WHITEHEAD: Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America’s standing army?

The Rutherford Institute ^ | June 16, 2014 | John W. Whitehead

[stevie_d_64]

“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.”—James Madison

“Here [in New Mexico], we are moving more toward a national police force. Homeland Security is involved with a lot of little things around town. Somebody in Washington needs to call a timeout.”—Dan Klein, retired Albuquerque Police Department sergeant

If the United States is a police state, then the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is its national police force, with all the brutality, ineptitude and corruption such a role implies. In fact, although the DHS’ governmental bureaucracy may at times appear to be inept and bungling, it is ruthlessly efficient when it comes to building what the Founders feared most—a standing army on American soil.

The third largest federal agency behind the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, the DHS—with its 240,000 full-time workers, $61 billion budget and sub-agencies that include the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—has been aptly dubbed a “runaway train.”

In the 12 years since it was established to “prevent terrorist attacks within the United States,” the DHS has grown from a post-9/11 knee-jerk reaction to a leviathan with tentacles in every aspect of American life. With good reason, a bipartisan bill to provide greater oversight and accountability into the DHS’ purchasing process has been making its way through Congress.

[unixfox]

The liberty or constitutional rights of American citizens are most definitely not the objectives. ( more like: the targets).

They still seem to forget that over 150 million people own multiple firearms. When the SHTF they will be the ones cowering.

[cherokee1]

Organized? Well my cartridges are lined up next to my rifles. What else is it I need to do? thinking thinking? Not taking any cheap BS in the neighborhood. Anything else? Semper Fi

[Charles Martel]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Yes.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

[ChildOfThe60s]

We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

Just like now

[jeffc]

I wonder when they’ll switch their uniforms to brown.

[MaxMax]

And Americans know who those DHS tyrants are. When they go for broke we'll
all know by their neighbors where they live, and where their spouses live,
and where their Children go to school. Their main office in Dallas is in the
same building as the CIA.

[Blueflag]

Matt — You even picked the right state, 10 years in advance.

Pretty soon we will see them executing invasive, destructive, no-warrant searches for contraband. Officer Gretchen please pick up the white courtesy phone.

I wonder what the first declared contraband will be.

[familyop]

“Army?” A rather rotund army. That’s pretty funny.

[ConservativeInPA]

Police Departments are the least of our worries. They may seem intimidating with their MRAPs and black body armor, but for the most part they are poorly trained. I’ve seen local police departments qualify at my gun club. It’s a real joke. While a few actually practice, most cops are simply union thugs that take a paycheck and a pension and do not much more than go to the range a couple times a year. As for the DHS is concerned, it is a similar situation. remember their numbers are inflated by dysfunctional organizations such as the TSA. Again, low intelligence, union slugs that only intimidate those the cry for a nanny state.

[matthew fuller]

fer later

[ConservativeInPA]

Maybe you are the one that will organize your neighborhood. Mine’s organized. But beyond our neighborhoods there will be a need for coordinated and larger offensive movements.

[Bryanw92]

OMG, it was DESIGNED to be the American version of the Committee for State Security (better known as KGB) from the very beginning!

It is Obama’s “civilian force that is equipped and trained as well as the military”.

It will be instrument of our oppression in a very short time.

The military will be bled dry and replaced by gays and women and illegals so this American KGB has no opposition.

[Travis McGee]

It was not hard to make the guesses. Writing decently well was hard, but not guessing the road ahead. That was always as clear as a spotlight in the darkness.

[G Larry]

Yes, and my point is that some FReepers don’t recognize that its Fascist nature didn’t arise until Obama got ahold of it.

[Bryanw92]

>>When the SHTF they will be the ones cowering.

What if they manage to keep it from fully hitting the fan? When will you cheer for a cop or politician or community organizer getting shot by a fed-up citizen?

The government is testing our tolerance level for tyranny and so far, it seems to be pretty high. As long as they don’t preempt a football game or cut off the beer supply, the sheeple will sit on their asses through just about anything. How many scandals does it take to give up your week at the beach or the mountains or Orlando to go march on DC instead?

[all the best]

If its nature is fascist, as you say, then it was inherently fascist.

[Vendome]

I’ve shot next to some of these Barney Fife’s.

They aren’t the least bit embarrassed, though I cringe for them.

[BuffaloJack]

The Department of Homeland Security is the American equivalent of the Ton Ton Macoute.