Noah Burger

True freedom requires guaranteed, unalienable rights. The United States of America, or formerly, American Colonies, were Western Civilization’s birth upon the New World. Predominately English, the American Colonies grew to adapt many of the same laws as their parent nation, Great Britain. The Constitution of the United States of America, and its Bill of Rights, were greatly based upon England’s Magna Carta, Petition of Right, and Bill of Rights. Hundreds of years passed before a widespread fear of rebellion, and even a Glorious Revolution, swayed English lawmakers into providing and protecting the rights of their people. The People of the American Colonies, fed up with the tyranny of Great Britain, declared their independence on July 4^th, 1776, with one goal in mind: freedom. The United States of America was born.

Founded as a Republic, each state in the union quickly formed their own state constitutions and state bills of rights, following the Declaration of Independence (History Channel, 2009). George Mason, of Virginia, well understood that true freedom would require a certain set of guaranteed, unalienable rights; Mason drafted protections against governmental abuse of power and combined them with John Locke’s beliefs of a natural right to life, liberty, and property, spawning the State of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights. Many states followed suit, basing their own work upon Mason’s. Later, at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Mason and others pushed for a similar listing of guaranteed rights to be included within the Constitution. However, some politicians thought it to be unnecessary, as the federal government was supposed to have limited power, and many of the states had already adopted their own bills of rights. Luckily, after two years of debate, it was finally agreed upon in 1789 that the formation of a federal government should come with a federal guarantee of rights and protections. Thomas Jefferson said, notably, that “a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference” (History Channel, 2009). Jefferson’s speech had hit home with many of the founders, as the main reason America had declared independence in the first place was because of Great Britain’s gross abuse of governmental powers and taxation. Thus, the Bill of Rights, ten amendments written by James Madison that were largely based on George Mason’s Declaration of Rights, was introduced, and, in 1791, the Constitution of the United States of America had been ratified by all states. (History Channel, 2009).

In the Bill of Rights, there are certain rights that have been deemed as “unalienable”. Citizens of the American Colonies had already believed that those rights were their own, and during the American Revolution, they were more than prepared to die for those rights. Later, their beliefs were broadcasted by certain states’ refusals for ratifying the United States Constitution until it included a Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights lists Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Press, Petition, and Assembly, and the rights of Privacy, Due Process, and Equality before the Law, as unalienable rights (ACLU, n.d.). The American People implemented the Bill of Rights from the very beginning, leaving many redcoats extra red in the process. However, the most prominent initial implementation of Constitutional Law in an American Court was in 1803, when the “U.S. Supreme Court struck down an act of Congress as unconstitutional in a case called Marbury v. Madison” (ACLU, n.d.). This landmark case established the principle of Judicial Review, wherein the Supreme Court has the power to strike down acts of Congress that are deemed unconstitutional (Thirteen, n.d.). The system of checks and balances granted within the constitution had been successfully implemented, and had provided what James Madison had prophesized as the “impenetrable bulwark of liberty” (ACLU, n.d.). Ironically, the unconstitutional actions contained within the Marbury v. Madison case, had been perpetrated by James Madison himself (Thirteen, n.d.).

Individual rights, however, had not yet been implemented by the courts. The American Peoples’ willingness to die for their rights had seemingly fallen by the wayside. So much so, that even after the civil war, racial segregation, sexual discrimination, and political discrimination were continuous, everyday norms. In fact, “the most common constitutional violations went unchallenged because the people whose rights were most often denied were precisely those members of society who were least aware of their rights and last able to afford a lawyer” (ACLU, n.d.). The American People had become a mass of sheep, consciously castrated versions of their former selves. The people needed a shepherd, and in 1909, the NAACP was founded, with the mission of advancing the rights of African American minorities. Later, in 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union was formed, with the mission of protecting the rights of all Americans. Over time, “the Bill of Rights was transformed from a ‘parchment barrier’ to a protective wall”, because of actions taken by these organizations (ACLU, n.d.).

