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Friday 10 January 2014 - 08:30

US police declare 'emergency' martial law

Story Code : 339570
An Indiana State Police car parked on the side of an icy road (file photo)
An Indiana State Police car parked on the side of an icy road (file photo)
This may seem like a “minor thing.”  It wasn’t.  We will deal only with this in the very real light it should be seen in: an attack on civil liberties.  As for those within the military who have identified the recent “Arctic vortex” as a test of a United States Air Force weather management system due to come online in 2030, such a discussion would violate tenets of national security and have no place in the public sector.
 
Americans had seen “snow emergencies” for years, regulation that cleared parking spaces so snowplows could operate.  This was different, not just in size and scope but in the application of law.  Police in the United States were given the right to stop and arrest anyone they chose, anyone driving a car that is, based on whether they simply liked the “look” of the person they stopped.
 
The move, carefully coordinated across the country, emptied streets in regions nearly 2,000 miles across for days.  The move is without constitutional basis and has been seen by activists as a precursor to other “emergencies” that suspend citizens’ rights and place Americans at the mercy of “gun toting thugs,” how a majority of Americans are increasingly looking on their militarily armed and Israeli trained police.
 
Over the past few months incidents of police violence, gunning down children armed with toys, shooting at minivans driven by mothers with children or pistol whipping minorities, always a favorite, have become commonplace.  The increase in such incidents is frightening.
 
It is really that simple and that utterly illegal, in fact so illegal it might remind one of the kind of rules Israel applies toward anyone they “don’t like the look of.”  Currently, thousands of Africans, mostly of Semitic bloodline, are protesting Israel’s policy of indefinite detention for refugees seeking a homeland from oppression.
 
Please excuse the irony.
 
The recent instance of martial law, confining nearly 100 million people to their homes for four days, is the largest such exercise in history.
 
During this time, the Central United States was under a cold advisory as near record low temperatures spread across the country.  With the lower temperatures, snowfall, not unlike typical winter storms seen each year, brought out plows and salt trucks. 
 
Moreover, nearly 40 percent of Americans drive vehicles that are “off road” capable, either SUV’s (Sport Utility Vehicles) or trucks with high ground clearance and 4-wheel drive.  The most common vehicle in America is the Ford F-150 truck, capable of traversing any terrain most military vehicles can.
 
The largest single group in the US with vehicles incapable of safe winter travel is the police, with most forces using rear-wheel drive only vehicles with very poor winter performance.
 
They choose these vehicles because of their ancient design, a body mounted on a heavy steel frame, which allowed them to ram motorists.  Increasingly, as in Britain, police kill innocent bystanders while involved in high speed chases of dangerous criminal who fail to pay parking fines or who owe taxes. 
 
New, Israeli built license scanners are capable of detecting motorists who are late in paying car insurance.  In fact, this is considered reasonable cause for pursuit in Britain.
 
The drama here in the United States began when millions were allowed to leave their homes, finding roads not only clear but dry, having been so for days.
 
“Weather Emergencies” were haphazardly announced, changed from hour to hour from “level 3” to “level 2” and back.  Common weather or government sites carried no explanations and residents were forced to watch the information feeds across the bottom of their television screens to find out whether they could legally drive.
 
Several important legal issues have identified this seemingly innocent drift into totalitarianism as something more sinister.
 
    - Police could legally stop anyone without “probable cause.”  Simply being “out” was considered reason enough to suspect criminal intent.  This is a serious constitutional violation.
 
    - The “Emergency Mandates,” having no official legal standing, not only carry the power of law but preclude any form of due process.  “Violators” are anyone an armed police officer considers a “violator” though no criteria were established.  News announcements told motorists that they should only travel “if necessary.”  Many later learned that they would be issued fines of up to 500 dollars simply for driving to buy food for their children.  Perhaps they should consider themselves lucky they weren’t executed on the spot as has happened to so many others.
 
    - Standards for this “emergency” were, in most cases, almost insane.  Roads were cleared in some areas in an hour, others in several hours.  If police were out, supplied with the worst vehicles possible, anyone could safely drive.  If police couldn’t safely drive, then why were they out at all?
 
    - What really happened is simple:  America has now criminalized simply being outside when police decide they want to close the country down.  Why would someone want such a power?  Now that it has been done, it can be done again, can and will, but next time it will be some other reason, most likely to protect us from ourselves, perhaps voting, political protests or potentially interfering in a “change of government.”
 
Who Benefits
 
The scam this week was staged to benefit the insurance industry.  In America, the “insurance lobby” is all-powerful, exceeded only by the Israel lobby.  They are often “one and the same.”
 
Thus, when The Affordable Healthcare Act threatened to limit the power of insurance companies to cancel policies at will or deny payments whenever they chose, with no legal recourse, the Israel Lobby and their Tea Party affiliates began screaming “socialism.”
 
Now the auto insurance industry, wishing to limit exposure during high-accident winter driving simply lobbied the state governments to suspend constitutional rights and close schools, stores, even to the point of using force to confine tens of millions to their homes, on the possibility that slippery roads would cause motor vehicle damage and negatively impact their profitability.
 
Please note that soaring auto insurance rates have long taken into account rain and snow.  Moreover, recent studies show that texting while driving is much more dangerous than driving in rain and snow but as the insurance companies own a portion of the mobile phone industry, there is little chance that realistic restrictions on this dangerous threat will ever be imposed.
 
In many states, secret mandates were passed that negated, without notice, all insurance coverage for anyone “out” during a snow emergency.  No auto repairs or medical bills would be paid.
 
No one was told.
 
In several states, fines of up to $5000, enforceable by up to one year in prison for non-payment, would be imposed if a driver slid off the road while even driving to the hospital.
 
“You just can’t make these things up,” as is so often said by American humorist Jim W. Dean.
 
What did Americans get from their week of cold and snow?
 
    For sure, a gun in the face and a hand in their pocket.
 
    A chance to wait for the next emergency, perhaps “too sunny” or even “too nice outside to drive.”
 
What did police get?
 
They got the right to do anything they want.  Who profits by such a thing?  Who would want a nation cowering in fear watching their TV screens for permission to leave their homes?
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