- As evidence grows attesting to the fascist police state
agenda at the national level orchestrated by Bush and the GOP faction of
America's single political party, GOP fascism is occurring in yet another
Republican stronghold: Morris County, New Jersey. I have written
literally dozens of articles on my home state of New Jersey, and have always
pointed out that it is easily the most corrupt state in America.
More than a half dozen Gannett-owned newspapers recently ran a series on
the unbelievable political corruption and cronyism in the Garden [of Evil]
State, and in spite of this, nothing has basically changed.
-
- Fostered by this high-level of political corruption,
New Jersey's auto insurance rates, as well as its property tax burden,
are the highest in the nation. The state was able to get by without
an income tax until 1976, at which time a collectivist governor and a collectivist
NJ Supreme Court engineered "legislation" that mandated the Marxist
structuring of a progressive income tax to fund "poorer" school
districts via richer ones. Naturally, as politicians are now eager
to dodge being labeled as "tax and spend liberals" evidenced
by their "need" to continuously raise taxes on income, their
alternative is to either borrow or spend through bonding issues or to increase
the real estate property taxes on private property and homes.
-
- Reflecting upon the increasing lawlessness and un-American
fascism of the GOP at the national level, the corruption ascribable to
New Jersey is directed mostly at the Democrats because New Jersey is a
Democratic state. But wealthy Morris County, in the middle of the
northwestern part of the state, is decidedly Republican. The distinction
between true conservatism and neo-conservative police state fascism is
lost on the residents and taxpayers of Morris County. And just as
is the case with fans of neoconservative talk radio and TV hosts favoring
one party over another, in spite of the reality that there really is only
one monopoly political party instead of two, citizens of Morris County
have been lulled to sleep by these MSM shills for Bush via their statist
propaganda and prattle.
-
- Of primacy in America, the stated first constitutional
objective of our national government is the concept of justice. The
Bill of Rights was created by those anti-Federalist Founders as a check
against what they then recognized as being a grave and inherent weakness
in the body of the Constitution itself; namely, that the rule of law of
the land could be twisted and abused by immoral political leaders putting
themselves and their supporters first as opposed to the interests of the
people and the nation's rule of law. The Bill of Rights served as
the people's freedom safety net.
-
- As I had written earlier, laws based not upon justice,
but rather only upon the police powers of political authority and their
most popular member in power, in no way serve the best and common interests
of the people. The political State only serves itself, thereby converting
laws to weapons of oppression. It is thus fitting to recognize the
State of New Jersey as yet another example of the festering sore of the
American police state at this lower level of legitimacy, recognizing fascist
authority borne of the immorality, corruption and the injustices of its
political leaders.
-
- It was New Jersey that first allowed semi-automatic military
pistols for its police. And conversely, it is New Jersey that has
the strictest gun control laws in the nation. New Jersey's previous
full-time Democratic governor resigned in disgrace, as did the Republican
acting governor that immediately preceded him. And in response to
Rush Limbaugh's question, "Have you lost any freedoms yet?" New
Jersey establishes yet another first, and in the GOP county of Morris.
Limbaugh's devotion to anything the Bush regime establishes as "law"
includes the Bill of Rights-destroying USA PATRIOT Act.
-
- Leave it to the most corrupt state in America to provide
examples in the affirmative. Most consumers of truthful factual news
reporting, those relying upon the Alternative Media as opposed to the MSM,
will easily recall the December 29, 2004 offense of one David W. Banach,
of Parsippany, New Jersey, in Morris County. Banach is the individual
who wanted to demonstrate to his seven-year-old daughter the reach of a
hand-held laser. He pointed it at a low-flying private Cessna jet
passing over his house on final approach to Teterboro. Banach's actions
were less than clever but probably perpetrated without deliberate or malicious
intent to do harm. His actions can be best described as just plain
stupid.
-
- Federal prosecutor, Christopher J. Christie, a career
GOP politician and a rising star in GOP politics in his home base of Morris
County, once had his eye on the New Jersey governorship. He distinguished
himself in GOP circles by targeting former Democratic Governor James McGreevey's
top fundraiser, millionaire Charles Kushner, whom he convicted of income
tax fraud and obstructing a federal investigation. Kushner's conviction
contributed to McGreevey's disgrace and eventual resignation from office.
Christie has again distinguished himself as a GOP player, this time by
applying Bush's USA PATRIOT Act to a non-terrorist crime.
