Land of the Free – 1 in 3 Americans Are on File with the FBI in the U.S. Police State

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 11.36.30 AMThe sickening transformation of these United States into an authoritarian police state with an incarceration rate that would make Joseph Stalin blush, has been a key theme of my writing since well before the launch of Liberty Blitzkrieg. One of the posts that shocked and disturbed readers most, was published a little over a year ago titled: American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012. In the event you never read it, I suggest taking a look before tackling the rest of this piece.

Fast forward to fall 2014, and the Wall Street Journal has a powerful article about how children in schools systems across the U.S. are being arrested or turned over to police custody for doing things that children have always done since the beginning of time. Things such as wearing too much perfume, sharing a classmates’ chicken nuggets, throwing an eraser or chewing gum.

As a result of our insane societal obsession with authority and disproportionate punishment, the WSJ reports that “nearly one out of every three American adults are on file in the FBI’s master criminal database.” 

USA! USA!

From the Wall Street Journal:

A generation ago, schoolchildren caught fighting in the corridors, sassing a teacher or skipping class might have ended up in detention. Today, there’s a good chance they will end up in police custody.

In Texas, a student got a misdemeanor ticket for wearing too much perfume. In Wisconsin, a teen was charged with theft after sharing the chicken nuggets from a classmate’s meal—the classmate was on lunch assistance and sharing it meant the teen had violated the law, authorities said. In Florida, a student conducted a science experiment before the authorization of her teacher; when it went awry she received a felony weapons charge.

Over the past 20 years, prompted by changing police tactics and a zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes, authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates. Nearly one out of every three American adults are on file in the FBI’s master criminal database.

Did you catch that too? “Zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes.” Indeed, the big criminals go to Wall Street, crash the economy and then receive trillions in taxpayer bailouts. Or they get a top job in the Obama Administration, such as Jedi-master of cronyism, Tim Geithner, being chosen as Treasury Secretary.

Back to the WSJ…

At school, talking back or disrupting class can be called disorderly conduct, and a fight can lead to assault and battery charges, said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Advancement Project, a national civil-rights group examining discipline procedures around the country. 

If these rules were in place in my day, I would have been arrested about 150 times.

“We’re not talking about criminal behavior,” said Texas State Sen. John Whitmire, the Democratic chair of the senate’s Criminal Justice Committee, who helped pass a new law last year that limits how police officers can ticket students. “I’m talking about school disciplinary issues, throwing an eraser, chewing gum, too much perfume, unbelievable violations” that were resulting in misdemeanor charges.

According to the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, 260,000 students were reported, or “referred” in the official language, to law enforcement by schools in 2012, the most-recent available data. 

The number of school police officers rose 55% to about 19,000 in the 10 years to 2007, the last year for which numbers were available, according to a 2013 study from the Congressional Research Service.

The schools crackdown has had its intended effect. Victims’ surveys compiled by the Education Department show that there is a lower rate of violent crime committed in schools, falling to 52 incidents per 100,000 students in 2012 from 181 incidents per 100,000 in 1992.Supporters say that alone proves the worth of aggressive policing.

Well yeah, and pigs in a pen are easily controlled too, but are these the types of children we want to raise?

And what about the downside, such as:

Brushes with the criminal justice system go hand in hand with other negative factors. A study last year of Chicago public schools by a University of Texas and a Harvard researcher found the high-school graduation rate for children with arrest records was 26%, compared with 64% for those without. The study estimated about one-quarter of the juveniles arrested in Chicago annually were arrested in school.

A science experiment that went awry turned into a 17-month battle for Kiera Wilmot and her mother as they tried to clear the honor student’s arrest record. According to the police report, she was on school grounds outside the classroom trying out an experiment that hadn’t been authorized by her teacher. Ms. Wilmot, now 18, said she put a piece of aluminum inside a bottle with two ounces of toilet cleaner to see what would happen. The teen’s mother said she was trying to simulate a volcanic eruption.

“It popped,” blowing the top off the bottle, she said. She was handcuffed by the school-resource office, escorted out of the Bartow, Fla., school and taken to a juvenile facility where she was charged with possessing or discharging firearms or weapons at school and making, throwing, possessing, projecting, placing or discharging a destructive device.

Think about what sorts of lessons we are teaching talented students about experimenting and being creative. A modern Benjamin Franklin would most likely be rotting away in solitary right now.

So as we militarize the police, we police the schools. See the direction this is all headed in?

