Is America becoming a police state?

By Chuck Baldwin

There is a classic story about how no one had been able to capture a herd of wild hogs that was rooting up crops from numerous farms. It got so bad that rewards had been posted for anyone clever enough to corral the critters. But even this resulted in only limited success.

One day a stranger (who was a wily old trapper) came into town and — entering the general store — ordered a truckload of fence posts and fencing, along with some feed. When asked what he was going to use it for, he said, "I'm going to get those wild hogs y'all are having trouble with." Of course, everyone in the store laughed at the overconfident stranger. A few weeks later, however, the stranger rode into town with the back of his truck tightly packed with the smelly swine.

When asked how he was able to accomplish what no one else had been able to do, the old trapper replied, "Simple. I started putting the feed out in a small clearing and the hogs began freely eating the feed. It didn't take long and they were there every day. Then I put up the fence posts, but with no fencing. At first the hogs were a little skittish, but it wasn't long and they ignored the posts. Then I began putting the fence up, but I left the gate off. Again, the hogs were skittish at first, but soon realized they could come and go freely, and before long, they were devouring the free food with a vengeance. Then, one day when the hogs were aggressively consuming the vittles, I slammed the gate closed."

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that what the old trapper did to the wild hogs is exactly what our soon-to-be oppressors are doing to us! What is worse, most Americans seem about as oblivious to the whole thing as that bunch of pigs. For anyone who is paying attention, however, the signs of growing enslavement are everywhere.

Inside my web site is a link page that is constantly updated with pertinent information relating to how America is quickly being turned into Huxley's Brave New World. I invite readers to regularly visit this page. It is entitled "The Emerging Police State."

See the web page at:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/patriotact.html

Here is a sampling of just this year's relevant headlines to date:

"Police Push For Warrantless Searches Of Cell Phones" (CNET News)

"During The Olympics, The Feds Will Be Reading Your Tweets — And The Blotter"

(ABC News)

"Feds Push For Tracking Cell Phones" (CNET News)

"Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh, Respond To 'Domestic Disputes'" (PrisonPlanet.com)

"Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm Ban" (WXII-12 TV News, Winston-Salem, North Carolina)

"Ron Paul Warns Of Social Unrest And Martial Law" (Texas Congressman Ron Paul)

"FBI Broke Law For Years In Phone Record Searches" (The Washington Post)

"Top Obama Czar: Infiltrate All 'Conspiracy Theorists'" (World Net Daily)

"President Gives Foreign Cops Power Over Americans" (Retired lawman Jim Kouri)

Those are just some of the headlines from 2010 so far. Check out the headlines from 2009 and backward to discover that the list of relevant news stories is extensive. And as you peruse those news stories, keep reminding yourself about what you are actually seeing: you are watching the old trapper put the fence around the hog feed.

Again, the web page address is:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/patriotact.html

Only a blind or deliberately naïve man cannot see that America — the once-proud "land of the free" — is being systematically turned into a twenty-first century police state. Good grief! The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom notes that America is not even listed among the "free" countries of the earth. We are ranked in the second tier, of "mostly free" countries. Beyond that, the Heritage index ranks the US as only the 8th freest nation on the planet.

And both the Republican and Democrat parties in Washington, D.C., are equally culpable for America's slide into socialism and oppression. And so are many local and State leaders — including political, business, and law enforcement leaders. Suffice it to say that most big city governments have become almost totalitarian. Government buildings — even local ones — are sealed fortresses, not unlike the old palace-forts of antiquity. In big and not-so-big cities, cameras monitor virtually everything we do. Even here in my hometown of Pensacola, Florida, a nearby city (Gulf Breeze) has recently installed traffic cameras, which issue automated tickets for red light runners. (How unconstitutional can one get? Surely someone will aggressively challenge the legality of these cameras in court!) What is worse is that many residents and local authorities see nothing wrong with it. These people are behaving just like those wild hogs that nonchalantly ate their food while the fence was being built all around them.

In the name of "security" or "safety" or "protection," Americans are surrendering their liberties. Ladies and gentlemen, face it: freedom is risky business! If our Founding Fathers had wanted security or safety, they would have stayed in Europe — or at least remained a compliant colony of the Crown. So, if one wants government enslavement in twenty-first century America, one should move back to Europe — or better yet, to Red China or North Korea!

Instead of demanding that government take care of us, we should be demanding that government get out of our wallets and off our backs, and let us live free, as our Creator intended we live! But how can we do that when we constantly clamor for more and more government handouts and benefits? By demanding welfare checks, food stamps, government-assisted housing and medicine, etc., Americans are putting the shackles around their own throats. Even churches and religious institutions are gorging themselves at the government teat. America doesn't need to worry about terrorist attacks from Baghdad or Tehran as much as we should worry about the terrorism from Big Brother — brought about with our own approbation — right here at home.

When will we say, "That's enough"? When will we truly rise up against this out-of-control federal monstrosity? When will we demand that government once again be our servant and not our master? When will we begin to see through these Big Government politicians from both major parties that are selling our posterity into tyranny for their own selfish pursuits? When will we wake up to what both Big Business and Big Religion are doing to us? Why do we have to shop at the "Super Center"? Why do we have to worship at the "Mega-Church"? Why do we have to believe everything ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN — and yes, FOX News — tell us? Why do we have to keep reelecting these career politicians? And when we do replace them, why do we have to replace one dirty, rotten scoundrel with another dirty, rotten scoundrel?

When will we recognize that the Department of Homeland Security would be more properly named the Department of Homeland Enslavement? When are we going to wake up to the fact that the Patriot Act is nothing but a tool of the federal government to usurp constitutionally protected liberties? When are we going to realize that the federal "war on drugs" inflicts more damage on the Bill of Rights than it does any major drug dealer? When will we get fed up with these random police checkpoints (manned by agents from virtually any and every police agency, including federal agents) going up everywhere? When will we tire of our local policemen and sheriff's deputies more resembling military commandos than peace officers? When will we demand that our State and local officials stop begging the federal government for "stimulus" money? In other words, when are we going to decide that we want to live in FREEDOM?

Until we Americans get serious about answering the questions above, we are only fooling ourselves when we talk about the United States being a free country. We are not free, and we are getting less free by the day. We are as those wild hogs that were first fed by — and then enslaved by — a wily trapper. When will we see it?

© Chuck Baldwin