-> SNETNEWS Mailing List (sent to USCMike1's 11,750+ readers - please re-post to your own mailing lists) "Government Crimes Against We the People" Dear Citizens and Patriots: This is a very important post on Goverment Crimes Against We the People. Thanks to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David R. Terry, Sr.) for forwarding this post by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. USCMike1 Subj: Fwd: The criminal state Date: 99-01-19 00:51:45 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David R. Terry, Sr.) -------------------------------------------------------------------- JANUARY 18 1999 The criminal state Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. The greatest threat to American prosperity, privacy, and private property is not private crime but government policy, or what might be called public crime. In proposing an added $1.3 billion (in one year) in its "100,000 cops-on-the-beat" program, the Clinton administration is seeking to unleash the power of government to intrude even more into our lives, which is a crime in its own right. Private crime has been falling for a decade primarily because Americans have learned to deter it and work around it. Alarm systems in our homes and cars have become highly sophisticated. Gun ownership is more widespread than it has been in decades. When out on a stroll, we know what areas to avoid. When possible, we move to low-crime areas or purchase homes in gated communities. All these are market-driven responses to persistent crime threats, and have nothing to do with the federal government. The effectiveness of these private solutions is proof that the free market can make provisions for personal security. Political theorists and economists who have always said otherwise are wrong. And what a contrast with government's promise of security, which too often results in the opposite. For example, criminal-coddling liberals say they are protecting us from crime by making it more difficult to purchase a gun when we need one. But this only makes us more vulnerable when trying to fend off lawless intruders, whether they come from a criminal gang or a federal agency. Yes, we've learned how to protect ourselves against most private crimes. But defending ourselves against public crimes perpetuated by government is much more difficult. If the Clinton proposal is passed, when the FBI decides to tap phones, investigate local businesses, shut down health food stores, confiscate firearms, or assign spies to monitor grassroots political groups, it will have more agents on the ground to do its bidding. All these actions are official crimes in this sense: they invade private property and violate rights but do so in the name of the public policy. Another examples: Clinton proposes raising cigarette taxes by 50 cents a pack, a sure act of outright theft. But because he proposes using a government agency to do it, it is called policy, not crime. There is no way for smokers to avoid getting fleeced without resorting to black markets. If a hacker breaks into our bank records to examine our spending habits, we call the cops to nab the interloper. But when government does the same thing, it says it is merely enforcing "know your customer" regulations. And if we try to protect ourselves against this unconstitutional financial snooping, we are suspected as smurfers and money launderers. Government gets away with perpetuating the moral equivalent of crime because its actions are wrapped in the garb of legality. For example, when the social worker takes children out of a home because of mere rumors of "abuse," the bureaucrat is not called a kidnapper but a humanitarian. When the Federal Reserve inflates the money supply and diminishes the value of our savings, it is not called counterfeiting but monetary policy. The new policemen that Clinton proposes will rope cities and states deeper into the federal orbit. Already, the local police are heavily beholden to the federal cops. If the feds tell the police to arrest abortion protesters and beef up security at the local abortuary, they have to obey. If there comes a time when the feds decide to declare martial law -- and who doubts that they would jump at any excuse -- Clinton's "cops on the beat" will be the frontline enforcement crew. Even on the international level, no one is safe from the criminal actions of U.S. government policy. Indeed, U.S. foreign policy increasingly resembles the lawless behavior of a rogue state. We were told that U.S. air raids on Iraq last month were directed only at official buildings and sites. But a new U.N. report, buried by the U.S. media, reveals that the U.S. government has as little regard for foreign private property as it does for domestic. The bombs damaged an agricultural school and at least a dozen other schools and hospitals (including a maternity hospital and an outpatient clinic). It wiped out the water supplies for 300,000 people in Baghdad. Bombs destroyed an important steel factory, and smashed a rice storehouse in Tikrit, north of Baghdad. In the Kurdish north, an entire secondary school was blown to smithereens. There is a reason why international law has traditionally forbidden these kinds of tactics. They are worse than uncivilized. They are the actions of a terror state. And coming on the heels of the senseless destruction of a pharmaceutical factory in the Sudan, they illustrate why the U.S. government has taken its place as the most hated institution in the world. The Clinton administration has sacrificed more than moral authority in six years of misrule. It has sacrificed its credibility in claiming to be looking out for our best interests. Isn't it time we subjected government officials to the same moral standards to which we hold ordinary citizens? Suspecting there is more to Clinton's COPS program than the desire for safety, the Republican Congress is considering cutting it to the bone. It should. Then it should curb government power to spy on, rob, and otherwise aggress against the person and property of Americans and anyone else in the world. The framers never intended to erect a criminal state. Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. ------------------------------------------------------------------- -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -> Posted by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