The Constitution, and its Bill of Rights, were tremendously penned. However, its grandeur was merely illusory, in the case of women, and African Americans. The rights of these two groups, while not necessarily excluded in the actual writing of the Constitution, were simply ignored by everyone else. Native Americans’ rights, too, were excluded (however, they were not viewed as citizens of the United States, nor did they want to be). In fact, the Supreme Court, in many cases, ruled in favor of slavery (ACLU, n.d.). The Democratic Party housed much of the nation’s power and wealth since its inception in 1828, most notably through its vast network of slaveowners. However, on March 20^th, 1854, the Republican Party was formed as the “Anti-Slavery Party”. Not one single Republican owned a slave. In fact, in 1861, 100% of slaves were owned by Democrats. The American Civil War had begun, and over 500,000 white republican males gave their lives, freeing the slaves.

Soon after the Civil War, Republican leadership passed Amendments 13, 14, and 15, which abolished slavery, gave blacks due process, and gave blacks the right to vote. However, for well over a century after the Civil War, Democratic Elites continued their efforts against the black populace, just as they had done in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Democrats, using their vast plantation wealth, sought control of education and media arms, while implementing various forms of institutionalized racism along the way. Additionally, slaveowners convinced a vast number of freed slaves to remain on the plantation under Indentured Servitude, working the same jobs, for no pay, with the promise of subsidized housing and food. In fact, this war of racism and deception still rages on today. Republicans continue to push for education, jobs, and families to be the catalyst that will lift blacks out of poverty. Democrats, on the other hand, continue to connive for votes, rape, and welfare-trap blacks into an endless poverty cycle of modern-day indentured servitude.

Wake Up America, Or We Will Lose Everything.

References:

ACLU. (n.d.). The Bill of Rights: A Brief History. Retrieved February 16, 2019, fromhttps://www.aclu.org/other/bill-rights-brief-history

History Channel. (2009, October 27). Bill of Rights. Retrieved February 16, 2019, from https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/bill-of-rights

Emery, D., & Emery, D. (n.d.). FACT CHECK: 9 Facts About Slavery They Don’t Want You to Know. Retrieved February 16, 2019, from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facts-about-slavery/

Thirteen. (n.d.). The Supreme Court . The Court and Democracy . Landmark Cases . Marbury v. Madison (1803) | PBS. Retrieved February 16, 2019, fromhttps://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/democracy/landmark_marbury.html

The Answer to 1984.. is 1776

Noah Burger

Soon, modern civilization, and therefore the institution of law enforcement, will become indistinguishable from the likes of “Oceania”, the futuristic, totalitarian utopia illustrated by world-renowned author, George Orwell. In fact, modern society already reflects most of Orwell’s prophecy. In 1984, a totalitarian world-government uses advanced technology to conduct mass surveillance, distribute propaganda, and monitor, react to, and even predict the thoughts and actions of citizens. There is no privacy or due process, describing a world totally aligned with the crime control model, and legal definitions of crime are expanded to include words, thoughts, and dissidence. False-flag terroristic “enemies of the state” are created by the world government, to influence the population to support widespread surveillance and diminished social freedom, via immense fear mongering. Information is greatly manipulated, censored, or destroyed, to control public thought, perception, and action, maintaining public dominance. This paper will explain how modern civilization already mirrors this dystopian reality, and how advancements in technology will accelerate the fall of freedom.

            When examining current events, or hypothesizing about the future, it is important to examine precedents. Operation Northwoods was false-flag operation proposed to President John F Kennedy in 1962 by the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, and Joint Chiefs of Staff. The plans involved carrying out terrorist attacks on United States military and civilian targets, such as “civilian airliners” or “blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and then blaming the incident on Cuban sabotage”, (National Security Archive, 2001). While John F Kennedy did prevent Operation Northwoods from being carried out, he was promptly assassinated just a few months later (JFK Library, n.d.). According to declassified National Security Agency documents, the United States Government swiftly carried out a similar false-flag attack, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, blowing up a U.S. ship in Vietnamese waters and then blaming the incident on Vietnamese sabotage, less than one year after Kennedy’s assassination (National Security Archive, 2005). Undoubtedly, Kennedy would have vetoed the Gulf of Tonkin operation had he not been assassinated (Galbraith, 2003). Such gross planning and carrying out of false-flag attacks, involving deaths of United States Citizens and/or deception of United States Citizens, reveal that modern society does not differentiate much from Orwell’s “Oceania”.

