-Caveat Lector-
This is the kind of story you won't be seeing in the major media. Share
far and wide so Americans can find out what that bill is REALLY being
used for!
Original Message
Folks -
It's no longer a hypothetical, they are actively policing
dissenters...Let's move.
Beginning of the End of Democracy in America?
by Bill Douglas
posted at DrugWar.com
[http://www.drugwar.com/douglasenddemocracy.shtm -
also at http://www.lawrenceimc.org/newswire/display/196/index.php
and http://www.lorettocommunity.org/Disarmement/KC%20jail.htm]
September 23, 2003
A man in some country was recently taken, handcuffed, down into a
subterranean interrogation room in the bowels of a police station and
asked by a police investigator, "when I look into your writings will I
find anything subversive?"
This sounds like something one might have heard coming out of the former
Soviet Union. However, it wasn't. The country was America, the man was
me, and the interrogation room was in the basement of the massive and
imposing Kansas City Jail on 12th street (Tuesday, Sept 16th, 2003).
(I'm a writer, who's contributed to many publications worldwide,
including the Kansas City Star, and the Kansas City Business Journal).
This event emblazoned into my mind that something has drastically
changed in my America . . . our America.
I had earlier been arrested for attempting to attend a protest of Laura
Bush's visit in Kansas City. The arresting police officer "assumed"
that I intended to cross a police line blocking Broadway near St.
Lukes,that he'd told me could not be crossed. I did not cross the
police line, nor did I intend to. I was crossing Washington Street to
walk down an open street that was not restricted. But, because the
officer "assumed" I was "intending" to cross The police line, which I
wasn't, I was forced down on the ground, my hands handcuffed behind my
back, forced into a paddywagon, handcuffed, and taken to the Kansas City
jail. I was booked, according to the officer, for "Disorderly Conduct.
(Or walking where I was ordered not to, which again I had not done)."
There I was fingerprinted and my mug shot was taken, but then something
very strange occurred. The sign I brought with me to the protest was
given a mug shot as well. I, along with many other Americans, have been
working for some time to support the efforts of 9-11 victims families
who have bizarrely had to fight their own President Bush for nearly two
years to get a full open investigation of what went wrong on and before
9-11 (which Bush is still fighting, preventing information such as the
28 redacted pages about the Saudi's possible involvement in 9-11, from
being released for public scrutiny). My sign read, "What is Bush hiding
about 9-11? Stop the 9-11 cover-up!"
Ask yourself this, "Why was my sign given a mugshot to record it's
message?" Was I under arrest for a legal violation? If so, what did a
free speech message I was carrying that had no bearing whatsoever on the
reason for my arrest have to do with this situation? Who was this
photograph taken for, and for what purpose?
As I sat in the holding area, handcuffed, I was not told until just
prior to my release that I would be released on my own recognizance. I
sat pondering the dozens of people who have been sitting in American
jails for many months now, some with no family contact, and some with no
legal representation. Those thoughts give you pause, when you are
handcuffed, then unhandcuffed, then handcuffed again and placed in a
paddywagon on a steel seat in a wirecaged enclosed holding area,
unloaded in a lower level of a massive building, then walked into a
barred area, then unhandcuffed, then handcuffed again, then taken to an
interrogation room in the bowels of a grey building completely cut off
from the world and asked if your writing is "subversive," then
unhandcuffed, then handcuffed again, and placed once again in a barred room.
Once in "the system" you immediately realize that you are completely
isolated, and completely powerless. You depend on the basic foundations
of democratic society . . . it is your only hope. In the "new Bush
America" with the advent of the Patriot Act, that foundation no longer
exists. The effect this has on society is it creates "a very shaken
belief in one's right to do the things absolutely necessary to sustain a
free and open society" . . that being to speak the truth as you see it
even when the truth disagrees with your government. Without complete
confidence that you have the right to do this without repressive
consequences to be visited upon you . . . the free society we all
cherish, and too often take for granted simply cannot exist.
You see, I have no idea who my mug shot, my protest signs mug shot, and
the notes of whether someone deems my writing "subversive" is being
recorded for. I'd understand my mugshot being in a KC police file for a
"Disorderly Conduct" charge. But who is the other information for?
Perhaps n
