With the sight of cops in cities around the country resembling totalitarian warriors out of a stereotypical dystopian novel, many Americans have become alarmed at the apparent transition of peace officers to a role as a law enforcing occupation force.
They might even be wondering – “how did this happen?”
Well, it certainly didn’t happen overnight. And, as the old saying goes, follow the money.
This week, I followed the money. And in a pretty detailed episode of Path to Liberty – find audio and video versions of it here – I went through the 3 major federal programs that fund and drive the local police state.
This is probably the best, short summary of what’s been going on since the late 1980s:
The unconstitutional militarization of American policing has occurred as a result of unconstitutional federal programs that use unconstitutional equipment transfers and unconstitutional funding to encourage aggressive enforcement by state and local police agencies of unconstitutional federal programs like the war on drugs, asset forfeiture, gun control, mass surveillance and more.
Follow the money.
There’s the Department of Defense 1033 Program. The Department of Homeland Security Grant Program. And the Department of Justice Edward Byrne JAG Program.
They’re all used to expand and militarize local police – and push them to focus on federal enforcement rather than local needs – they no longer act as true “peace officers.”
We also see the influence of these task forces in the state legislative process. Police lobbyists often oppose warrant requirements, limits on state and local cooperation with federal surveillance, prohibitions on the state enforcement of unconstitutional federal gun control, asset forfeiture reform, and other laws blocking state enforcement of unconstitutional federal laws because they don’t want to jeopardize “our federal partnerships.”
In other words, their relationships with their “federal partners” trump the Constitution. And we see this happen in every state, too.
But it’s not just the money. It’s the “Joint Task Forces” that go with it too.
There are literally hundreds of them.
When state or local law enforcement officers join a federal joint task force, they are deputized as federal agents.
As a result, they then operate under the exact same parameters as an FBI or DEA or ATF agent.
That means they act as if they are no longer bound by state laws which often restrict their activity in ways that the feds do not. In practice, this allows local cops to ignore state laws as they collect information on people in their communities, take their property through asset forfeiture or gun control, spy on them, and so much more.
Personally, I think this information is incredibly important, and I hope you’ll find it interesting and educational too. At the link below, you’ll find not only the podcast and video of the show I did on Wednesday – but a bunch of links where you can read and learn even more.
Here’s the link:
https://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2020/05/war-on-liberty-an-overview-of-federal-programs-that-militarize-and-nationalize-local-police/
Thank you so much for reading, watching, listening and sharing!
Concordia res parvae crescunt,
(small things grow great by concord)
–Michael Boldin, TAC