Despite a troubled history, police across the nation are keeping tabs on ordinary Americans

"Good or bad, intelligence gathering by local police departments is back. Interviews with police officers, homeland security officials, and privacy experts reveal a transformation among state and local law enforcement."

Among the changes:

"Since 9/11, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security have poured over a half-billion dollars into building up local and state police intelligence operations. The funding has helped create more than 100 police intelligence units reaching into nearly every state."

"To qualify for federal homeland security grants, states were told to assemble lists of "potential threat elements"--individuals or groups suspected of possible terrorist activity. In response, state authorities have come up with thousands of loosely defined targets, ranging from genuine terrorists to biker gangs and environmentalists."

"Guidelines for protecting privacy and civil liberties have lagged far behind the federal money. After four years of doling out homeland security grants to police departments, federal officials released guidelines for the conduct of local intelligence operations only last year; the standards are voluntary and are being implemented slowly."

Some probably think this is a good thing. Some probably say it's necessary to "make us safe". Some say: "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about". The trouble with that line of reasoning is that it goes against everything America is supposed to stand for.

Once upon a time, the activities that are being forced upon us by authorities at every level of government, where all the things that distingushed us from most all other countries in the world. Now, we meekly accept the kind of monitoring and invasive police actions that used to make us glad and above all, proud, that we didn't live in other places that controlled their populations through fear and intimidation. Those days are long gone.

We've been so conditioned to live in a constant state of fear for our safety, that we just accept all efforts to minimize our civil rights, just to keep us safe and warm from all the dark forces that lurk in every shadow, and around every corner. That fear has led us to completely forget (assuming we were ever attentive enough to know) about exactly how the roads to dictatorship were constructed in countless other countries, over countless eons. We still proudly proclaim our freedoms to be the greatest in the world, while totally ignoring the fact that those freedoms are being stolen right out from under us, all in the name of freedom.

We're constantly being told that people hate us for our freedoms, so the solution; just eliminated them, and we'll all be safe.

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