A keystone that holds together the heterogeneous segments of American public is our shared respect for law, equality, and justice. Our culture is not based on sharing one ethnic background, one race, one historical “culture,” or one religion. We are a diverse nation and an example for such diversity for the world. In large part, our commitment to equality and liberty, our commitment to equal law and order is “America’s culture.”
Over the past year, we have seen wave after wave of abuse by police authority in this nation. We have seen hundreds of thousands marching and protesting in Washington D.C. in front of the U.S. Department of Justice to call for action. We have seen protests across the nation condemning police abuse against our public and our Constitution. That action has been halting and limited to a single report on Ferguson. The action has been very “deliberate,” while African-Americans and other Americans continue to be murdered by criminals wearing badges, who do not represent the authority granted by the American people. While the current administration sent the Vice President at the funeral of two NYC police officers, the visibility and concern on police abuses is at another level entirely.
The American public may differ on many political issues and on many different solutions to problems in our society. But one thing will bring the American public together: lawlessness.
The American public will NOT tolerate our people being killed in the streets. Not by criminals thugs. And not by people carrying the badge of police authority that we give them.
In the past several DAYS, this situation of lawlessness has continued to escalate, to add to the existing incomprehensible state of lawlessness by our police authorities in Ferguson, MO, New York City, NY, Cleveland, OH, and other cities. We now have North Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore, MD to add to this lawlessness.
A man killed in Ferguson, MO for being in the street. A man strangled to death in New York City for selling cigarettes. A child shot to death in Cleveland for having a toy. A death of a Baltimore man who suffered a spinal injury while being shackled. Now we see an unarmed man gunned down in the back in North Charleston, South Carolina, by a criminal with a badge and a gun our public gave him. This horrific wave of criminal police abuse has been notorious for its racist targeting of African-Americans. But this criminal police abuse also targets the Constitution of the United States. It is a threat, not just to African-American people, but to all Americans, and it must be the concern of all Americans. You would think this lawless and criminal behavior by individuals wearing a badge was being done in some totalitarian nation, rather than the United States of America.
In Washington DC, the U.S. Secret Service has had an ongoing state of lawlessness and chaos for many months, which has now led to Washington DC police to have to arrest and imprison a Secret Service agent for threatening his girlfriend with a gun. It appears almost every week now the U.S. Secret Service has a scandal related to its law enforcement role.
But this Sunday, as we saw the Washington Post reporting about thousands of police abuses, we have seen our federal law enforcement attack our Constitutional rights. On the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City federal building, a Deputy U.S. Marshal in South Gate, CA, with an assault weapon is running down the street to try to tackle and wrest the mobile phone from an unarmed woman, Beatriz Paez, who dared to take a photo of public police activity. The anonymous bully attacking our Constitutional rights didn’t know that someone else was also watching with their cell phone and took a video of his entire attack on this woman. That video was posted on YouTube and has had over 1.2 million viewers. On the 10th anniversary of YouTube, it is now documenting public acts by a federal law enforcement officer to attack our Constitution. Every patriotic American should speak out on this issue.
In fact, I did. I am retired from the U.S. Department of Justice, having served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for six years. To me, the attack on our Constitutional rights by a member of the DOJ USMS is not only a disgrace to our nation, but it is also a personal and professional offense against the efforts by the many thousands of loyal hard-working and patriotic members of federal law enforcement to protect our Constitution and this nation.
So I also called the USMS on this – three days after this happened. Three days, after all this publicity, surely the USMS had plenty of time to “investigate” this and take some action. I was first palmed off on a USMS PR person basically ignoring me (mixed with some sarcasm) and telling me to send an email to a generic USMS email address. Then I called the USMS Central District of California, where I finally spoke to someone who seemed to understand what I was talking about, but who told me all action was handled by the USMS Office of Professional Responsibility.
The USMS Office of Professional Responsibility has decided not to have its national headquarters in our nation’s capital Washington, DC, but in Alexandria, VA. In a twist of bitter irony, it has located itself on a street named after the notorious traitor Jefferson Davis, who led the treasonous Confederate States of America and sought the destruction of our United States of America’s union.
