The American media and columnists are sounding an alarm on an issue that could portend, under a worst case scenario, that America is headed toward a police state kind of existence. The first link is by John Whitehead, the respected head of The Rutherford Institute. It has a detailed analysis of the behemoth bureaucracy and armed force that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now become. I urge readers to take the time to review his column about the DHS, which he refers to as “a runaway train” that is developing massive people-control databases, distributing and amassing weaponry and ammunition, etc. I think it is fair to say the DHS has become far larger and more potentially invasive toward innocent citizens than Congress ever intended when DHS was created. It was created to focus on anti-terrorism efforts to protect innocent Americans and America’s national security interests, not to manipulate and control innocent citizens. The DHS has become a conduit through which a great deal of military weaponry, armored vehicles and other gear is being directed to local police forces. If this trend continues, an American police state could be imposed by a dictatorially minded US president who might try to issue an Executive Order to federalize all police forces and put them under the DHS to become a kind of American Gestapo. Such an Executive Order would be egregiously unconstitutional and it is an open question how widely it would be obeyed by uniformed forces, but it does seem that US presidents don’t obey the US Constitution as they should. Congress appears to be increasingly derelict in its duties to assert its legislative powers to make laws and not allow federal executive agencies to “make laws” via the rule-making process.
Even the establishment New York Times has run an article about the tidal wave of military equipment being sent to local police agencies by the federal government (second link). Many police departments are receiving the MRAP armored vehicles that the US manufactured for the US army in the Afghan and Iraqi wars to protect soldiers against Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). The New York Times article has a detailed listing of the types of military equipment sent to local police departments and a map showing where they have been distributed. It is well worth your reading. The third link is a Google results listing of the many links on the Internet which have stories and reports about the militarization of American local police departments. I did see a report on Al Jazeera America (a cable news television channel) about this issue, and they reported on incidents where militarized Swat teams have apparently killed innocent civilians and acted over-zealously.
Now, I’d like to submit for your consideration another possible reason for the military gear being sent to local police departments. In a post I did years ago, I cited media links wherein the federal government itself was warning about Islamic Jihadi “sleeper cells” that exist in the USA–waiting to be activated in the event of a war where the US gets involved in a war involving Iran, Syria or some other nation. I recall one story that cited a warning from the Jihadis that they could attack in rural areas as well as in urban cities. Such sleeper cells could, literally, be anywhere. If they are ever activated, first responders will be local police departments and then the National Guard units in the various states. Any sleeper cells could be armed with sophisticated weaponry obtained by foreign nations or arms dealers and smuggled into the USA. They could have RPGs, mortars, machine guns, explosive devices, shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft weapons, etc. I’m just speculating here. I hope they don’t have such weapons, but they could. If they do, local police departments can’t be expected to respond to them with mere side arms. They will need the kind of weaponry that the DHS and perhaps other federal agencies are now distributing to them in advance of any crisis. Even the drug gangs in American cities might have major weaponry that the police may have to confront.
On a personal note, decades ago when I was a Personnel Manager for a government agency, I served as the chairman of several hiring panels where police officers were hired. This experience allowed me to get to know high-ranking police officers and learn their perspectives. I also attended the Civilian Police Academy which is offered in my city where police departments allow attendees to have insightful experience with each aspect of the local police department. Current classes allow attendees to fire weapons at the police firing range, but that was not offered when I attended one of first classes years ago. I also worked closely with the local police department in founding a Neighborhood Watch area which was formed to shut down a drug houses and has dealt with other issues periodically. For one year, I served as the “president” of the citywide Sioux Falls’ Neighborhood Watch groups (great title, no salary). These experiences enable me to see things from a government perspective, and governments at all levels have planners and Emergency Service Divisions which make plans for every conceivable situation and disaster that might occur. In the event of a major disaster when I worked in government, I had a role which I would have been assigned to do. Thankfully, no such disaster occurred, but one never knows when such a thing might happen due to a tornado, earthquake, hurricane or other weather disasters in addition to terrorism. At the federal level, government officials plan for every possible contingency as well. There have been many reports of “secret” FEMA camps built all over the USA. There has been such a torrent of information about them on the Internet that they are surely no “secret” any longer. One genre of Internet perspectives is that they are being built to hold captive patriotic Americans, veterans, Christians, “Ron Paul supporters,” etc. Allow me to give another possible perspective, based on my past experience inside a governmental agency.
We have been warned by government spokespeople, “Talking Heads” on TV, columnists, etc. that there is the possibility of a “dirty nuclear bomb” threat being made by terrorists against an American city. No one knows where such an attack might occur, but all regions and cities have to plan for such a thing. What if there is another “Katrina-type” hurricane or the “Big One” earthquake in California that the seismic experts have warned could occur any time. There have been many warnings about a possible EMP event that wipes out electrical service infrastructure. If any of these events happen, where do you put the survivors, refugees, etc. who will flee from a large metro area in the event of such a catastrophe or even the threatened possibility of it happening? It would be a very reasonable emergency plan to build camps for refugees and survivors at locations accessible to metro areas. This would be critical to have in wintertime for everyone’s good.
In summation, the militarization of the police forces may have an ulterior motive to impose a police state. Revelation 13:11-18 warns that an eventual “beast” power will impose controls on all monetary and commercial matters at some point. It can be inferred that control freaks will attempt to control all other aspects of life as well. However, keep in mind we are currently living under the global “Babylon the Great” system which is prophesied to collapse in the latter days and be replaced by the “beast” system (Revelation 17:9-18) which will reign for only 42 months (Revelation 13:1-5) before Jesus Christ returns to impose his Divine reign on the earth and mankind (Revelation 1911-20:5). The current governments of the earth are tied into the Babylon the Great system. This system is prophesied in Revelation 17 to be overthrown by “seven heads and ten horns” who will wreck the current system with “extreme prejudice” (Revelation 17:16). We do not know who the “seven heads and ten horns” will be. They may be nations and international entities or they could be seven actual leaders of a new system waiting to take power via the “ten horns” who will act in their service. We were told by then-Secretary of the Treasury Paulson that the current banking/monetary system came within hours of collapse in 2008, so we have been warned by a high UIS official that the current system has already stood on the precipice of global collapse. I have a post about the possible biblically significant importance of the year 2015. Please understand I make no predictions myself. I try to analyze modern events in light of biblical perspectives and pass this analysis to readers as long as there is support for this blog. For more information on why the Bible calls the modern global system “Babylon the Great,” please read my articles, The Babylonian Origin of the Modern Banking System, and Is Babylon the Great about to Fall…Ushering in a New Beast System? The first article will likely surprise you as to how accurate the biblical description really is and the second article will examine aspects of how the biblical prophecy in Revelation 17-18 may be fulfilled. Again, I never set dates or years for specific fulfillments.
One last comment. Jesus Christ prophesied in Matthew 24:24 that the final deceptive system [the “beast”] will be so deceptive that even the “very elect” would be taken in by it “if it were possible.” In order for this to be fulfilled, the beast system has to take control of the earth in a way that will appeal greatly to strong Christian believers. I expect its beginning will be benign and welcomed even by Christians at first. There is precedent for this type of thing happening. I’m sure many German Christians voted for Adolph Hitler in Germany’s 1932 election. We do not know who the Beast leader will be, but expect him to come in the guise of a deliverer from the evils of the current Babylon the Great system and the creator of a New World Order. How the militarization of the local American police forces fits into these prophecies, we will have to wait and see.
- Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America’s standing army?
- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html?_r=0
- https://www.google.com/#q=Police+stocking+up+on+surplus+military+equipment