-
- This is, of course, the most dangerous aspect of the
PATRIOT Act. History continually confirms that once the political
State grants itself powers to expand its continuing infringements upon
the freedoms and rights of its citizens, it will eventually abuse those
powers and expand them greatly. Banach did commit a crime, whether
he intended to or not. But by no stretch of the imagination, even
the questionable imagination of a deranged federal prosecutor, can Banach's
actions be described as a terrorist act. Did he intend to cause the
plane to crash? Was he involved in a conspiracy? What foreign
terrorist group or nation did he belong to? It is painfully clear
that no terrorist act could even remotely be ascribed to his seemingly
unplanned and unintended criminal act.
-
- Yet Christie, ever wishing to serve the greater interests
of his own political ascendancy and the continuing success of his political
party's masters, conned Banach and his lawyer into a plea bargaining arrangement
thereby hoping to obtain a conviction and the required precedent needed
for the Bush administration to wield the power of the USA PATRIOT Act at
will. And this power will be employed not only against actual
potential terrorists, but virtually against any citizen that the American
political State and its rulers see as a political threat to its power and
authority. Either a citizen is with the Bush administration, or they
are a traitor and therefore a terrorist for their dissent! Christie
has established the legal precedent, manipulating Banach's lawyer by promising
to allow Banach to go free and avoid prison if he confesses to a terrorist
act as covered by the USA PATRIOT Act.. The avoidance of Banach's
incarceration would probably have been the outcome anyway had the focus
of his defense been on intent, but it is Christie's intent that is criminal.
Where in these proceedings has justice been considered?
-
- On Sunday, November 20, 2005, 400 police were busily
arresting 110 individuals and impounding and confiscating 60 vehicles in
a coordinated sweep targeting an illegal drug operation in Morris County.
Considering the salaries and pension benefits of police nowadays, it is
clear this was not only a massive police operation but a highly costly
one as well for the taxpayers and citizens. Morris County Prosecutor
Michael M. Rubbinaccio and his Chief of Investigations, Joseph Devine,
led the police sweep involving 31 local police departments and elements
of federal drug and immigration enforcement officers. And as always,
a government-coordinated action needs a code name. This one was termed
"Operation Bulldog."
-
- Why are drugs illegal? What business is it of the
American political State if its citizens wish to use drugs? Sherlock
Holmes, even though a fictional character, used drugs, with seemingly no
detrimental effect on either his vocation or violin virtuosity. Isn't
it possible that Doyle himself was a user? And what of star athletes,
or actors, or musicians, or Rush Limbaugh? Why should drug usage
be a crime? And what president of the American political State openly
declared a "War on Drugs," before he was charged with abuse of
power and faced impeachment for corruption? It would seem that the
more corrupt a state and/or its politicians, the more is the need for the
State to employ the weapon of unjust laws to regulate morality in each
of us. And it is these draconian laws that actually increase the
availability of drugs, increase their street price, and promote crime and
murder, and cause drug abuse amongst our school children. It is the
best example of the State creating competition amongst fellow criminals.
-
- Caught up in the furor of Morris County's "Operation
Bulldog" was 41-year-old Fernando López and his companion Pilar
Peña. The day before the big drug bust, and probably as part
of the preliminary arrest activity to round up targeted "snitches"
to facilitate the massive arrests, Rubbinaccio's office issued an arrest
warrant for a Carlos Acevedo-Vral. The address on the warrant and
on the envelope containing it was Apartment 1, 28 West Blackwell Street,
Dover, New Jersey.
-
- But overzealous police officers made a mistake in their
massive efforts to protect and serve the public. They hit López's
apartment instead. According to an article in the Morris County Daily
Record of November 23rd by reporter Maria Armental entitled, "Dover
residents seek apology for drug raid mix-up," Armental reports: "Fernando
López and Pilar Peña woke up early Saturday morning to the
sounds of police officers pounding on their apartment door. 'Open the door,
police,' López recalls their screams. It was about 4:45 a.m.
'At first, I thought there was a fire,' López said. López
said he hastily put on a large shirt and rushed to the door thinking officers
were alerting neighbors to evacuate the building."
-
- Armental continues López's account: "'When
I opened the door, they pushed me against the (kitchen) wall and they put
their guns to my head,' López said. 'One of the officers was
wearing a uniform. The other two were dressed in plain clothes,'
he said."
-
- Armental goes on: "López said one officer
remained with him, keeping his gun to López's head at all times,
which prevented López from seeing what was happening behind him.
The other two officers proceeded into the apartment, searching through
the closets, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, where Peña remained
still unclothed, only protected by the bed covers. The officers,
they said, never allowed them to put on any clothes. Peña
said they started questioning her, asking her who López was and
about their relationship. López and Peña said the officers
never identified themselves nor did they show a search warrant for the
apartment."
-
- The three "law enforcement" officers continued
to harass the innocent couple, clearly putting them in fear for their lives.
