The United Police States of America
have made it official. We are all criminals. Each and every one of
us. After 237 years of legislation on the federal, state, county and
local level, there are so many laws on the books regulating in
minutia every conceivable aspect of human behavior or interaction,
that at some point, knowingly or not, we have no choice but to
transgress. And of course, ignorance of the law does not excuse the
breaking of the law.
Since the government now has the means
to observe and permanently record every action and communication we
make, the authorities have the power to arrest any one they choose at
any time they choose. Add to that the fact that ruling after ruling
by the highest courts in the land have granted police virtually
unlimited power in executing arrests. The use of deadly force is
unrestricted, condoned, encouraged and rewarded without
accountability or consequence.
Once an arrest has been made, the
person in custody doesn't stand a chance. A recent Supreme Court
ruling decided that the accused no longer has the right to remain
silent or invoke their Constitutional rights under the 5th
Amendment to not incriminate themselves, whether they are Mirandized
or not, and that silence can and will be used AS PROOF against you.
Further, innocent or not, and especially if you are innocent, hiring
a lawyer and mounting a defense could cost tens if not hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Prosecutors, with the full weight and resources
of the State arrayed against you, stack charge on top of charge.
Defense attorneys recommend taking plea bargains because guilty
verdicts are so onerous, capricious and punitive.
When jail time is handed down, either
by sentencing after a trial or plea deal, the convicted is remanded
to privatized prisons whose goal is to make a profit by running at
maximum occupancy. Like all large companies, especially those with
government contracts, these businesses contribute large amounts of
money to the election and reelection campaigns of politicians,
judges, and law enforcement personnel. This incentivizes the system
to increase the number of arrests, try defendants as adults at
younger and younger ages, incarcerate for longer periods of time, and
add more laws to the books. And this does not address the prison
culture where vicious guards grant privileges to the ruling gangs and
turn a blind eye to savage killings, brutal beatings and forcible
rape. Yet time after time the courts rule that this does not
constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The U.S. maintains the highest per
capita prison population on Earth, heavily skewed towards minorities.
People wrongly believe that our courts
are courts of justice. They are not. They are courts of law. And the
law is not on our side.
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