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From: Vadik (vadik@sprint.ca)
Subject: Renewed American Independence
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs, talk.politics.guns, alt.law-enforcement
Date: 2002-11-25 22:14:06 PST
The Declaration of a Renewed American Independence
by Andrew McCrae Monday November 25, 2002 at 07:34 PM
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/11/1545325.php
The motives behind the killing of a Police Officer in Red Bluff, California.
A declaration of American rights in the face of law enforcement.
We apologize to the family and friends of the Police Officer that we killed
in Red Bluff, California.
The Declaration of a Renewed American Independence
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of
chains and slavery?
Whether yes or no, the question itself becomes meaningless when the 'chains
and slavery' we use to protect our lives begin to kill and brutalize us.
Throughout the course of human history, governments have established unjust
laws, pressing them upon its citizens with the force of a brutal police
system. These police systems, in turn, quickly come to abuse their position
of authority over the people.
Such has been the patient suffering of the present day American. The
Intelligent Independence of all American Individuals, although necessary
for
strong and free-minded communities, is rapidly being encroached upon and
destroyed by the foot soldiers of our Law Enforcement Agencies.
There is a 'War on Crime' being fought in our country today, and while a
portion of this war is fought to protect us, in many forms, including the
'War on Drugs,' it is also used as an excuse to unbearably disrupt the lives
of inoffensive Americans.
By attacking individuals and activities we hold dear, this 'War on Crime'
has, in effect, been declared on all of us. We therefore must hold the
Police as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
We are eager to end the destructive aspects of this War and resume
friendship with those Police who simply desire to protect their fellow
citizens.
But both police brutality and unjust laws exist, and we are not content to
simply obey them. Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us from tamely
surrendering that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors,
which our innocent children have a right to receive from us. We cannot
endure the infamy and guilt of delivering future generations to that
wretchedness which would inevitably await them, if they were to inherit from
us a National Police State.
We, the Freedom-Loving People of America, hereby solemnly publish and
declare-
-That any adult consensual act, whether declared illegal by legislature or
not, is, in the truth of human existence, not a crime, but a Non-Crime.
-That people in America 'guilty' of Non-Crimes are, and by right ought to
be, Independent Individuals working together in community, Free From
Interference by any Law Enforcement Agency.
-That they are absolved from allegiance to any harmful laws.
-That as Independent Individuals they have the right to be free from racial
profiling, to physically defend themselves from unjust arrest, to do drugs,
to have any type of adult consensual sex, and to do all other acts and
things that free people may by right do.
We further demand that our Police Force cease both brutalizing us and in
any
way abusing their authority over us.
To prove the existence of this police oppression, let facts be submitted
to
a candid world-
The Law Enforcement Agencies of America: the FBI, DEA, BATF, INS, US
Marshals Service, the Secret Service, along with state and local agencies,
have defiled our liberties in the following ways-
They have killed over 2,000 people nationwide, without just cause, within
the last year.
They have attempted to cover up the circumstances of these murders, painting
their victims poorly in the media in ways that have nothing to do with the
circumstances of their deaths.
They have used their desire for excitement to escalate situations that could
have been resolved peacefully.
They have operated raids in the place of investigations, prioritizing
military tactics over social skills, in cases where force was not necessary.
They have justified searches off anonymous tips, used 'secret evidence' in
court, and detained people without charge.
They have used scare tactics to gain compliance, hovering the threat of
violence over us.
They have allowed 'resisting arrest' charges to turn unlawful arrests into
'lawful' ones.
They have arrested people without reading them their rights.
They have interrogated suspects while denying them the right to a lawyer
present.
They have attacked our spiritual and physical liberties by waging a War
against Drugs that are so widely used and enjoyed that this enforcement
becomes an insult to both American intelligence and freedom itself.
They have extended the War on Drugs to justify all areas of police abuse
of
power, using it intensively as a harassment and punishment tool for racist
purposes.
They have treated people of color as criminals by default, enforcing a
violent systematic racism against them.
They have behaved as soldiers in an occupied territory, never developing
an
understanding of the actual social problems and needs of the communities
they police.
They have enhanced violent crimes between citizens by inciting nearly every
major U.S. riot since 1964 with police oppression.
They have harassed immigrants of color, and U.S. citizens of color for the
possibility that they might not be citizens, even going so far as to gather
them all together, write numbers on their arms for organization, and herd
them into cattle trucks until their identities have been proven.
They have forced illegal aliens into cheap labor by using selective
enforcement of immigration laws to control factory workers who demand equal
rights.
They have established checkpoints within our borders to determine driver's
nationalities, using the Trojan horse of 'Order' to set the firm foundations
of a racist police state.
They have assisted in the encroachment upon our privacy by probing our
identities, activities, and belongings without cause.