Keep chanting muppets.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger


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50 thoughts on “Land of the Free – 1 in 3 Americans Are on File with the FBI in the U.S. Police State”

  1. Was back in my hometown for a high school reunion a few years ago. A very tranquil town in a tranquil western state. Friends who still live there and have kids in middle school told me there is now a full-time police officer in the school. “What?!,” I said, “did something happen?” (I’ve been out of the country for years). “No, just a sign of the times,” they replied. Insane. How can a broke country afford a cop in every school in every po-dunk town? And everyone just goes along. Nuts.

    Reply
    • To John M: Your statement is vulgar, unchristian and downright juvenile. Most cops are good; going in at least. You wouldn’t be saying that if you were ever in the position of them having to take a bullet to save your life. I don’t like “big brother” either, but the average cop is doing his/her job to the best of their ability and they and their families have to fear the usual street punk drung dealers, constant domestic calls and worrying if ISIS is going to target them or their families. How about praying to the
      Archangel Michael to defend them and their families to keep them safe and bring them home to their loved ones in one piece. Look what happened today
      in Ottawa. How would you feel if you heard of an innocent “copper” as you put it,, was gunned down in cold blood. Examine your own conscience and
      start PRAYING instead of egging on the real enemy.
      His name is satan and you seem to be part of his camp. God forgive you, John. I will pray for you and your family and please pray for mine too.

    • No, Maggie, most cops are not good.

      (Hint; ignoring the abuses of your fellow officers is called “complicity” and is illegal in all 50 states.)

      Go to youtube and search “Police abuse” then get back to me if you haven’t deconverted from your nationalistic bullshit and we’ll just try something else on the assumption that you actually do have a working cortex and merely haven’t seen enough information.

      Or go away and stfu, because you know you’re wrong.

      “egging on the real enemy.”

      Yes, that is a good description of your Stockholm Syndrome bullshit. I can’t recommend you repeat it in public if you expect anyone to respect your opinion.

    • Ok, Tommy. I did say “going in at least”. Complicit. The catholic church calls it the sin of “omission”. Seeing wrong doing and turning your head the other way. The sin of commission, active participation. Have you ever turned YOUR head the other way when you saw as innocent person being gossiped about, in any kind of need of help? Did you ever keep going when you saw a child or a woman being abused and did nothing? Have you ever fed the hungry, clothed the naked, welcomed a stranger or even someone you well into your own home when they were in need? I could go on and on about all of the sins of omission and commission. Remember this, Tommy, we are ALL going to be judged when we die. I think that we will be surprised about who will make it into the kingdom of heaven and who won’t and I can guarantee you that there will be cops in heaven and in hell. They will be judged on what they did and didn’t do as cops. And you will be judged on what you did and didn’t do as well. Don’t
      misunderstand me, I am not an ignorant woman. I hope the stone in your hand isn’t too heavy, because it could fall and break your
      “rushing into judgment foot”!

    • The recruits and rookies are some of the worst, Maggie.

      Rather than shadow projecting your mistake, why don’t you accept that only YOUR rush to judgement has been exposed, here?

    • Tommy: My rush to judgment has been EXPOSED Here? Wow,
      really? Talk about “big brother”. I have not made any judgment! I simply spoke what was in my heart and mind. What really jumped out at me is you didn’t answer my questions. You didn’t answer my questions because they are probably in the negative in reference to your sins of omission and commission. Rookie, seasoned, etc… What is the real point here? Rogue cops vs. every sinner from Adam and Eve until the last man or woman? SIN, TOMMY, SIN! Let me try to simplify my feelings, thoughts, ideology, or however you would like to define it. There is good and evil in all of us. Some recognize it and ask for forgiveness and try not to repeat the action. Some recognize it and don’t care what kind of effect it has on them or anyone else (willful or purposeful ignorance) and some really don’t have the capability to know the difference between right and wrong through illness or never have been presented the TRUTH. So, Tommy, is that stone in your hand from something someone has done to you personally and you are bitter or are you full of so much PRIDE you only see the plank in a cops eye and fail to first remove it from your own? Note: I am using question marks so they are not
      rhetorical. They denote an honest response to each and every question I have asked you. If you say you are without sin, the TRUTH is not in you. Please examine your own conscience honestly before God before you even attempt to respond to my post. Can you really tell me that anything that I have said is a lie?
      The old adage “PERCEPTION IS TRUTH” is one of the greatest errors the enemy and yes, there is an enemy and his name is
      satan has insidiously put into the heart and mind of man since the beginning of time, is OBJECTIVE, not SUBJECTIVE! I have a feeling that you are a very intelligent man, but maybe your degree of intelligence is obscuring and blurring what truth is. How did I get myself into this anyhoo? lol. Can everyone at least enter posts without all of the unnecessary language. I really was sincere when I said I would pray for your family and am asking you to pray for mine. And, moreover, another case of Ebola has just been confirmed in a Dr. in NYC. How bout praying for him and his family. The suffering that is going on in this world must be making “OUR” creator weep! Hope all is well with you and yours and I truly mean that. Mag

    • ” I have not made any judgment!”