On September 10^th, 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted to Congress that “2.3 trillion dollars was missing from the Defense Department budget” and, understandably, there were public calls to audit the Department of Defense (Unruh & Associated Press, 2016). The next day – September 11^th – the Twin Towers fell. A third tower, World Trade Center 7, imploded as well, yet had not been hit by a plane. Conveniently, World Trade Center 7 housed secret offices of the CIA, as well as “offices of Department of Defense, and the Internal Revenue Service” (Daily Mail, 2011). The 9/11 attacks received non-stop news coverage, however, World Trade Center 7 had essentially been whitewashed from the coverage. Most importantly, the proposed Congressional Audit of the Department of Defense had been postponed – indefinitely. The attention of the American People, and therefore Congress, had deliberately been shifted toward terrorism, and thirst for war. If one were to replace “Cuban” and “Miami” pronouns detailed in proposed CIA operation, Operation Northwoods, one would find that the 9/11 attacks were, by every plausible and imaginal scope of reality, the realization of CIA proposed operation, Operation Northwoods (National Security Archive, 2001). In the years since, mass media has been used, in perpetuity, to further influence public thought, perception, and action, the precedent for which was established during Operation Mockingbird (Szoldra, 2015).

Propaganda played a major role in the proposed implementation of Operation Northwoods, as well as in the successful implementation of declassified false-flag Gulf of Tonkin incident, and the highly-likely-false-flag 9/11 attacks. In every event, the media was used to influence public thought and perception by creating fear and persuade government into going to war. The precedent for such gross implementation of propaganda was set within Operation Mockingbird, wherein the Central Intelligence Agency admittedly “recruited top American journalists to spread propaganda in the media and gather intelligence” (Szoldra, 2015). Such gross implementation of propaganda, especially in accordance with false-flag events, reveals that modern society does not differentiate much from Orwell’s “Oceania”.

Whether or not 9/11 is believed to have been appeased, stimulated, and/or carried out by friendly agencies, no one can deny that the public perception of 9/11 was capitalized on by friendly agencies seeking to expand social control through mass surveillance and due process exceptions, via the Patriot Act (Hunter, 2018). According the Patriot Act, and its subsequent troth of addendum provided by the various NDAA acts throughout the Bush and Obama administrations, the United States Government are allowed to record and store every single piece of data worldwide – including that of American Citizens – but are not allowed to view the data of American Citizens unless they have reasonable suspicion to believe certain individuals are deemed enemies of the state. In the modern day, everything about life is packaged, in some form or another, into data. If you carry a cellular device, or use the internet, every step you take, everything you do, is recorded, stored, and analyzed (Zebra, 2018). Under the Obama Administration, it was established that the data of American Citizens does not hold any constitutional protections, by way of “international back-doors” (Kim, Perlin, & Lee, 2017). Summarized, since the government was already allowed to access data of non-citizens at will and were able to access the data of US Citizens under reasonable suspicion, then the government would should be allowed to access the data of US Citizens if there is reason to believe that they have, at any point in time, associated with international individuals or groups under investigation. This was affirmed by the illegal wiretapping, or data-accessing, of the Trump Presidential Campaign, Donald J. Trump, his family members, and his associates.

As depth of technology continues to expand via Internet of Things, the ability for private, public, or government possessors of metadata to know and predict the thoughts and actions of individuals will increase exponentially. And, as citizens continue to be persuaded into trading liberties for safeties, constitutional protections to our thoughts and actions will disintegrate. Going further, as the definition of “enemy of the state” continues to lean closer towards “dissident” than “terrorist”, our constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and privacy will become more and more nonexistent. In this Orwellian future, data will be increasingly implemented as a Law Enforcement Technology, able to rapidly identify, predict, and or analyze crime. Legal definitions for “crimes of conspiracy” will be expanded to include thoughts, or, as Orwell puts it, “thought crimes” (Jenkins, 2017). This “future” is as near as tomorrow morning. The Chinese government, with the help of American corporations, plans to implement a “Social Credit Score” system, wherein everyday data is used to evaluate citizens, updating their “Social Credit Score” in real time, by 2020 (Ma, 2018). The “Social Credit Score” system will analyze the behavior, by way of data, ranking its citizens. Scores will have direct impacts on the ability of citizens to pursue education, find employment, purchase houses, or even form romantic relationships. Employed as a Law Enforcement Technology, the “Social Credit Score” system will be a realization of George Orwell’s “Thought Police”.

