Baltimore, Black, White and Central Power
Baltimore, Black, White and Central Power
by Jake MacAulay
Recently Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that the Justice Department will investigate the Baltimore Police Department, an investigation that City Executive, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore requested. So it seems she is calling for an examination into her own failings?
Please take note that this investigation is distinguished from a separate civil rights probe which the Attorney General’s Office has already begun in relation to the death of Freddie Gray, who died while in police custody.
Consider the following facts with regard to Baltimore: Black people riot; in the process they destroy black business; all of this occurs after a black guy dies in Police custody; at the hands of three black officers; who are part of a police department which is 43% black and led by a black Chief; under a black female Mayor; with a black female State Attorney; in a city ruled by the Presidents own Democratic Party for over 50 years.
And the result is: The first black female US Attorney General, who is appointed by the first black president, attributes…prejudice against Black Americans.
This all coming on the heels of last weeks announcement from Obama that he's dispatching federal civil-rights officials to retrain cops in "every city and jurisdiction around the country" to be more culturally sensitive to urban blacks. Already Fort Worth, Texas; Gary, Indiana; Stockton, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have received grants to implement a new DOJ program titled the “National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice”
I live very near to Baltimore and understand the chaos firsthand. The fear, confusion, and anarchy that has taken place is nothing short of overwhelming. This led me to ponder the Constitution, the Law of this nation and the rules of Federal Government agencies like the Attorney Generals office. I sought the entire document to see what type of jurisdiction the Federal Government has in local law enforcement matters.
The answer is none!
(The closest statement I can find is in Article 1 Section 8 Clause 12, which involves the authority of Congress (not the President), to raise and support armies for no more than a two-year term and this is not to be done during peacetime.)
So why is this administration so interested in what some call “Federalizing local law enforcement agencies”?
Should you be alarmed?
You see, although the Constitution is the supreme law of our land and provides limits on the powers and authorities of our federal, state and local governments, its words cannot, and will not, leap off the page and enforce themselves.
The greatest threat to the people’s liberties has always been the centralized power of civil government. It is strikingly apparent now that the agenda coming from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, DC represent an attempt to centralize and extend the control of the few over the many.
In an amazingly short period of time, the central government has nationalized the banks, the insurance industry, the automobile industry and the health care industry, and now local police forces. All this is illegal. And all the while this has been occurring at unprecedented speed, the president has been insisting that he is NOT doing exactly what he IS doing.
Unless the people and their state and local officials –like the Governor, like local police and judges — renounce the criminal behavior displayed by the federal executive through federal agencies and reaffirm their allegiance to their loved ones, their families and their communities, these united States of America are in grave danger of disappearing.