USA - Police State here we come!

[Darth_Dude]

Well, the USA is one step closer to being a Police State.. The House of Representatives just passed a bill containing, among other equally horrid things, "legislation that would deny terror suspects, including US citizens, the right to trial and permit authorities to detain them indefinitely."

Now the Bill still has to pass through the Senate, but chances are it'll get through.

So basically, the authorities in the USA can detain anyone without trail, indefinately. It also states that that the US Military can detain these 'suspects', and well, as we all know, the US Military arent exactly well known for their emphasis on Human rights for prisoners...
*cough*Abu Ghraib*ough*

Now, I dont live in America myself, but how do the American members of the Escapist respond to this? Shock? Horror? Apathy? Happiness? Disappointment?

Source:

Spoiler

[link]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2011/12/2011121544018945737.html[/link]

 

[Colour Scientist]

I thought America was already a Police State?

I don't know, I gave up following American politics a long time ago so my opinions wouldn't be too valid.

"legislation that would deny terror suspects, including US citizens, the right to trial and permit authorities to detain them indefinitely."



Now, I dont live in America myself, but how do the American members of the Escapist respond to this? Shock? Horror? Apathy? Happiness?

I'm not too shocked, the US took similar actions during the Red Scare so it's nothing new. Just take out the old scare tactics, cross out the word 'Commies', replace it with "terrorists" and hey, presto, you have a carte blanch for radical policy making.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Well, the USA is one step closer to being a Police State.. The House of Representatives just passed a bill containing, among other equally horrid things, "legislation that would deny terror suspects, including US citizens, the right to trial and permit authorities to detain them indefinitely."

They don't need a bill for this. The U.S. government can and has imprisoned U.S. citizens without trial in the past.

 

[Lionsfan]

Is this the bill Anon has been going on about? My guess is that it's not as bad as people are making it, otherwise it never would have passed with such flying colors.

And plus, if the government wants to imprison/interrogate you, well they'll do it anyways regardless of whatever bill is out there

 

[repeating integers]

Is this the bill Anon has been going on about? My guess is that it's not as bad as people are making it, otherwise it never would have passed with such flying colors.

And plus, if the government wants to imprison/interrogate you, well they'll do it anyways regardless of whatever bill is out there

Was that the video with the theme tune and masked man with several different computerised voices? I'm 90% sure that wasn't the "real" Anonymous (the 40 or so members at the core, who are actually dangerous). In fact, I think it was somebody trying to imitate and discredit Anonymous by making a ridiculously terrible video.

 

[Terminate421]

The bill of rights stops this dead in its tracks

EDIT: THAT WAS SARCASM PEOPLE!!!

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

Hate to break it to you, but this is rather old news. People have been talking about this bill for a good month, and Anonymous put out something about it more than a week ago. Also, I think you should know it already passed.

First of all, you should really look this up and learn the facts for yourself, not just the paraphrasings the often overly-zealous whistle-blowers offer. This [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c112:2:./temp/~c1123mKw8e:e548990:] is the full text of the part of the bill you are referring to, known as s. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (which, as far as I can tell by the title, is put out on a yearly basis). Someone in the thread I made [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/528.330756-S-1867-The-bill-that-could-kill-the-bill-of-rights-right-BIG-EDIT-SUSPICIONS-CONFIRMED#13438492] about this more than a week ago said that line you are referring to (and severely warped the meaning of in your paraphrase, as the bill specifically states that applies to non-US citizens [though some are saying there is other wording which COULD ultimately lead it to be used on citizens, though I have yet to confirm this myself]) is actually only a restatement of our typical wartime policies. Here is exactly what they wrote:

It's an affirmation of authority, not an increase in it. Basically, from my knowledge, I read this as a statement that the rules of war don't specifically mention people who aren't allied with a specific country, so this bill is applying the rules of war to terrorist groups.

Think about it, do enemy prisoners of war get a trial? No, they get held until the war's over. Terrorists are enemies who fight for a group instead of a country, and seek to destroy our country and people, so we're just applying the rules of war to them.