Historical international precedents for American false-flag events, subsequent mass-media propaganda schemes, and ultimate removal of citizens’ rights in accordance with goals of social control, were most notably set by Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The Reichstag Fire was used to enact the Reichstag Fire Decree, wherein German Citizens were forced to surrender all rights to privacy and due process (United States Holocaust Museum, n.d.). In the Gleiwitz incident, the Nazi’s orchestrated attacks on German infrastructure housed within Poland, “designed to persuade the international community that Germany was the victim of Polish aggression” (Pope, 2018). Also, the Nazi’s Minister of Propaganda “controlled the media and arts, making sure that German Citizens were fed Nazi ideology, while censoring other information”, (BBC, n.d.). The Reichstag Fire Decree, Gleiwitz incident, and Nazi Propaganda schemes draw distinct parallels to the Patriot Act, false-flag events, and propaganda tacticts found in the United States. Based on historical analysis of current events, modern society is undoubtedly progressing toward dystopian reality.

Our Founding Fathers warned that the Rights affirmed by the United States Constitution must never be infringed, otherwise, the integrity of the most-free, most prosperous society of time is jeopardized. In the 21st Century, events, many of them false-flags, combined with intense distribution of propaganda, have been used to systematically break down our constitutional rights, especially in the realm of data and technology. As quickly as technology continues to explode, and data continues to be ever woben into the fabrics private, public, and social life via Internet of Things, and national systems of “Social Credit Scores” are implemented, society will become more and more indistinguishable from the totalitarian dystopia described in George Orwell’s 1984.

Wake Up America, Or We Will Lose Everything.

References:

1984. (2008, November 11). 1984 Theme of Technology and Modernization. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.shmoop.com/1984/technology-modernization-theme.html

BBC. (n.d.). Nazi control of Germany – Revision 3 – National 5 History – BBC Bitesize. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zn8sgk7/revision/3

CBS. (2001, November 05). Report: CIA Lost Office In WTC. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-cia-lost-office-in-wtc/

Daily Mail. (2011, November 02). Footage that kills the conspiracy theories: Rare footage shows WTC 7 consumed by fire. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056088/Footage-kills-conspiracy-theories-Rare-footage-shows-WTC-7-consumed-fire.html

Galbraith, J. K. (2003, September 1). Exit Strategy: In 1963, JFK ordered a complete withdrawal from Vietnam. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from http://bostonreview.net/us/galbraith-exit-strategy-vietnam

Hunter, B. (2018, October 01). The Constitutional Reasons to Oppose Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court | Brittany Hunter. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://fee.org/articles/the-constitutional-reasons-to-oppose-kavanaugh-for-the-supreme-court/

Jenkins, R. (2017, September 23). JENKINS: George Orwell, thought crimes, and the First Amendment. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/local/jenkins-george-orwell-thought-crimes-and-the-first-amendment/article_c4745d40-9c25-5a56-a614-7b686aaf298b.html

JFK Library. (n.d.). November 22, 1963: Death of the President. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/november-22-1963-death-of-the-president

Kim, Perlin, & Lee. (2017, December 06). The “Backdoor Search Loophole” Isn’t Our Only Problem: The Dangers of Global Information Sharing. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.justsecurity.org/47282/backdoor-search-loophole-isnt-problem-dangers-global-information-sharing/

Ma, A. (2018, October 29). China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system – here’s what you can do wrong, and the embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4

National Security Archive. (2001). Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/news/20010430/

National Security Archive. (2005). November 22, 1963: Death of the President. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/november-22-1963-death-of-the-president

Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. Bronx, NY: Ishi Press International.