      Of course you did:

      “Most cops are good; going in at least. ”

      When you can’t even cope with making true statements about your own words, even though they are right there on the page in front of you, nobody needs to worry that you’re going to suddenly say something useful, true or valid.

      Try again?

      Stick to *accurate* statements if you don’t want to dismiss yourself again.

    • ” You didn’t answer my questions because they are probably in the negative in reference to your sins of omission and commission. ”

      No, I didn’t answer them because

      1) They were irrelevant and

      2) You’re ducking the HONEST disagreement about your judgement, and how it was incorrect.

      When you are done honestly facing the criticism of your errors, then we’ll move on to pretending you have something valid to say, and I’ll be happy to entertain your irrelevant personal interrogation.

      Until then, you’ve, again, proven your standards of judgement suck, and that therefore, you will almost certainly fail to respond in a rational way to the reasons and evidence that prove you incorrect.

      Don’t forget to check the cribsheet before you respond, so you won’t just prove me right about you (again):

      http://twentytwowords.com/a-flowchart-to-help-you-determine-if-youre-having-a-rational-discussion/

    • What did Bob say ?
      “A mighty god is a living man !”

      so… stop praying and waiting that a “higher force” save you… think and act for yourself.

      Or leave it to the government ;-D

      Which brings us back to the article…

      so you believe in “the land of the free and brave” its the will of god that every 3rd person has a file ?

      so its maybe also ok for you to bring “democracy and freedom” to other perople (who even doesnt want it) with the full force of your army ?

      You people are very sick (my opinion) and i am so happy that i do not have to live in your country… maybe the next big flood or comet will fix it… hurricanes and fat/sugar will do fine too.

      And no, i dont feel sorry… because you do all this willingly on purpose. And that makes me sick !
      And then you wonder why everyone hates your country ???

      Like Glen Greenwald says in his last article on “the intercept” about the latest canada incident.

      https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/22/canada-proclaiming-war-12-years-shocked-someone-attacked-soldiers/

      Which reminds me to:

      “Whoever throw the first stone…”

      … and he is absolutely right !

  2. central park is filled with police on the weekends now. i actually had a half an hour long discussion with one ot them. this weekend. yea , half an hour. i stopped them and tried explaining to them why driving around a crowded park and trying to direct cyclists by bull horn from a car is not going to prevent accidents (there have been two deaths this summer)

    i’m a relatively safe cyclist and ive seen the park get crazy crowded over the past 5 years. and more and more accidents resulting from this, as well as from reckless cycling.

    the problem is, the whole concept of context is itself CHANGED over time. things really do change and the benchmarks and psychological contexts in which police see themselves in relation to the need for their service is changing.

    i had a very pleasant discussion and the police person invited me to attend a community board meeting to air my views. i told the cop, this is our community board meeeting me speaking with you directly. and shook their hand—-

    but i didn’t leave that interaction feeling as if any progress was made.

    i’m probably crazy in wasting half an hour speaking to a police person. it was the first time i ever did that , but i actually care about cycling and unfortunately, central park is kind of a shitty place to cycle during primary hours on the weekends now because of the danger and overcrowdedness.
    what can you do?

    Reply
    • Since you were referring to a particular cop…why not say “policeman” or “policewoman” or even “police officer?” Not that it matters at all…but it’s just odd for someone to continually say “police person” as though they are referring to a generic officer who’s gender they don’t know.

  3. This country is done. Finished. Over. Why bother talking about it ad infinitum? The puppet “leadership” are sociopathic liars. The entire gov. apparatus is rigged, incompetent, immoral, dishonest at every level especially the top.

    The sheeple are deaf, dumb and blind walking around lost in space. Why bother with it? Get the hell out of this insane asylum. THERE IS NO HOPE for a peaceful, harmonious resolution to this insanity. Equilibrium will happen the hard way. It’s going to be rough for those people stuck in the USSA insane asylum.

    Reply
    • Your Obvious Advertizing nickname WAS part of the post.

      Was that an *honest* mistake, or more evidence that your nickname is complete bullshit?

    • The post is the text contained in the little nice bordered box. Are you capable of commenting on the text inside the box or just want to babble about nicks? Go on, give it another try. I’m sure you can do it if you really focus yourself.