By the time I had called the USMS Office of Professional Responsibility led by USMS Assistant Director Carl Caulk on this matter, the YouTube video of the “anonymous” USMS Deputy Marshal attacking our Constitutional rights had reached 600,000 viewers. When I asked about the OPR’s plans to act on this incident in South Gate, CA, the USMS OPR person answering the phone pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. When I “reminded” this person and ended the lame attempt at obfuscation, I was told that the USMS OPR was investigating this, and had seen the YouTube video. I reminded the USMS OPR representative that every delay without an announcement gives the American public the impression that the USMS is not serious about its Constitutional oath. The USMS OPR representative, who insisted on being “anonymous,” refused to demonstrate any concern on the matter at all. This morning the number of YouTube viewers of the USMS abuse has doubled – without even an announcement by the USMS for the minimal steps to place the Deputy Marshal on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation.
There is the view some have that human rights and the law are separate topics. This makes no sense. Our universal human rights can only be defended when we have competent, dedicated forces of law enforcement to ensure such human rights are protected. Otherwise, every case of human rights violation is dependent on public protest and the public having to do the job that we are have paid our government representatives to do.
Our nation also cannot afford a “secret police.” We cannot afford Ferguson or other police officers who take off or hide their name badges. We cannot afford those who are responsible for defending our Constitution at a federal level hiding behind “anonymity” when our Constitution itself is threatened. We need the defenders of our Constitution to stand up and be counted.
The official response is not disgust, not outrage, not embarrassment. They don’t understand it is not their badge, gun, bullets, uniform. It is ours. It is not “their law.” It is our shared law. We give those resources and that authority because we trust and respect such authorities. Betraying that trust is a dangerous game being played by the reckless who do not have interests of the law and the United States of America at heart.
Abuse of law enforcement authority to attack our shared Constitution and Constitutional rights will only succeed if we tolerate it.
Those who think an environment of lawlessness is acceptable count on the American people to get distracted. They expect if they do nothing, the American people will forget anyways, and they believe the American people’s outrage will eventually burn out while they employ stalling “rope-a-dope” tactics.
Here is what those who tolerate lawlessness in our nation forget.
We are a representative democracy. We have the VOTE. On Election Day, The American people can show how much they tolerate political parties with deafening silence on lawlessness. This is hardly the last of these abuses. We are reaching critical point where the American people’s long-standing respect and trust for our law enforcement is on a serious decline. This is not in the interests of the law enforcement, our government, and the American people.
To those passionately concerned about the 2016 election, I have a reminder regarding how the American public react to a protracted period of lawlessness in our nation.
In 2002, the Washington DC area, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, Fairfax County, and more was under literal attack, by a terrorist sniper. Sarah Ramos was murdered on a bench not far from my home. The area was under attack. People were shot in public, at gas stations, at bus stops, mowing the lawn, shopping at stores, etc., including the murder of a 13 year old child dropped off at school. Law enforcement miraculously captured the killer when a vigilant public informant told them exactly where the killer was.
At the same time, a campaign was ongoing for the governor of Maryland. While people were being shot in the street, Democratic candidate Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was focused on infrastructure topics including discussion of trash collection (I recall as I was astounded by her lack of concern), and when Kathleen Kennedy Townsend did discuss the attacks on the area, it was to argue against the death penalty and to blame the NRA. What happened was that the first Republican was elected governor of Maryland in over 40 years, in very, very Democratic Maryland. Some historians may choose to ignore this aspect of the 2002 election, but this was a very real concern to voters at the time.
People won’t stand for protracted lawlessness. Americans won’t stand for such lawlessness, whether the criminals are hiding in the shadows or the criminals are wearing a badge.
Whoever our national leaders that we elect in 2016, they must demonstrate that they understand the need and they are committed to ending this disgraceful lawlessness in our nation. To those leaders who are running a slow-start campaign which decides to “ignore” such issues, what they really ignoring is is the most fundamental cohesive force that brings our nation together: our belief in a nation with equal liberty and justice for all and a United States of America with a shared law for all people.