Again, I have yet to confirm this for myself as finals have hit and I just haven't had time to do it yet. I was going to confirm by looking for the previous year's fiscal...thingies and seeing if I can find that listed anywhere. Because if it's a restatement, surely they've done it more than once. And then you may ask, why hasn't anyone else caught on? Well I don't know. Half the time even lawmakers don't know exactly what they're passing, and whistle blower are often looking for specific things at specific times, so it's very possible it's just fallen under the radar.

Either way, if you do more research and are still concerned about this, in my thread up there I put a link to the contact form of the senator who sponsored the bill. Have at it, if you wish.

 

[Lionsfan]

Is this the bill Anon has been going on about? My guess is that it's not as bad as people are making it, otherwise it never would have passed with such flying colors.

And plus, if the government wants to imprison/interrogate you, well they'll do it anyways regardless of whatever bill is out there

Was that the video with the theme tune and masked man with several different computerised voices? I'm 90% sure that wasn't the "real" Anonymous (the 40 or so members at the core, who are actually dangerous). In fact, I think it was somebody trying to imitate and discredit Anonymous by making a ridiculously terrible video.

Yeah that's the video I'm talking about. I dunno if it's "real" or not, but some people over at R&P had quite a few topics on the bill in general and the Video was brought up more than once, and it jumped around the interwebz a bit

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Now, I dont live in America myself, but how do the American members of the Escapist respond to this? Shock? Horror? Apathy? Happiness?

Out of all of those, apathy is the closest, sadly. I guess disappointment would be more accurate. I can't be shocked or horrified, because it's not anything new. This has already been in place before for a while. I was shocked and horrified then. It still bothers me, and I'd like to get rid of it and get people to stop resurrecting/reimplementing/reaffirming stupid ideas like this, and I continue to do my part by supporting people who oppose this crap, but it's been far too many years since it started happening for it to be shocking or surprising anymore.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Didn't the White House already say they would veto this into the dirt? And besides, it'd never hold up against the Supreme Court.

 

[The Virgo]

The bill of rights stops this dead in its tracks

Wait, you REALLY think the bill of rights is going to stop this?


Dude, when was the last time a politician did something to help the actual people? Like then they pumped billions of dollars into banks?

 

[Vausch]

Is this the bill Anon has been going on about? My guess is that it's not as bad as people are making it, otherwise it never would have passed with such flying colors.

Remember the PATRIOT Act? House 357 to 66, Senate 98 to 1.

 

[Syzygy23]

Didn't the White House already say they would veto this into the dirt? And besides, it'd never hold up against the Supreme Court.

Yeah, about that... See, Obama realized that he was only going to be remembered as "The first Black President". That wasn't good enough for him. Now hes aiming to be "The biggest hypocritical prick in the history of the USA."

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/obama_to_sign_indefinite_detention_bill_into_law/singleton/

I have lost what little respect I had for him.

 

[Dagda Mor]

You're overreacting.This won't escalate into America turning into a fascist state or anything like that.First off,if it was as simple as that,then it would NOT get passed--there's more to it than that.Second,things like this have happened before,and America went back to opressing other nations like it always does,not opressing its own populace.

 

[kebab4you]

Didn't the White House already say they would veto this into the dirt? And besides, it'd never hold up against the Supreme Court.

Yeah, about that... See, Obama realized that he was only going to be remembered as "The first Black President". That wasn't good enough for him. Now hes aiming to be "The biggest hypocritical prick in the history of the USA."

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/obama_to_sign_indefinite_detention_bill_into_law/singleton/

I have lost what little respect I had for him.

He also backed down on his veto against SOPA, so I really hope he doesn't get re-elected, but then again, what sane person do the US got left then to represent them?

 

[LordFisheh]

The sooner America (and the world) crashes head first into Deus Ex, the sooner we can recover. Bring on the telescreens.

 

[Varanfan9]

Actually Obama said he is going to Veto it. So theres that.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I would be killed by Republicans, because I believe that communism is the right idea.

Sorry this is changing the subject, please don't banhammer me

 

[Entourian]

Eventualities Mr.Darth Dude. But seriously this is going to get passed in one form or another but then again World War 3 will happen in the next decade or two. So i'm just wondering how this'll affect my children.

 

[Robert Ewing]

It's no surprise to me that America has taken this route, it seems inevitable. It is very bad however, I feel sorry for you guiz.

I know my country probably isn't much better, but I'd rather be in a nanny state than a police state.