Pope, C. (2018, August 31). How a False Flag Sparked World War Two: The Gleiwitz Incident Explained. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.historyhit.com/gleiwitz-incident-explained/

United States Holocaust Museum. (n.d.). Reichstag Fire Decree. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938/reichstag-fire-decree

Unruh, B., & Associated Press. (2016, August 19). $6.5 trillion missing from Defense Department – WND. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.wnd.com/2016/08/6-5-trillion-missing-from-defense-department/

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Zebra. (2018, September 10). Tracking Technology: Your Car Is Definitely Watching You – But That Might Not Be a Bad Thing. Retrieved May 3, 2019, from https://www.thezebra.com/insurance-news/5576/tracking-tech-good-and-bad/

How the Ruling Class Re-Enslaved the Black Community

Noah Burger

The United States currently incarcerates more people, per capita, than any other nation. Our country’s incarceration rates extend past the worlds next highest jailers, Russia and Rwanda, by nearly seventy-five percent (Sentencing Project, 2017). In countries like Russia and Rwanda, high incarceration rates make sense; in 1994, the Rwandan Genocide claimed over 800,000 lives (Associated Press, 2019). Prior to 1982, incarceration rates in the United States mirrored our NATO allies, however, in the years since, incarceration rates have increased over five-hundred percent (Sentencing Project, 2017).  Currently, incarceration rates in the United States vary dramatically from the rest of the world. This paper will analyze how, and why, American incarceration rates have exploded in recent history, through critical analysis of historical events from 1950 to 2001.

In the 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency launched Operation Mockingbird, a “domestic propaganda campaign designed to promote CIA opinions – often presented as facts – within the media”, influencing public opinion (Veterans Today, 2018). In 1961, President John F. Kennedy spoke in front of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, exposing a secretive “system which has conscripted vast human and material resources… a highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations”, pleading for the press to allow “man to be what he was born to be, free and independent” (JFK Library, n.d.) In 1962, the CIA planned to carry out terrorist attacks against both American military and civilian targets, creating public approval for war with Cuba (Ruppe, n.d). While the operation had been approved by both the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it was ultimately rejected by President Kennedy (Lepore, 2019). Additionally, Kennedy was against war in Vietnam, electing only to allow small numbers of troops to be deployed as “military advisers” (JFK Library, n.d). Less than one year after rejecting Operation Northwoods, and five months after sending a bill to Congress that would later become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, John F. Kennedy, a strong proponent of government transparency and civil rights, was assassinated (JFK Library, n.d.).

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover “hated communists as much as he hated black people (Scheiger, 2017). In the 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation utilized false allegations of communist collusion to wiretap and surveil Martin Luther King Jr. No evidence of communist collusion, or any other crime, were discovered (Ruane, 2017). However, the FBI discovered that Martin Luther King Jr had been unfaithful to his wife. In 1964, the FBI delivered a package to King Jr’s wife, containing the evidence of the affair, as well as a letter attempting to persuade Martin Luther King Jr to commit suicide, because the FBI viewed the Civil Rights movement as “threats to the social order” (Ruane, 2017). In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr, the leader of the Civil Rights movement, was assassinated.

After Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President. Within months, Johnson employed the Gulf of Tonkin incident – later declassified to be a false-flag attack that implemented the same military, media, and government arms Kennedy had warned about – to escalate US involvement in the Vietnam War (History, 2009). While Johnson took credit for signing Kennedy’s Civil Rights Act into law, it had been well documented that Lyndon B. Johnson was in fact a racist (Serwer, 2014). The assassination of John F. Kennedy had “left American citizens reeling”, leaving Johnson no choice but to “push through key elements of Kennedy’s legislative agenda – in particular, Civil Rights legislation and tax cuts” (History, n.d). Johnson also created various social programs, including subsidized food and housing projects that incentivized regression. It is important to note, that after losing the Civil War, former slaveowners – members of the ruling class – implemented similar programs, historically labeled as “Sharecropping” or “Indentured Servitude”, to maintain dominance over African-Americans (PBS, n.d).