    • “The post is the text contained in the little nice bordered box. ”

      No, that is the ‘copy’ or ‘text’.

      “The post” includes everything that wouldn’t be there if you hadn’t decided to click on “POST comment.”

      So, is that it?

      More evidence that your userid is puffery doesn’t impress me.

      (I believe that debunking bullshitters is plenty good enough, but why don’t you tell me what my goals are, now that you’ve insinuated that you know them enough to believe I’ve failed with your passive aggressive personal bullshit?)

    • No, seriously, if you have to telegraph the evaluation you prefer from the audience, instead of *earning* that evaluation by *actually telling the truth* then it’s clear someone is lying to themselves, and asking us to participate in the conspiracy.

      I, for one, am not buying it.

      As long as you are worrying about people replying to ‘the post,’ why haven’t you replied to mine?

      Answer; because you know you’re busted, obviously.

      (I’ll throw you a bone; part of what is destroying the country is trust in such packed terminology. “Anti-crime” bills are making the same error, and your obviously stupid belief that YOUR rhetorical bullshit doesn’t result in the same problem proves only that YOU are part of the problem. Why do you think you can operate by a shitty moral system and still get good results?)

    • Nice abstract dismissal, proving you have nothing.

      You be sure to let me know if you discover something I said that was false, the way I just refuted you unsupported bullshit, OK?

      (And by ‘nice’ I mean like the Middle English ‘nyse’ meaning ‘fool,’ from the Latin ‘nescius’ meaning ‘ignorant.’)

    • It’s not to fool people. My UID is meant to express a value of mine. I would imagine Truth Teller’s is the same. At least his ID doesn’t scream “Yo yo yo I wanna be the EMCEE at your dance party!”

    • But note the difference; “Defiant” is an attitude, which you can adopt, and regardless of what you happen to say, you can remain defiant, and because it’s as much of an emotion as anything, there is no way anyone can possibly say it’s inaccurate about you.

      “Truth Teller” can be proven false, simply by their failure to stick to the truth, .

      Whole different story.

      Meanwhile, your assumption that you know their motives doesn’t impress me.

      “Advertizing to your weakness” is a thing, and explains why, for example, Quest spoke about a ‘spirit of service’ as an alternative to providing any.

      “Ministry of truth” is as persuasive.

      No, seriously, if you have to telegraph the evaluation you prefer from the audience, instead of merely *earning* that evaluation by *actually telling the truth* then it’s clear someone is lying to themselves, and asking us to participate in the conspiracy.

      I, for one, am not buying it.

    • Truth T.: Totally agree, I’ve known for years this country was finished. Not enough patriots to turn the tide. Politicians are cowards, geldings and bums, most of whom never worked for a living- drawing pay doing nothing to benefit the citizens. My peers (retirees) are dumb as bricks.
      Stay home folks, don’t waste your time or gas voting; America is down the abyss. Another suggestion: not a good idea to have kids since they would have a zero future. I have known about the Globalist plan since the late 70’s, we chose not to raise kids, and several other couples I know ditto.

  4. The police are just doing what every other part of our government is doing these days: creating business for themselves.

    Private enterprise has been thoroughly throttled by law and regulations… while there are few if any limits placed on government agencies.. The average person doesn’t seem to notice.

    Reply
  5. there are very good people working at the fbi and the ss. they care but c’mon let’s get real if you want America to do extremely well YOU FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION otherwise we ain’t America anymore. we’re still very young so it’s up to you. think about it our heritage our ideology made the kings and queens soil their silken panties because a man shall not be ruled by a bloodline feudalistic tyranny terrestrial or otherwise, but by what God has designated prized and true. so boil the tar, ready the feathers and pledge the stockades FOR THE TRAITORS

    Reply
  6. Americans refuse to accept the fact we live in a fascist state-those with wealth can remain above the fray, so their POV is don’t worry, be happy.

    Reply
    • Yepp… who cares to be in a faschist jail when it looks like a nice, colourful shoppingmall and was handed a pack of creditcards to waste ?
      ;-D
      Sometimes i really think the USofA is a big experiment in a contained area… then the Q is: who is the scientist ?

  7. Ok, Tommy, last one. I guess that you are not hearing me, that’s ok. I’m a big girl. Don’t feel too well and am going to bed. I really do wish you well. Goodnight.

    Reply
  8. I have a question that isn’t addressed in this article: what percentage of these kids are black &/or of color who are charged for seemingly minor infractions? I’d bet dollars to donuts the ‘criminalizing’ of offenses that historically haven’t been seen as ‘crimes’ in schools has a direct correlation to the school-to-prison pipeline.

    Reply

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