Keeping Lists

“According to a senior government official…”There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived ‘enemies of the state’ almost instantaneously.” … One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.” posted on Survivalist News at 6:30 a.m. by BigBear.

Now, I don’t know how true this is, but given that there is that No Fly List, and given that I’ve received information as a clergyperson to “prepare my congregation” for submission to authorities, and given that our current government has enacted the USA PATRIOT Act, and given that the police have been abusing their No Knock Warrant ability and without justification killing people’s pets and destroying private property because they acted too quickly on false information, and given a whole lot of other trivial societal behaviors that would take too long to list here, I have a strong inclination to believe that such a list exists. 8 million may be an exaggeration, but then again, it may fall short of reality. Because these secret lists are being kept secret even from the people on them, we have both no way to know if you or I are on this list and we have no way to clear our names if we are on said list.

For those of us inclined to paranoia – is it paranoia when such lists do exist?

I have broken no laws that I know of. Let us rather say I have not knowingly broken any laws. I have engaged in some civil disobedience because that is within my legal right to do, so no laws broken there. I have not knowingly committed any crimes. I am related – by blood and by marriage – to dozens of law enforcement personnel – county sheriffs, lake patrol officers, highway patrol officers, city police officers, forensic investigators, and so on. I keep it clean for many reasons, not least of which is that I don’t wish to be teased by said relatives over whatever minor infraction I might accidentally commit.

And yet, relatives aside, friendliness with my relatives’ co-workers and colleagues aside, I am highly reluctant to contact the police for any reason whatsoever. I no longer call them when my property is vandalized (I live right behind a high school that rents its stadium out to various schools and private sports teams and clubs – random, high-spirited vandalism is common in our neighborhood). I no longer call them when I suspect a prowler. I no longer call them to report damage to neighbor’s properties. When I see a police officer I don’t personally know, I turn around and walk the other way – not out of guilt, but out of fear that this will be the police officer who will abuse his authority. As an older woman (but not old enough to inspire outrage if something were to happen to me), I have a lot to fear from police. I am an easy target, an invisible target, practically a perfect target.

I was visiting a friend and saw part of one of those police shows where they film what the police are actually doing – a reality show type thing. I can’t remember the name because I don’t normally watch them. These are not actors, not people pretending to be police. These are actual police who know they are being filmed for TV. The portion of the episode I saw showed police chasing this white van. The van was involved in an accident, so the police get out, run up to the van, and demand the person/people inside “get out now!” – don’t even check to see if they are capable of getting out. When they manage to pull a bleeding man out of the van, they throw him on the ground, yelling at him, and then one police officer, for absolutely no reason, starts punching the downed and wounded (and probably disoriented) man in the kidneys as hard as he can. You can hear the wounded man grunting with pain and pleading for the officer to stop. They get cuffs on him, and the same police officer then turns on the now-hand cuffed and docile man and punches him a couple of more times in the same kidney he was beating earlier. On film – documented! A few minutes later, they throw him on the ground and tell him they are going to taser him. He’s handcuffed, wounded from the accident, in pain from the series of kidney punches, probably suffering a concussion and certainly still disoriented, and he’s doing his best to be docile and cooperative – and the police not only threaten to taser him – they actually do! Twice! There was no reason for that kind of excessive force at all, and the police knew it didn’t matter how forceful they were with this man. They made no attempt to hide their cruelty from the cameras because they knew they weren’t going to be called to task for their actions, weren’t going to get reprimanded, weren’t going to be punished in any way for using cruel and excessive force on this man. We don’t know that he’s a criminal. The only thing we know for sure is that he ran from the police.

But you know what? If I thought a police officer felt he could pound on me like that and taser me like that for no reason other than that he wanted to and he would not receive any form of punishment whatsoever – I’d run from every single police officer I ever saw. I would not let an unknown police officer get close to me with any sort of intent to talk to me – even if all he wanted to do was make a few inane comments about the weather.

After reading about the police officers who burst into the wrong address and kill family dogs and interrogate the residents – and when they find out they had the wrong address (and honestly – how long does it take to confirm you have the right address?), no apologies, nothing. They just walk out, leaving the people stunned and brutalized.

In America.

And all of this is condoned under the USA PATRIOT Act. This Act is the justification these police and law enforcement people use to destroy private property, to terrorize innocent people, to kill harmless pets, to frighten children, and to exercise their desire to torture people.

So, a list like that may not really exist, but I’m no longer willing to trust that it doesn’t exist.

Among my many other disaster preparedness things I’m doing, I’m making some preparations in case I run afoul of such brutal and uncaring law enforcement personnel. I can no longer trust that they will believe I am innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. I know many law enforcement personnel overwhelmingly believe we are all guilty and deserving of their worst treatment – I have read it in the news, seen it on the news, seen it on that TV show that follows real police, and I have heard anecdotes from my relatives in law enforcement. My relatives are quick to reassure me that they don’t think of me that way – but what guarantee do I have that their colleagues don’t?

So, what can we do about this?

I’m hoping the Presidential election will turn some of this around, but I’m not depending on it.

What I’ve done is backed up all my computer data onto various flash drives that I’ve given to people in case I am a victim of a mis-informed and uncaring police attack (and isn’t it odd that I am more afraid of the police than I am of muggers and robbers and other real criminals?), and I keep in daily contact with a group of friends. They know if we don’t touch base each and every day, to start checking.

I carry a Go-Bag with me everywhere. It’s small but it has everything I’d need to run away and hide on a moment’s notice.

I have bigger bags stashed in various places I can easily access.

I always wear good walking shoes – no frivolous heels or impractical flip-flops.

I always dress in layers, and I carry a water bottle everywhere even though I don’t need it most of the time.

I’d rather be paranoid and not need the preparations and precautions I’ve created.

I’d far rather not feel as if I needed to keep these things handy and to have that contact list. I’d far rather not fear the police whose salary comes from the exorbitant taxes I pay. I resent feeling as if I can’t trust them to have my safety and freedom at heart.

And that list mentioned at the beginning? It doesn’t matter if that list exists or not – the patterns and the feel of America is enough to cause us all to walk cautiously and to be wary of those wearing authority’s clothing.

And yes, I will turn around and walk away from any strange law enforcement officer I may encounter in uniform just to avoid having my illusions shattered.

I want to believe that police are still our protectors and friends, that they won’t come knocking on my door, or my neighbor’s door, or my friend’s door to take us away because our name somehow got onto that secret list.