

Do you feel safe? (I know I sure as hell don't.) 

What can we do about it? Learning more about the powers Customs and Border Protection wields and what legal recourse(s) we may or may not have to prevent them from continuing their fascistic behavior is a good start. Also, not cooperating with the Border Patrol is an action we all can take. We need to emphasize the point to our oligarch leadership that we are not prisoners in a "border zone" without human rights. We need to stand up and demand the protections listed in the Bill of Rights, rights that apply to citizens and non-citizens alike.

Welcome to the fascist state of America in the year 2022. It's not exactly what the founders envisioned in 1776. Perhaps it's time for us to do like they did and start a Revolution.

Related Articles:

Supreme Court Refuses to Allow Bivens Claims Under First Amendment and Against Border Patrol Agents  https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/supreme-court-refuses-to-allow-bivens-claims-under-first-amendment-and-against-border-patrol-agents

A Border Patrol Agent Assaulted a Citizen in His Own Home. The Supreme Court's Ruling Lets the Agent Off  https://immigrationimpact.com/2022/06/10/border-patrol-assaulted-citizen-supreme-court-ruling/

ACLU: The Constitution in the 100-Mile Border Zone https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone 

ICE Now Holds 25,000 People In Detention, Monitors 266,000 Using Electronic Monitoring Technology   https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-now-holds-25000-people-in-detention?s=r 

We Don't Need More Evidence That Police Can't Be Trusted. We Need Real Safety  https://truthout.org/articles/we-dont-need-more-evidence-that-police-cant-be-trusted-we-need-real-safety/

The Uvalde Massacre Has Exposed the Lies That Once Justified Police Militarization https://www.rsn.org/001/the-uvalde-massacre-has-exposed-the-lies-that-once-justified-police-militarization.html 

Mother of Buffalo Shooting Victims Says This Is Exactly Who We Are https://scheerpost.com/2022/06/09/mother-of-buffalo-shooting-victim-says-this-is-exactly-who-we-are/

Study US Foreign Policy By Looking At Oil Reserves https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/study-us-foreign-policy-by-looking?s=r

Democratic Leaders Call For a Stronger Republican Party. Why? https://www.directleft.com/p/democratic-leaders-call-for-a-stronger?s=r 

Nobody Is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States (Book)  https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/nobody-is-protected/

Seen on Twitter: 

You may have seen this map of the 100-mile border zone making the rounds recently. Did you ever wonder why they chose 100 miles? There must be a good reason for it, right? Well, actually no. Here's a short thread 🧵on it ... pic.twitter.com/FMjVMCOdJI

— Dr. Reece Jones (@ReeceJonesUH) June 10, 2022

Both parties have completely sold out the public and formed a corrupt merger between corporations and the state, yet liberals are under the illusion that voting for the blue corporate party will save us from the red corporate party when they both serve the same moneyed interests.

— Ryan Knight ☭ (@ProudSocialist) June 13, 2022

The price of food is up 11.9%, the price of gas is up 48.7%, and the median rent just passed $2000 for the first time ever. Two thirds of Americans already live paycheck to paycheck and inflation will cost the average family $5200 this year. How are people supposed to survive?

— alex gutentag (@galexybrane) June 14, 2022

Democrats’ biggest con is convincing voters that they’re fighting against fascism when they’re actively using the power of the state to fund wars, cage children, protect Big Business & the ruling class, oppress the working class, and crush dissent, which is fascism. #BlueFascists

— Ryan Knight ☭ (@ProudSocialist) June 14, 2022

***

In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...

Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?

Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie 

Please buy direct from the small publisher and not via Amazon. Why? Amazon takes a huge percentage of the book's price and leaves very little for the publisher and author to share. Thanks.