Mike Cotugno
End the Lie
Well, Obama has done it again; First he signs off on ACTA right under our noses, an internet censorship bill potentially more dangerous than SOPA and PIPA, done at the international level through bodies like the WTO and the UN to further undermine state sovereignty.
Then he approves the civil rights raping NDAA on new year’s eve, a law that gives the executive dictatorial powers to use the military to detain anyone in the world, including American citizens within the United States, under suspicion of terrorism or “acts in coordination with or pursuant to the direction of al-Qaeda,” by an unelected intelligence body who’s definition of terrorism itself is inconsistent and nebulous.
Now our dictator in chief has authorized H.R. 347, a bill that is a direct attack on our first amendment rights, which some claim is a direct response to the Occupy protests.
The act, known as the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011” has amended sec. 1752 title 18 of the US code to say:
(a) Whoever (1) knowingly enters or remains in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority to do so, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b); (2) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.
The terms in question here are “restricted buildings or grounds,” which the bill then goes on to define as ‘‘a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting; or (C) of a building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance.”
The devil is always in the details. What this basically says is that if there is any land that the government arbitrarily cordons off and marks as “restricted grounds” because some Secret Service flunky is present, you can now be arrested for trespassing simply for voicing your opinions in a non-free speech zone.
In case you forgot, the First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Does this bill alone trample over our right to free speech? Not necessarily, but it does start to chip it away. It has become blatantly obvious over the course of history that when you give the government an inch, they stick a gun in your face and take a mile — and your money.
The problem here is intent, as is illustrated here by the ACLU, which points out that the language in the bill has changed from “willful and knowingly” to just “knowingly.”
This means you could conceivably be convicted of a crime for just showing up at a protest, despite the fact that you may not have known you were actually committing any crimes by setting foot on ground labeled “restricted” when the same ground was a public sidewalk just a day before.
This is a dangerous precedent that lets the government stifle dissent by administratively winding and weaving its way around the constitution by toying with words to make criminals out of concerned, peaceful citizens, something it has been doing for decades.
Still, there is reason to be optimistic. It is clear that the establishment is getting nervous that people are waking up their heinous crimes and are trying to put in place these draconian laws as fast as possible in an attempt to nip a true revolution in the bud. It won’t work.
This tightening of the state’s iron fisted grip may prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back if we see this implemented nationwide, acting as a catalyst to a full-fledged uprising of the people for a redress of grievances. We shall have to wait and see.
Edited by Madison Ruppert
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