In the late 1970s, and early 1980s, the Central Intelligence Agency imported tens of thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States, in exchange for weapons delivered to Nicaraguan rebels (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016). The cocaine was then sold to various black street gangs, such as the Bloods and the Crips (Central Intelligence Agency, 2007). As a result, cocaine usage – specifically crack-cocaine in black communities – increased (Turner, 2017). President Ronald Reagan officially began the War on Drugs in 1982. Reagan’s “get tough” policies included harsh, mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine possession – designed to target the black community. However, the CIA continued importing thousands of kilograms of cocaine through 1985 – selling it to black street gangs – an entire three years after the start of the “War on Drugs” (Central Intelligence Agency, 2007). By 1985, the CIA, under the Reagan Administration, had been exposed for its role in the Iran-Contra affair. As a result, the CIA ceased weapon exports to the Contras, and, thus, ceased importing cocaine.

With decreasing supply, demand rising, and drug laws posing as “risk premiums”, the price of cocaine skyrocketed. As a result, gang violence, which was already fuming, exploded. However, the increase in gang violence is not the root cause of America’s high incarceration rates; violent crime clearance is notoriously low. Drug crimes, however, have notoriously high clearance rates, especially those that carry mandatory minimums. Over the next twenty years, American incarceration rates saw increases of over five-hundred percent, mostly targeting African-Americans with drug crimes, and dwarfing all other nations on the planet. Without irony, former Confederate States have imprisoned twice as many people per capita than the rest of the United States (Wagner and Sawyer, 2018).

In summary, two Civil Rights leaders, JFK and MLK, were assassinated. Both had conflicts with intelligence agencies known internationally for their roles in political assassinations. The CIA, ever since its inception, has implemented forms of mass media manipulation and false-flag terrorist attacks, influencing the thoughts of citizens – and the actions of congress. Less than one year after restricting US-involvement in Vietnam, sending a Civil Rights bill to Congress that the FBI opposed, and rejecting a CIA false-flag terrorist attack that would start a war with Cuba, JFK was assassinated. Less than one year after JFK was assassinated, LBJ and the CIA employed a false-flag terrorist attack, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, to escalate war with Vietnam. LBJ, a well known racist, passed JFK’s Civil Rights Act, yet added “rider” policies that incentivized social regression, rather than prosperity, mirroring the sharecropping tactics of post-slavery days. From the 1970s to 1985, the CIA imported tons of cocaine directly into the black community, only stopping because they had been exposed. Three years before 1985, Ronald Reagan passed radical new drug laws, designed to target black Americans, via mandatory minimum sentences for crack-cocaine. In the decades since, American incarceration rates rose over five-hundred percent, with large numbers of African Americans being jailed for drug crimes. Concurrently, drugs, gang violence, social regression, and prison sentences have created an endless poverty-crime cycle, decimating the black community.

References:

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Turner, D. S. (2017, September 04). Crack Epidemic. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/crack-epidemic

Veterans Today. (2018, February 17). Archival: Operation Mockingbird, CIA Mind Control. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/02/17/archival-operation-mockingbird-cia-media-mind-control/

Wagner, P., & Sawyer, W. (2018, June). States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2018.html

Any Attack on the Constitution is an Attack on the Freedom for Which it Stands

Noah Burger

The United States Constitution is the framework for a free society, built around the rights of the people. Any infringement on its code, no matter how severe, or how light, is a threat to that society. The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including, among other things, “the Right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed” (Legal Information Institute, 2017). The right to be tried by an impartial jury of your peers is one of the most important rights contained within the United States Constitution – it protects We the People from courts being used as tyrannical arms.

Opponents of the jury system site statistical outliers as the basis for necessitating the removal of our constitutional rights. Indeed, there are instances when trial by jury may lead to jury nullifications, or acquittals, deemed underserving by legal scholars. However, these isolated events are nowhere near prevalent enough to justify the eradication of a free society. The Radical Left have made it a trend to amplify isolated events, fostering emotional support for the removal the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to privacy, and the right to a fair trial. Where we go one, we go all; even if the Left only succeeds in removing one constitutional right, their mission to destroy our inherently free society will have been successful.

