Ferguson, Missouri – This is what Martial Law Looks Like

 Spurred on by 9/11 and the War on Terror, America has become a feared military force of terror but the prime target has always been the American public which is becoming increasingly aware of their Government sponsored militarized police who see and relate to them as Middle East terrorists until proven innocent such as in Ferguson, Missouri. The military-style occupation of Ferguson, Missouri has ripped aside the thin veneer of democracy to expose a budding police state. This is what martial law looks like: Allen L Roland, Ph.D

As I watch, with alarm, the rapidly growing American militarized Police State as well as George W Bush and Dick Cheney’s recent book tours ~ where they rationalize their illegal wars and economic rape of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as justify torture as a means to this criminal end ~ I am immediately reminded of Milton Mayer’s classic THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE (The Germans 1933 – 1945).

Mayer’s book describes the slow but sure seduction of the German people as their civil liberties, freedoms and moral values were gradually stripped away by Hitler’s fascist government while waving the flag of national security and patriotism.

Pg. 166 / 167 THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE

But Then It Was Too Late ~ “What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it … this separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.”

Apathy increases with each measured step, as it most certainly has in America, and Mayer knowingly describes the consequences for Germany in the early 1930’s~

Pg. 171 THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE

“In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D ~ and one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in ~ your nation, your people ~ is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way… You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined … Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing).”  Read article ~

And that is Mayer’s main point ~ it is the spirit that dramatically changes when we accept if not condone the disintegration of our national moral values and civil liberties through illegal wars and occupations as well as our crimes against humanity such as torture, secret renditions as well as intrusive full body scans and pat downs, which will continue to be extended under the pretext of national security and the War on Terror ~ and especially when it extends to our own country, America.

Paul Craig Roberts correctly writes that the War on Terror is a Hoax; “In the past decade, Washington has killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans millions of Muslims in six countries, all in the name of the “war on terror.” Washington’s attacks on the countries constitute naked aggression and impact primarily civilian populations and infrastructure and, thereby, constitutes war crimes under law. Nazis were executed precisely for what Washington is doing today.”  See article ~  

Then what was is the Obama/Biden administration so afraid of?

They are obviously afraid of the Truth and, in particular, an informed public in possession of the truth. And the truth is that we are owned, lock, stock, and barrel by Wall Street, the Corpocracy and Washington as well as a Congress that is in bed with them. And that the War on Terror is being increasingly being seen, by the world, as a War of Terror on anyone who does not fall in step with a heavily armed Imperialistic fascist state and it’s surrogate states ~ such as Israel.

It is interesting to note that the one country on this planet that is seen as the greatest threat to World Peace is the United States. (2014  WIN/Gallup International Poll)

Which brings me to Ferguson, Missouri ~ as an obvious example of where we are heading by treating American citizens like terrorists or insurgents in an occupied country. An analysis done earlier this summer by the New York Times found that since 2006, police departments across America have received 435 armored vehicles, 533 planes, 93,763 machine guns, and last, but not least, 432 mine-resistant armored trucks, because you never know when you’re going to run into terrorist laid mines on Main Street USA.

FERGUSON, Mo. ~ In the five days since an unarmed young black man, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by a police officer here, the selective release of information about the shooting, and especially the anonymity granted to the officer, has stoked frustrations in this largely African-American community north of St. Louis, where residents describe increasingly tense relations with a militarized police. This is once again what Martial law looks like.

As reported by Julie Bowman and Erick Hekholm, NY Times ~ “On Wednesday night, scores of police officers in riot gear and armored trucks showed up to disperse protesters who had gathered on the streets near the scene of the shooting. Some officers perched atop the vehicles with their guns trained on the crowds while protesters chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” A police spokesman said that some demonstrators had thrown Molotov cocktails at officers and that some had tried to set fires. The police used tear gas on demonstrators, and some protesters said rubber bullets had been fired at them. Police said one officer appeared to have suffered a broken ankle after being hit by a brick…Two reporters covering the protests also said they had been arrested inside a McDonald’s for trespassing and later released without charges or an explanation. The reporters, Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of The Huffington Post, both said they had been handled roughly by the police.”  See report and video