Innocently believing that a fire had broken out, causing not only the loud
and urgent shouts from the police that early in the morning, but having
caused López and Peña to conclude also that police were going
from apartment to apartment in order to save lives, they hastily opened
the door. Instead of helping them, the police were there and terrorized
these innocent people with fully-loaded and cocked semi-automatic military
pistols, treating them as they would the most dangerous and heavily-armed
criminals deserving of such.
-
- Eventually, Lopez was lucky enough to notice the address
on the envelope. He advised the three police officers that they were
at 28 East Blackwell Street, and not 28 West Blackwell Street. After
he pointed this out, here is the account of the actions of these professional
officers according to Armental's article: "'I told them it was the
wrong address and the officer turned to the other officer and said, 'Oh,
my God.' And they left,' López said. Peña said
one of the officers, of Hispanic descent, told them 'they had to be aggressive
because they were looking for someone believed to be very dangerous.'
Peña and López said they asked them to identify themselves,
and as they left the third officer who had fallen behind simply told them,
'Call the Attorney General's Office.' 'The entire ordeal,' López
and Peña said, lasted approximately 10 to 15 minutes. 'But
it was so horrible. It seemed interminable,' López said.
'Wouldn't you be scared if you had three guns to your head?'"
-
- Now for the response, not from the three police involved,
but from the government official in charge of their activities and responsible
for their behavior and actions: "The Morris County Prosecutor's Office,
in charge of the pre-dawn, multi-county drug sweep, is investigating López's
allegations," writes Armental. "Joseph A. Devine, chief
of investigations of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, said officers
apparently went to 28 E. Blackwell Street, Apt. 1. They did not have
a search warrant, just an arrest warrant, for Carlos Acevedo-Vral of 28
W. Blackwell Street, Apt. 1. After the initial misunderstanding,
López pointed officers in the right direction, resulting in the
arrest of Acevedo-Vral. 'There is always a possibility that a mistake
like this can happen when you do an operation of this size,' Devine said.
'Probable as it may be, it is still unacceptable,' Devine added, referring
to the apparent address confusion."
-
- Following this incident of police state terror, reporter
Armental, in her November 22nd
- article, published they day before the aforementioned
account, offered this: "The tenant in the 'wrong' apartment, Fernando
López, 41, complained that three officers, one in uniform and two
dressed as civilians, somehow got into his building, knocking on his apartment
door, the first door to the right, and ordered him to open the door."
The key operative words are, of course, "somehow got into his building."
Why are these key? Because they allude to two conditions peculiar
to that address.
-
- First, as is the case with many apartment house buildings,
in order to enter the building you must be "buzzed" in.
To be buzzed in, you must look for the apartment number of the resident
whom you are seeking, usually identified by the name and apartment number
of the resident, and probably placed atop each resident's mailbox.
Upon identifying the name and apartment number, the visitor must ring the
bell or buzzer, announce his or her name, and the resident will depress
a button that allows entry to the apartment house lobby. This would
explain the phrase that police "somehow got into the building."
An emergency in the building, such as a fire, would probably cause police
to call for the landlord to unlock the building. And that of course
would be acceptable, IF there was either a real emergency, or if the police
had a properly executed search warrant and not an arrest warrant.
-
- If the police in this case had spoken to the landlord
and mentioned the party to be arrested and for whom they had an arrest
warrant, the landlord, in all likelihood, familiar with his tenants' names,
even at that early hour, would have told them that no one with that name
was living there. It is indeed, therefore, very curious as to how
these police got into the building such that López quickly opened
the door for them. Considering these facts, let's now compare the
answers given for this dangerous foul-up by the "government official"
in charge.
-
- In her article of November 22nd entitled "Did officers
enter the wrong home?" Armental relates: "'The three-member team
that went to the Blackwell Street address,' Devine said, included a federal,
a state and a local officer.' There was no one present from the Prosecutor's
Office, though they were under Devine's command. 'And therefore,
I take full responsibility,' Devine said." Sound familiar?
It is a repeat of the Janet Reno pronouncement after the Waco massacre
of American citizens to promote government terrorism targeting gun owners.
She took full responsibility, but received no penalties or punishment for
massacring 81 human beings.
-
- As regards Chief of Investigations Devine's comments
relating to the jurisdictional makeup of the raiding police officers, one
Devine termed as being a "local officer," here's the comment
from Dover Police as reported by Armental in her later article: "Dover
Capt. Robert Kerwick said his department was never notified of the arrest
warrants and was not involved in the operation, contradicting Devine's
earlier comments that the three-officer team that was dispatched to the
West Blackwell Street address was comprised of one federal, one state,
and one local officer. 'I want to be perfectly clear that there was
no Dover police officer involved in that (case) whatsoever,' Kerwick said.
Kerwick said normally, the Prosecutor's Office would notify the local department.
'If we were involved in this operation maybe they wouldn't end up in the
wrong address,' Kerwick said. Devine said officers were issued 'knock
and announce' search warrants. In the case of 28 W. Blackwell St., they
only had an arrest warrant for Acevedo-Vral."
-
- Obviously, someone is lying! Chief Devine offers
that local police were involved they say they were not! They
say they weren't even informed of the Saturday morning raid on López's
apartment. However, Devine's comments are not only curious in this
aspect of the incident; here's another: "'The officers did not force
their way in,' Devine said, noting López had let the officers into
the building."
-
- Now compare this statement to the analogy and hypothesis
given before. Armental's first quote of López citing a possible
fire, and being curious as to how else the police could already be at his
apartment door that early in the morning, furthers discrepancies in Devine's
explanation. He offers that López let them in of his own free
will, completely glossing over the fact that this wasn't possible in terms
of building security, and nullifies as well the contention that police
used a "knock and announce" means to gain entry to the apartment.
-
- These are the crimes these three from some jurisdictions'
finest are guilty of:
-
- 1.
- The felony crime of ADW [Assault with a deadly weapon].
To commit assault against another, it must be shown that intended physical
harm was demonstrated towards the victim, and that the victim believed
he was indeed going to be harmed and was put in morbid fear for his life.
-
- 2.
- Illegal entry. Actually, if any burglary tool,
credit card or other lock-picking device were used, it should be considered
"breaking and entering."
-
- 3.
- Illegal search and seizure. Clearly, no warrant
was in the possession of the three police terrorists to permit a search
of López's apartment.
-
- 4.
- Failing to identify themselves appropriately as police.
If it is illegal for a citizen to impersonate an officer, then why should
it be legal for officers to shield their identity as being such?
-
- It should be clear from the foregoing incident that the
police, the enforcement elements of the lower echelons of the American
political State, are extremely dangerous and deadly individuals.
And their bureaucratic bosses aren't any better, whether it's a Reno, a
Rubbinaccio, a Christie, or a Devine. Bureaupoliticians are legitimized
terrorists and organized gangsters. And the more crimes Bush and
his mignons on both sides of the single monopoly American political State
party get away with, the more will be the unjust imprisonment of innocent
individuals in the State's gulags, prisons and torture chambers.
-
- The inadvertent and stupid crime of a David Banach, a
crime where no harm was intended, pales by comparison to the intended terrorism
of Rubbinaccio and Devine's three professional, potential killer goons,
who showed their utter contempt, if not an outright hatred, for their victims.
The López incident is a far cry from the days of 1950s-style "Dragnet"
and "The Line-up" police shows aired on television in the not-to-distant
past, where service to the public and protection of the vulnerable were
uppermost in virtually every police officer's psychological and professional
make-up.
-
- It was "Howie-the Cop," the NYPD traffic officer
and crossing guard for school children at the dangerous intersection of
Northern Boulevard at Murray Street that signed my grammar school album
upon graduation. And it was this officer that was always the first
line of inquiry we had to get past before our parents on report card day.
He was our friend. Or it was the two NYPD cops who made the lifesaving
decision to rush my father to Flushing Hospital in their patrol car after
a near-fatal auto crash. This dedication and loyalty to the American
public is now forever lost.
-
- Our police are no longer our police. Police earn
higher salaries and enjoy more generous pensions and benefits than ever
before. They now enjoy pay and benefits beyond that of the average
American worker. As the American political State exports average
workers' jobs overseas via GATT, NAFTA and CAFTA, thereby giving large
American corporations huge breaks on their income statements allowing magnificent
reductions in their largest expense items, namely wages and salaries, the
American political State has commandeered local sovereignty and brought
it under the heel of the central State. And as corporations, on an
increasing basis, transfer their operations overseas to avoid the American
political State's income taxes, a greater tax burden will be shifted onto
an American worker that is even more hard pressed to pay them and worries
constantly about the security of his continued employment. Corporate
loyalty is yet another casualty of the political State!
-
- In a word, the problem we now face with our increasingly
dangerous police is "federalism." Our local police are
becoming federalized. Complying with federal drug and immigration
laws, police apply for equipment and financial grants from the federal
government secured by the binding chains of obedience to federal mandates
to secure these bureaucratic favors. Police of America are being
challenged by the feds: Police of America, unite! Secure your chains
to Washington, and we the rulers will serve and protect you. If anyone
still thinks the Second Amendment has something to do with only the police,
the military, and their national guards and reserves, you will soon find
out why you were totalitarianly wrong!
-
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- © 2005-2006 THEODORE E. LANG All rights reserved
-
- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.
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