MLB, Homeland Security, and the Undercover Underwear Sting
sports.vice.com
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This absolutely infuriates me. I don't care how much of the law he is breaking - you are threatening to take away a man's livelihood because he was making sure due process was being followed. The fact that is remotely legal is absurd. Those agents and their supervisors should be fired.
My concern is the fact they are threatening him for wanting his rights maintained and due process followed.
[0]: I'm not saying it's not an issue, just not what I'm focused on in this comment.
Most importantly it harms the respect and dignity of the society they are protecting. No non-threatening person should ever have AR-15s pointed at their heads, screamed at, their faces pushed into the ground, and handcuffed regardless of their potential criminality. Especially when the whole investigation is for non-violent crimes.
This hostility towards everyone generates more hostility and doesn't make any society more civilized and respectable - which is the over-arching intention of law and order.
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/24/a_swat_team_blew_a_hole_in_m...
It's still utterly disgusting, from the drug laws down to the police themselves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/19/f...
This line is important-
>So a level of force once reserved for hostage situations, bank robberies and active shooters is now being used on low-level drug offenders, people suspected of white-collar crimes, people who have unkempt property and to make sure the local bar is properly labeling its beer.
Now think about this - when the police go in a situation guns drawn when there isn't a reason to believe there would be a real threat to personal safety the THEY are being the aggressor and potentially escalating the situation. Which creates danger when there wouldnt otherwise be. Officers are supposed to protect the public, not threaten it. Eventually the police's relationship with the public degrades to a point that officer safety is now actually in much more jeopardy.
Respect is a two way street.
For lack of a better term, American police forces now operate largely 'extra-state'.
My goodness! I shuddered to note that this is not only very true but also almost unstoppable at the moment. Unless a miracle of unity comes by, that brings people together.
This is a symptom of the ends-justify-the-means attitude that police departments around the US are fostering (along-side the holier-than-thou attitude), and one of the ways of showing them that it's unacceptable is by getting pissed off enough to do something about it.
If you believe strongly that the government is an out-of-control terroristic undemocratic police state and We The People are divinely endowed with the right to bear arms against it (like so many people in this thread do), then you must recognize that an agent of that state would be taking an incredibly stupid risk by entering your home in a way that would give you an opportunity to shoot first.
Maybe you think that risk is the price of doing business with an unjust institution, but the officer serving a warrant against you probably doesn't.
I had an argument with Czech expat living in the US, who was a staunch libertarian. At one point he was "either I have my freedoms, or I will defend myself with the gun". I told him that there is no need for guns, we can also have a peaceful discussion and agree on compromise that everybody will hate. Couldn't explain value of that..
And Americans can change this culture. Respect to rights of others doesn't come from "natural rights" or "republic", but from cooperation among people. Respect to individuals doesn't come from having guns, but rather determination to face guns (or other problems) without having any.
(It doesn't mean that guns are never necessary. It only means that it's often much less hassle and blood to make opponent part of your in-group rather than have fight with him as your out-group.)
If the police show up during the day and knock on the front door with a warrant at the house of the NRA-supporting, libertarian, "statist" terminology using person you allude to, he's not going to respond violently. He'll call a lawyer while reading the warrant, then maybe call the media if he thinks it will help. Please stop "othering" people who hold different views than you. Taking it to such an absurd extreme as to suggest that if someone supports the full bill of rights then they need to be treated as dangerous and dealt with like terrorists is just ridiculous.
If someone plans to murder a police officer, they probably don't really care whether the gun they use to do it is legally owned or not.
This, of course, is unlikely to happen, and is why this problem will only get worse over time.
There isn't actually all that much organizing being done, but these people are at the center of a lot of grassroots organizations, and have a ton of institutional support from foundations etc. Depending on how serious you are, I'd get in touch with them.
Which is why they should be publicly shamed.