Protests, Martial Law, and NDAA

In late December 2011 President Obama singed the National Defense Authorization Act. Some of the provisions in the NDAA have come under scrutiny, such as Section 1021 and 1022 which grants the United States military the power to indefinitely detain American citizens around the world and hold them without due process of the law, even though due process is granted to all American citizens under the 5th amendment.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 was a bill that strictly prohibited the military from policing the citizens of the United States. This bill was passed after the end of the reconstruction period after the Civil War. The southern states of the union were put under martial law and divided into military districts. The military policed the streets. The soldiers policing the streets abused their power and as a result the Posse Comitatus Act was passed. In 2007 the United States Congress made changes to the Insurrection Act of 1807, the changes made to the act allow for the President to deploy armed forces on U.S. soil, and to police the citizens if he sees it is necessary. This effectively repealed Posse Comitatus without actually having to repeal it.

In 2009 the Department of Defense released their new training manual. The new manual asked a question about what is a form of low level terrorism. The answer? Protesting. That’s means all the occupy protesters, whether you support the movement or not, are terrorists according to the DoD’s hand book. This means our first amendment right of free speech and the right to protest is under attack. I’d like to know what government goon decided that exercising our rights granted under the Constitution are now terrorist actions.

So with all that being said, is the United States preparing for civil unrest in the days ahead? War with Iran looks to be on the horizon and the end of the Mayan calendar is growing ever closer; it looks as if the federal government is gearing up for something major. At this point and time one cannot say what the true intentions of our government are, but one thing is for sure, they are encroaching upon our rights. The thin line between freedom and an Orwellian dystopia are tested every year.

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