They have enforced an errant 'lowered expectation of privacy' in our
vehicles pulling us over for whimsical reasons and intimidating us into
searches.
They have concocted transgressions and arrested us when we refuse their
assaults on our privacy.
They have placed video cameras on our street corners and highways to catalog
victimless Non-Crimes, and extort money from inoffensive citizens.
They have hypocritically demanded that we not be armed during our
interactions with them, for 'officer safety.'
They have enforced gun registration laws, establishing a fundamental step
on
the way to complete gun confiscation.
They have confiscated guns and knives for trivial reasons, severely damaging
the American right to revolution, forcing us into channels of change that
the authorities themselves control.
They have subverted our personal human interactions by requiring government
permission for public gatherings.
They have wrenched our public property away from us by closing parks at
night, preventing loitering, and harassing skateboarders.
They have waged a war on poverty-
-outlawing panhandling, public sleeping, and hitchhiking.
-allowing our justice system to be controlled by wealth, imprisoning small
criminals, but allowing great criminals to go free.
They have harassed our children and stolen away the freedom of their youth
by enforcing local curfews and underage drinking laws.
They have contributed to an unhealthy social sexuality, declaring the human
body 'indecent' by enforcing public 'indecency' laws.
They have been the hand of censorship against 'obscenity.'
They have kept us from using fast, though safe, speeds that we know we can
handle, becoming the willing tools in using us as a source of revenue.
They have sped faster than we do to stop us from speeding.
They have undermined adult consent by waging a war on prostitution.
They have wreaked havoc on prostitute's lives by surrounding their
profession with danger and criminality.
And throughout all this, they have avoided citizen accountability by-
-refusing to give their names and badge numbers.
-interfering with documentation of their activities.
-seizing private property to fund their departments, under the pretext of
the 'War on Drugs.'
The enumeration in this declaration of certain grievances shall not be
construed to
deny other grievances retained by the people.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress of
grievances both in our courts and on our streets. Our repeated petitions
have been answered by repeated injury and the foot soldiers of our
oppressions have been protected by mock trials.
"If you make peaceful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution
inevitable." -John F. Kennedy
We now restate our grievances with the force of violence behind them.
We fully expect the authorities to denounce our use of violence and declare
us 'terrorists,' citing their definition of 'people who use violence to
further their own political objective.'
But we hold to light the facts-
-that these same authorities use violence to further their own political
objectives, both domestically with police, and internationally with war.
-that the objectives of these authorities are authoritarian and driven by
greed for money, whereas our objectives are community-oriented and driven
by
a passion for human freedoms.
-that the self-sanctioned violence of these authorities always produces
innocent casualties, whereas our violence has not.
Our violence has delivered neither burned babies nor shattered adolescents.
These authorities will, but we will not, club the opposition for
nonviolently protesting against us.
We recognize that a policing force is necessary for the safety and happiness
of human life.
We don't dare say that all police desire to be destructive of our Freedoms.
We recognize the Peace Officer. The Peace Officer protects us from
thoughtless violence and from organized corruption. The Peace Officer is
dedicated to serving and protecting us. They genuinely care for our well
being. They will bend the rules for us when they see the situation where
a
bureaucratic system will do us more harm than good.
We respect the Peace Officer and beg them for patience with our action of
violence.
But any law enforcement system where, as in ours, the enforcers are
encouraged not to use their own political judgment, is the basis for
Fascism, Nazism, and any form of a Police State Government. Through police
department politics, even our Peace Officers are pressured to support their
less honorable colleagues through silence and active participation.
The old excuse, "I'm just doing my job," is not good enough to avoid the
responsibility of our grievances.
Law Enforcement Officers, we encourage you to think less of the ways that
you are tied to your supporting career and more of the better world that
your family will inherit if you help us to create it.
Think of what our friendship could be worth to you.
If we all truly desire to eradicate the victimization that is caused by
crime, we must only police unsolicited violence, coercion and corruption.
To
eliminate these things, while violence will sometimes be necessary, it is
a
more worthy and efficient tactic to focus on prevention. We must focus on
providing quality education, good jobs, housing and health care.
For this to happen all of our police officers must become Peace Officers.
The past can be forgiven. What is important is the future.
The only way this country will get better is if we all work together. Help
us, Law Enforcement Officers. Please. Help us take back our freedoms. We
can
't do it without you.
We further encourage all of our neighbors and citizens-
We must all support one another's rights.
The Homosexuals must support the Christian Creationists. The Gun Rights
Advocates must support the Nonviolent Protesters. The Skateboarders must
support the Prostitutes.
And vice versa.
And vice versa.
We must all support each other's individual beliefs and rights or we will
never again have rights as individuals.
Don't Tread on Us.
Signed,
The American People
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