Adjusting for the inevitable backlash that would likely result from completely removing any constitutional right, the Left have strategically planned a sectional break down of our constitutional rights. Essentially, they attack our rights piece by piece, instead of all at once, effectively hiding their true intentions in plain sight. Utilizing this approach, opponents of the jury system have suggested alternatives, such as replacing the jury with panels of judges, or with “professionally trained jurors” (Dimond, 2011). These methods are even worse than removing the jury entirely, because not only do they allow the courts to be used as tyrannical arms, they do so in a way that creates the illusion of the opposite.

Governments have long used courts as arms of tyranny. One could argue that the constitutional protections against this are some of the most important rights contained within the document, as it essentially guarantees the other rights. Any partial infringement on any constitutional right destroys the integrity of the entire right. Without the Sixth Amendment, there would be nothing protecting the people from courts being implemented to suppress the First Amendment. Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court illustrated this idea in 1790, when he wrote, “without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression” (Bill of Rights Institute, n.d.). In closing, when answering the question of whether we should infringe on any constitutional right, such as the right to an impartial jury of our peers, we should ignore any emotional temptation spawned by isolated events, and trust the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, who gave their lives fighting against the same forms of tyranny we see being born today.

References

Bill of Rights Institute. (n.d.). Founders’ Quotes. Retrieved March 22, 2019, from https://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/founders-quotes/?fbclid=IwAR3M_8mWOcfs3OIwOnuAgyzv0S2fKLijeHPayaGL9l-Z1FOyR_FrC7wyDXQ

Dimond, D. (2011, July 27). Professional Jurors: Has the Time Come? Retrieved March 22, 2019, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-dimond/professional-jurors-has-t_b_867839.html

Legal Information Institute. (2017, October 10). Sixth Amendment. Retrieved March 22, 2019, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/sixth_amendment

Noah Burger

Contrary to popular belief, police officers are not murdering black people. In 2015, police shot and killed 90 unarmed individuals – only 36 of whom were “unarmed black males” (Hosko, 2018). The total number of officer-involved shooting deaths in 2015 was 965. Therefore, “unarmed victims” accounted for only 9.3% of officer-involved shooting deaths, while “unarmed black males” accounted for less than 4% of officer-involved shooting deaths (Kindy, Fisher, Tate, and Jenkins, 2015). Considering that blacks make up only 12% of the population, a straw man might assume that black males are disproportionately victimized in officer-involved shootings. On the contrary, the statistics are quite appropriate when considering black males commit nearly 40% of all the murders, manslaughters, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults (Worrall, 2014).

In the criminal justice system, criminal cases are granted basic constitutional protections of due process. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that “no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” (LII Staff, 2017). So, cases are carried out meticulously, as any infringement upon the rights of an accused individual may result in cases being thrown out entirely. In the federal system, due process is broken down into eleven major categories: Investigation, Charging, Initial Hearing/ Arraignment, Discovery, Plea Bargaining, Preliminary Hearing, Pre-Trial Motions, Trial, Post-Trial Motions, Sentencing, and Appeals (Department of Justice, 2016). The eleven stages of due process give the defendant an opportunity to present evidence or claims in defense of themselves or their actions.

In the case of a police shooting, any officers involved are subjected to due process on the criminal level, and each case is investigated thoroughly. However, in over 90% of these cases, police shootings are justified (Kindy, Fisher, Tate, and Jenkins, 2015). Therefore, most of these investigations will end without any charges being brought against an officer. In the small minority of cases that involve an unarmed victim, the same holds true. The State of Iowa’s deadly force law, which applies to both civilians and police officers, is a grand example of why that conclusion is often reached. Iowa law clearly states that the use of deadly force is to be justified whenever a person has “reason to believe that the deadly force is necessary to avoid injury or risk to one’s life or safety or to the life or safety of another” (State of Iowa, n.d.).

Luckily, on a criminal level, police officers – and civilians alike – are constitutionally protected by due process. Without due process, these true American Heroes would be getting locked up left and right for simply doing what they do every single day – risking their own lives in a heroic devotion to public service. Whether or not someone may feel emotionally inclined to react a certain way to the statistically ultra-rare cases of unjustified officer-involved shootings is irrelevant – in the words of Daily Mail editor Ben Shapiro, “the facts do not care about your feelings”. Sadly, while officers are not wrongfully being convicted in criminal courts, they are indeed being wrongfully convicted in the Media’s court of public opinion.

