Beginning of the End of Democracy in America?
by Bill Douglas
posted at DrugWar.com
September 23, 2003
What does this flag stand for again?
A man in some country was recently taken,
handcuffed, down into a subterranean interrogation room in the
bowels of a police station and asked by a police investigator,
"when I look into your writings will I find anything subversive?"
This sounds like something one might have
heard coming out of the former Soviet Union. However, it wasn't.
The country was America, the man was me, and the interrogation
room was in the basement of the massive and imposing Kansas City
Jail on 12th street (Tuesday, Sept 16th, 2003). (I'm a writer,
who's contributed to many publications worldwide, including the
Kansas City Star, and the Kansas City Business Journal). This
event emblazoned into my mind that something has drastically changed
in my America . . . our America.
I had earlier been arrested for attempting
to attend a protest of Laura Bush's visit in Kansas City. The
arresting police officer "assumed" that I intended to
cross a police line blocking Broadway near St. Luke's, that he'd
told me could not be crossed. I did not cross the police line,
nor did I intend to. I was crossing Washington Street to walk
down an open street that was not restricted. But, because the
officer "assumed" I was "intending" to cross
the police line, which I wasn't, I was forced down on the ground,
my hands handcuffed behind my back, forced into a paddy wagon,
handcuffed, and taken to the Kansas City jail. I was booked, according
to the officer, for "Disorderly Conduct. (Or walking where
I was ordered not to, which again I had not done)."
There I was fingerprinted and my mug shot
was taken, but then something very strange occurred. The sign
I brought with me to the protest was given a mug shot as well.
I, along with many
other Americans, have been working for some time to support
the efforts of 9-11 victims families who have bizarrely
had to fight their own President Bush for nearly two years
to get a full open investigation of what went wrong on and before
9-11 (which Bush is still fighting, preventing information such
as the 28
redacted pages about the Saudi's possible involvement in 9-11,
from being released for public scrutiny). My sign read, "What
is Bush hiding
about 9-11? Stop the 9-11
cover-up!"
Ask yourself this, "Why was my sign
given a mugshot to record it's message?" Was I under arrest
for a legal violation? If so, what did a free speech message I
was carrying that had no bearing whatsoever on the reason for
my arrest have to do with this situation? Who was this photograph
taken for, and for what purpose?
As I sat in the holding area, handcuffed,
I was not told until just prior to my release that I would be
released on my own recognizance. I sat pondering the dozens of
people who have been sitting in American jails for many months
now, some with no family contact, and some with no legal representation.
Those thoughts give you pause, when you are handcuffed, then unhandcuffed,
then handcuffed again and placed in a paddy wagon on a steel seat
in a wirecaged enclosed holding area, unloaded in a lower level
of a massive building, then walked into a barred area, then unhandcuffed,
then handcuffed again, then taken to an interrogation room in
the bowels of a gray building completely cut off from the world
and asked if your writing is "subversive," then unhandcuffed,
then handcuffed again, and placed once again in a barred room.
Once in "the system" you immediately
realize that you are completely isolated, and completely powerless.
You depend on the basic foundations of democratic society . .
. it is your only hope. In the
"new Bush America" with the advent
of the Patriot Act, that foundation no longer exists. The
effect this has on society is it creates "a very shaken belief
in one's right to do the things absolutely necessary to sustain
a free and open society" . . that being to speak the truth
as you see it even when the truth disagrees with your government.
Without complete confidence that you have the right to do this
without repressive consequences to be visited upon you . . . the
free society we all love, cherish, and too often take for granted
simply cannot exist.
You see, I have no idea who my mug shot,
my protest signs mug shot, and the notes of whether someone deems
my writing "subversive" is being recorded for. I'd understand
my mugshot being in a KC police file for a "Disorderly Conduct"
charge. But who is the other information for? Perhaps no one.
I don't know, and you don't know. But, you begin to see this would
be a
disturbing concept to ponder given I've accused the highest
office in the nation of a cover-up. And when the holder of that
office has told his Attorney General that he has the right to
indefinitely hold people without legal representation for . .
.well, for as long as he wants to, apparently.
In a way, I'm glad this happened to me, because
it pushed my face into the corner so that I had to look at the
dangers we are unleashing on our national consciousness with the
"Patriot Act." Now, I can share my experience with
you, and who knows, perhaps it will awaken in you a desire to
bring our nation back to the guaranteed liberty we all hold dear.
I implore citizens across this nation to
reject the ideas put forth in the "patriot act," that
encourage citizens to spy on one another, or to allow law enforcement
to peek at what we check out at the library, or what we buy at
the bookstore, or what we email to one another- because our democratic
system is at stake. The dangers of the Patriot Act don't lie as
much in the actual indefinite internment of those Ashcroft deems
to confine, but the danger lies in the "uncertainty"
it places in the mind of every patriotic American who loves his/her
country enough to correct it (which is our duty).
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Bill Douglas is the author of "The
Amateur Parent - A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything
Else in the Universe," and has written essays on health,
environment, and peace and social justice issues for publications
worldwide (none of them subversive, in the authors opinion).
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