Formal Police State At Hand — Poor Public Education To Blame

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Leading Democrat Decries US “Police State”

Prominent Democratic congressman James A. Traficant (Ohio) says America has become a virtual police state, and he wants to create a new federal agency to investigate crimes committed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Rep. Traficant made his astonishing remarks after observing suspicious events in the current Waco investigation, culminating in the sudden death in April of Carlos Ghigliotti, a forensic expert investigating Waco deaths. Ghigliotti, 42, was hired by the House Government Reform Committee to analyze infrared film taken by the FBI during its April 1993 Waco assault.

He was highly critical of FBI and Justice Department claims about Waco. His body, badly decomposed, was found in his office in late April. A local medical examiner’s office declared the cause of death was a heart attack in his sleep.

Traficant is skeptical. “We have developed a stone cold police state in America, believe me, from Waco, Ruby Ridge, to Miami, Florida,” Traficant said. “Every American knows it, [but] no one is doing anything about it.”

Traficant has introduced legislation to create the Fair Justice Agency, a new federal agency that would have the power to investigate and prosecute misconduct, criminal activity, corruption or fraud by an officer or employee of the Justice Department.

The head of the FJA would be appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and would serve a 10-year-term — unless, of course, murdered first.
(Source: “Congressman Fears Police State, Says Waco Expert May Have Murdered” by Stephan Archer, May 30, 2000, Newsmax.com)
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Fourth Amendment Under Attack

Under proposed legislation now being considered by Congress, federal police would be able to secretly enter your home and search it – without a warrant. This amounts to a virtual repeal of the Fourth Amendment protection against “unreasonable search and seizure.”

HR. 2987, the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act, is currently being considered by several House committees. A similar bill, S. 486, passed the Senate in November. The bill has been widely criticized because of the extreme censorship it calls for.

As discussed in an earlier Liberator Online (August 17, 1999, Vol. 4, No. 16), the deceptively-titled “Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act” would essentially ban most Internet discussions of the use of illegal drugs. Also banned would be sites – or even *links* to sites – that sell “drug paraphernalia” or that merely discuss how such items are used. Severe penalties – up to ten years in federal prison — would be imposed on violators.

But less attention has been paid to the outrageous “sneak and peak” search powers HR 2987 would grant federal police. According to Steve Dasbach, Libertarian Party national director, provisions buried within the bill “would allow law enforcement agents to invade your home like cat burglars, violate your rights, steal your security, and plunder your property.” According to a news release by the Libertarian Party, the bill would:
* Allow federal law enforcement to enter your home and search it without notifying you for several months — or ever.
* Allow federal law enforcement to take “intangible” items — such as copies of your personal papers or your computer’s hard drive — and never furnish a list of what they took.

Legal experts say the secret search provisions could be used by any law enforcement agents. “The Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures,” Dasbach said. “That’s why current law requires police to have probable cause and a valid warrant; to announce their intention to conduct a search; and to provide an inventory of whatever they take.

“But how can you determine if a search warrant is valid if the search is done in secret? How can you challenge an improper search if you’re never told about it? How do you know whether police illegally seized items if they don’t have to tell you what they took? This bill doesn’t just allow law enforcement to pick the lock on your home — it picks the lock on the Fourth Amendment and turns unreasonable searches and seizures into invisible searches and seizures.

“Politicians knew this unconstitutional provision would never stand the scrutiny of the American public,” he said. “People would be outraged if politicians brazenly announced their plan to repeal Fourth Amendment protections. So politicians snuck it into a bigger bill in camouflaged language, and hoped no one would notice.”
(Source: Libertarian Party media release)
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Home-Schoolers Sweep Spelling Bee

Home schooled kids took first, second and third place in the 73rd Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.

Winner was George Abraham Thampy, 12, of Maryland Heights, Missouri. Amazingly, Thampy also finished second in a national geography bee, held just a week earlier. Thampy’s winning word was “demarche,” which means a step or maneuver.

“My mom and dad taught me everything,” Thampy said. “What makes home-schooling better is that Mom and Dad allow me to be flexible. I can do something else, like Latin.”

Thampy’s mother, Bina, is a full-time teacher for her four sons and three daughters. In second and third place were fellow home-schoolers Sean Conley, 12, of Newark, California, and Alison Miller, 14, of Niskayuna, New York.

This year, 27 Spelling Bee finalists were taught at home, while 178 finalists were from government schools – despite the fact that home schoolers are only a tiny (though fast-growing) percentage of the student population.

The National Home Education Research Institute estimates that 1.3 million to 1.7 million children — or about 3 percent of all 53 million school-age children — attend school at home. Those numbers are growing at an astonishing rate – an estimated 7 percent to 15 percent a year – as parents become disenchanted with failing government schools. “This is outstanding confirmation of the academic excellence of home-schooling,” said Michael Farris, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, of the spelling champs.

President Clinton recently suggested additional government regulation of home schooling, despite the fact that, as Cato Institute scholar Isabel Lyman has noted, “The reality, verifiable by anecdote and standardized test alike, is that in every academic area home-schooled students are far surpassing students enrolled in government schools.”
(Sources: Associated Press story, June 2, 2000, referred by Roy Lieberman; Cato Institute Daily Commentary)

Education interrupted… “The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.” — George Bernard Shaw * * *

“Good News, Bad News, Unbelievable News” writer James W. Harris is co-editor of the Liberator Online. His articles have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including The Nation, Reason, The Freeman, the National Taxpayers Union’s Dollars and Sense, the Atlanta Constitution, and many more. He has been a Finalist in the Mencken Awards, given by the Free Press Association for “Outstanding Journalism in Support of Liberty.”

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