Some government officials have also decided to get involved in the case, for better or for worse. Some, such as Barack Obama, have supported the Media’s anti-police narrative. Most notably, Obama defended Trayvon Martin, a young man who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch official in 2012. In this case, the police were not necessarily the main topic of discussion. However, the platform it created was in fact used as a springboard for further false narratives, and anti-police agendas, to grow upon. The Mainstream Media spurred great outrage, informing the public that an innocent unarmed black boy had been murdered in cold blood by an old, racist, white man. However, Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, is in fact Hispanic, not white (Schilling, 2013). In addition, ballistics evidence showed that Martin was in fat on top of George Zimmerman, bashing his skull into the ground, before Zimmerman was luckily able to pull the trigger in self-defense (Benn, 2013). Based on this evidence, George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges. However, the Mainstream Media, in conjunction with the Highest Office of the President of the United States, deliberately spread false narratives to the American People that led to race riots, widespread fear, and hatred of police. In many cases, these false narratives have also led to increased violence against police (Hjelmgaardkim, 2016).

Merriam Webster defines the term ‘propaganda’ as, “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumors [aiming to] injure an institution, cause, or person” (Webster, n.d.). Based on the dictionary definition of propaganda, the Mainstream Media’s War on Police is in fact propaganda. Furthermore, United States Code 2381 clearly states, “that whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies … is guilty of treason and shall suffer death” (LII Staff. N.d). If the Mainstream Media’s alleged allegiance is to be the honest provider of factual information for the American People, then the deliberate spreading of any false narrative propaganda, including an anti-police agenda, is not only an attack on the institutions designed to protect and serve, but an act of high treason against the United States of America, and its People.

Wake Up America, Before We Lose Everything.

References

Benn, E. S. (2013, July 09). Forensic expert says evidence backs George Zimmerman’s story. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/trayvon-martin/article1953110.html

Department of Justice. (2016, January 15). Steps In The Federal Criminal Process. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.justice.gov/usao/justice-101/steps-federal-criminal-process

Hjelmgaardkim, K. (2016, November 03). Ambush-style killings of police up 167% this year. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/11/02/ambush-style-killings-police-up-300/93155124/

Hosko, R. (2018, January 14). Ron Hosko: The truth about fatal shootings by police. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ron-hosko-the-truth-about-fatal-shootings-by-police

Kindy, K., Fisher, M., Tate, J., & Jenkins, J. (2015, December 26). A year of reckoning: Police fatally shoot nearly 1,000. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/26/a-year-of-reckoning-police-fatally-shoot-nearly-1000/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.443a4b48887c

LII Staff, C. (n.d.). 18 U.S. Code § 2381 – Treason. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2381

LII Staff, C. (2017, June 26). Due Process. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/due_process?fbclid=IwAR1ZrHz814d8kHbj0QaZLEilv-cRoMF2qZ1vCdE4_dg8hgAPM-OTQEWL-yM

Schilling, D. (2013, July 12). George Zimmerman Isn’t White. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7be5aa/george-zimmerman-is-not-white

State of Iowa. (n.d.). Chapter 704: Force – Reasonable or Deadly – Defenses. Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/2018/704.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3hUhf8HZh7NSBU1EF5NkDizYnXlXDWOGr8XBCDE36ItKwh2QskOG1dHW8

Webster, M. (n.d.). Propaganda. Retrieved January 19, 2019, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda

Worrall, P. (2014, November 27). FactCheck: Do black Americans commit more crime? Retrieved January 18, 2019, from https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-black-americans-commit-crime?fbclid=IwAR1enhgDemijiPVOz2M5Gcj-sBj6D7Czpa9K0wV1r0uYhQuegMq1OgBHvRA

Thanks for joining me!

“Silent acquiescence in the face of tyranny is no better than outright agreement.” – C.J. Redwine, Defiance