Dear Editor:
The recent events of constitutional abuses from local law enforcement is a symptom of a much bigger problem, namely a developing militarized police state across America.
LETTER: Keeping the peace?
There have always been a few bad cops as in any profession but police abuses and brutality have reached epidemic levels nationwide. Hardly a week goes by without a new incident of cop or cops beating up or tasering somebody without just cause. Even worse is the frequent attitude of joking and laughter among the abusers and evasion of responsibility by most of the departments that employ them.
The Winder Police Department is obviously attempting to do the same by moving the lawsuit to a more lenient federal court.
More than 300 people in North America have been killed by lawmen with so-called non-lethal tasers since 1999. And many if not most taser deaths are blamed on other causes. Rarely are lawmen held accountable. Deaths have occurred in Georgia. Cops have tasered school children, the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled, and others for peacefully exercising their right of non-abusive free speech.
Sometimes victims already on the ground are tasered repeatedly. Taser brutality by police has become so widespread in the United States that a UN committee declared them a form of torture that can kill.
And then we have no-knock raids, a clear violation of the fourth amendment if there ever was one.
Swat teams were designed for dealing with extremely violent individuals presenting a clear and present danger to others but now are being used routinely across America against non-violent citizens.
Totally innocent citizens are being terrorized, dying from heart attacks, and having their homes trashed from no-knock raids across America, many at the wrong address. Physical and verbal abuse is common. Loaded shotguns have been pointed at the heads of small children and the elderly and harmless pets brutally killed.
Any hint of self-defense against such violent home invasion in the middle of the night usually results in being shot dead on the spot like the 92-year-old woman in Atlanta. Even the Nazi Gestapo knocked first. Although incidents of extreme abuse are not as prevalent in Georgia as some other states they have been documented by the Cato Institute.
Section 45-3-1 of the Official Code of Georgia states that every public official shall swear to support the US and Georgia constitutions. Those elected and appointed officials violating it should be removed from office. Lawmen abusing citizens should personally be held liable for their actions. When public servants are held to a lower standard of laws than the people they serve it does not bode well for our future.
In 2006, The State of World Liberty Index ranked the United States 19th in terms of individual liberty. How much lower must we sink before we recognize and admit our own decadence and reverse it? It is never right to abuse the constitutional right of any person in attempting to apprehend a suspect. Do we even have true constitutional law in America anymore?
Thankfully we now have a local newspaper that will report the truth.
Sincerely,
Steven Garren
Winder
The Winder Police Department is obviously attempting to do the same by moving the lawsuit to a more lenient federal court.
More than 300 people in North America have been killed by lawmen with so-called non-lethal tasers since 1999. And many if not most taser deaths are blamed on other causes. Rarely are lawmen held accountable. Deaths have occurred in Georgia. Cops have tasered school children, the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled, and others for peacefully exercising their right of non-abusive free speech.
Sometimes victims already on the ground are tasered repeatedly. Taser brutality by police has become so widespread in the United States that a UN committee declared them a form of torture that can kill.
And then we have no-knock raids, a clear violation of the fourth amendment if there ever was one.
Swat teams were designed for dealing with extremely violent individuals presenting a clear and present danger to others but now are being used routinely across America against non-violent citizens.
Totally innocent citizens are being terrorized, dying from heart attacks, and having their homes trashed from no-knock raids across America, many at the wrong address. Physical and verbal abuse is common. Loaded shotguns have been pointed at the heads of small children and the elderly and harmless pets brutally killed.
Any hint of self-defense against such violent home invasion in the middle of the night usually results in being shot dead on the spot like the 92-year-old woman in Atlanta. Even the Nazi Gestapo knocked first. Although incidents of extreme abuse are not as prevalent in Georgia as some other states they have been documented by the Cato Institute.
Section 45-3-1 of the Official Code of Georgia states that every public official shall swear to support the US and Georgia constitutions. Those elected and appointed officials violating it should be removed from office. Lawmen abusing citizens should personally be held liable for their actions. When public servants are held to a lower standard of laws than the people they serve it does not bode well for our future.
In 2006, The State of World Liberty Index ranked the United States 19th in terms of individual liberty. How much lower must we sink before we recognize and admit our own decadence and reverse it? It is never right to abuse the constitutional right of any person in attempting to apprehend a suspect. Do we even have true constitutional law in America anymore?
Thankfully we now have a local newspaper that will report the truth.
Sincerely,
Steven Garren
Winder
Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, "When all government shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." - How true that is... We, as a people, have lost our way, and it is time to go back to the fundamentals that this country was based on - The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and last but not least GOD.