– NYPD States you are Guilty Until Proven Innocent (Liberty Blitzkrieg, May 9, 2013):
Thanks to a crazed overemphasis on financial parasitism as it’s number one economic export, NYC has already lost much of its heart and soul and no longer resembles the city I once knew and loved. Unfortunately, this is still not enough for the authoritarians running the city, led by the increasingly insane oligarch Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The spiritual death of NYC is one of many reasons I decided to leave it for Colorado in late 2010, an emotional move I described in my post: The Biggest Trade of My Life.
The most recent exploiter of the Boston tragedy is a Sergeant Ed Mullins of the NYPD who stated:
Using a zero tolerance approach to track domestic terrorists online is the only reasonable way to analyze online threats these days, especially after the Boston Marathon bombing and news that the suspects had subsequently planned to target Times Square in Manhattan, Mullins says. The way law enforcement agencies approach online activity that appears sinister is this: “If you’re not a terrorist, if you’re not a threat, prove it,” he says.
Wait, what was that? I’m pretty sure the most basic tenet of our rule of law is you are assumed innocent until proven guilty. Apparently not in New York City. Tim Cushing at Techdirt does a great job reporting on this frightening statement. He writes:
“Zero tolerance” is never ”reasonable.” It never has been and it never will be. In fact, it’s the polar opposite. Zero tolerance policies simply absolve the enforcers of any responsibility for the outcome and grant them the privilege of ignoring mitigating factors. It allows them to bypass applying any sort of critical thinking skills (the “reason” part of “reasonable”) and view every infractions as nothing more than a binary IF THEN equation.
Believe it or not, Mullins is not done talking. What he says next doubles up on the “dangerous” and “stupid. “This is the price you pay to live in free society right now. It’s just the way it is,” Mullins adds.
No. It isn’t.
That’s the price New Yorkers are paying. It has nothing to do with living in a free society. The NYPD takes liberties away and high-ranking cops like Mullins have the gall to suggest there’s some sort of equitable exchange occurring. Mullins doesn’t seem to understand (or just doesn’t care) that if you take away freedom you no longer have a free society.
It has been said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, but “eternal vigilance” isn’t shorthand for oppressive surveillance and zero tolerance policies that make freedom less “free.” “Eternal vigilance” isn’t treating the Constitution like a relic too worn and tattered to serve any purpose in these “dangerous” times. And being an officer of the law isn’t an excuse to shut your intellect off and allow your brain stem and broad policies to “work” in concert in order to treat loudmouth teens on Facebook like a guy with a trailer home full of explosives.
It doesn’t have to be this way New York.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike