You Are the Enemy
Update, May 21, 2003

 
> A bungled tip about a drug dealer's cache led 
> police to kick down the door and toss a stun 
> grenade into the apartment of a woman with a 
> heart condition; she died of a heart attack 
> within an hour, police said.

> A scientist identified as "a person of 
> interest" in the investigation of the deadly 
> anthrax attacks was slightly injured in a 
> traffic incident involving a federal agent 
 >who was following him.

These two incidents have little in common at first 
glance; however, both serve to illustrate the growing 
threat police pose to us, as average citizens.

In the first, police executed the kind of violent 
entrance so beloved of TV cop shows, which included 
shouting at the tops of their lungs and throwing a hand 
grenade through the door-- the wrong door, as it turned 
out. In doing so, they literally scared an innocent 
woman to death. In the second incident, a suspect in the 
anthrax attack on the U.S. Capitol was hit in Washington 
City by a truck driven by an FBI agent. The Secret 
Police-man drove away, leaving the scene of an accident, 
and the citizen he hit was ... given a ticket by the 
beloved Trantor constabulary. That'll show him.

Violent, so-called dynamic entries by the police weren't 
always commonplace, as they are now. When I was a child, 
they rarely happened, although I do remember reading in 
books about how John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde were 
shot down in FBI ambushes. But with the advent of the 
War On Drugs, kicking in doors became standard 
procedure. Originally, they were supposedly made 
necessary by the tendency of drug suspects to flush 
evidence down the toilet, and their supposed propensity 
to grab guns and shoot the official intruders. Now, 
violence is used in many situations which used to call 
only for a knock on the door. I won't go into the 
insanity of the War On Drugs here, except to point out 
that it has done for crime and addiction exactly what 
Prohibition did in the first half of the last century, 
besides giving us more prison inmates per capita than 
any other country on the face of the earth.

The second incident is interesting because it now appears 
that FBI agents consider themselves above the law:

> According to Clawson, Hatfill and his 
> girlfriend were driving to the Georgetown 
> section of Washington while being followed by 
> several vehicles. A green sport utility vehicle 
> was following especially closely, Clawson said.
>
> Shortly before 4:30 p.m., Hatfill's car pulled 
> into a parking spot on the street and Hatfill 
> got out with a camera to take photos of those
> trailing him. Hatfill told officers the driver 
> of the green SUV "had been recording his 
> movements all day when he decided to take a 
> picture back," according to the police report.
>
> The driver of the green SUV then drove off, 
> striking Hatfill, the reports said.

According to the news story, the FBI later confirmed 
that the incident happened. The FBI agent committed a 
crime by leaving the scene of the accident, a crime that 
would likely get a citizen subjected to the standard 
police treatment of being forced to the ground while 
being handcuffed. But, instead, the agent was not 
charged, and to complete the irony his victim was given 
a ticket by the Washington City police, for "walking to 
create a hazard."

In this case, the Secret Police don't have the excuse 
that they were given wrong information. True, the 
victim is a suspect in a murder case. But, and this is 
important, he has not been charged, and therefore has 
the same rights under the "law" as you and me. Which 
means we all have something to worry about if we come 
in contact with agents from the Ministry of Love.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David T. Wright's original article "You Are the Enemy" 
may be found at: 

Updates are posted as events come to Mr. Wright's 
attention.

Copyright (c) 2003 by the Thornwalker.com 
www.thornwalker.com. All rights reserved.