As Carl Gibson correctly writes in Reader Supported News ~ “The FAA has just declared city of Ferguson a no-fly zone, prohibiting news choppers from documenting protests and police abuses. And in their first official statement since the shooting of Michael Brown, Ferguson police said citizens should only protest during daylight hours. This implies that citizens demonstrating after sunset are fair game for repression. The framers of the Constitution never wanted there to be a sunset clause on the First Amendment…. What’s happening in Ferguson, a suburb of Saint Louis, Missouri, is just like what’s happened in Anaheim, California, after the killing of Manuel Diaz by local police. It’s the same thing that happened in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighbourhood after the NYPD killed 16-year-old Kimani Gray. And it’s the same police response that was seen in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon, and many other cities around the country during the heavily-militarized crackdown on the Occupy Wall Street movement.” See article

Combat in large cities is central to the military doctrine of Martial Law that is being developed by the US armed forces. This is spelled out in a document entitled “Megacities and the United States Army: Preparing for a complex and uncertain future,” which was released in June by the Army’s Strategic Studies Group and endorsed by its chief of staff, Gen. Raymond Odierno.

Describing the conditions that it anticipates will require US military intervention, the report warns, “As inequality between rich and poor increases … Stagnation will coexist with unprecedented development, as slums and shanty towns rapidly expand alongside modern high-rises. This is the urban future. ”Radical income disparity,” is further described as the foremost “driver of instability” in these far-flung urban areas.

“In other words, the Pentagon brass is seeking to prepare the US military for directly counterrevolutionary interventions aimed at quelling popular revolts that it sees as the inevitable consequence of the unprecedented social inequality created by world capitalism in crisis.” See WSWS article on same subject .

As Carl Gibson correctly points out ~ “The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 made it clear that military forces are not allowed to be deployed in civilian neighborhoods for law enforcement purposes. While the law originally was meant for branches of the U.S. armed forces, it should also apply to police departments using equipment meant only for U.S. armed forces in war zones. Because of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, the so-called “War on Terror” included all of the United States as part of the “battlefield,” making it fair game for Posse Comitatus to be eliminated. It also allows for the indefinite detention in a military facility for anyone deemed to be a potential terrorist under loosely-defined parameters. This sets a dangerous precedent for the future of a democratic society.”

We are now seeing direct evidence of Mayer’s vision of civil liberties, freedoms and moral values being gradually stripped away by our neo- fascist government while waving the flag of national security and patriotism ~ and Ferguson may soon be joined by many more communities unless we make the Demilitarizing of police forces an election-year issue in all municipalities for candidates who are running for mayor, city council, alderman, or selectman.

Police officers shouldn’t be breaking down any citizen’s door at 3 a.m. armed with AR-15s and flash bang grenades in search of a small amount of drugs, while an MRAP idles in the driveway. The anti-militarists, however, are in the minority right now. And until that changes, violent paramilitary police raids will continue to break down the doors of nearly 1,000 American households a week: Matthew Harwood / Senior writer/editor at the American Civil Liberties Union

About the Author: Allen L Roland is a Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist. He is also a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web site at AllenRoland.com. He also guest hosts a Truthtalk, a national radio show that airs monthly. He is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations via email at [email protected].

Allen L Roland, PhD

Allen L Roland, PhD is a Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist. He is also a heart-centered spiritual consultant, author, and lecturer who also shares a weekly political and social commentary on his website at AllenRoland.com. He also guest hosts Truthtalk, a national radio show that airs monthly. He is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements as well as private consultations via email at [email protected].

Roland is a twin who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, survived a dysfunctional family, pursued and lived his dreams, including becoming a Navy supersonic carrier pilot, finding himself by fully opening his heart, writing three books, siring four children ~ and still living his ultimate dream by making a difference from a place of love, celebration, and service.

His Ph.D. dissertation THE UNIFIED FIELD was chosen by Common Boundary and Noetic Science Institute, in their 1998 national dissertation contest, as one of the top three finalists for combining spirituality and psychology. His ongoing heart-centered work as a consultant with veterans with PTSD is the most satisfying work of his life. Allen’s online newsletter, columns, and radio broadcasts are committed to the truth ~ as he sees it ~ for only the truth is revolutionary.