The Erosion of Civil Rights

You have heard about the mass murder in Alabama a couple of weeks ago. A man killed his whole family, from an 18-month niece to his grandmother, innocent bystanders and three family dogs. While there are no reports of what psychotropic drugs this man may have been on as yet it and that data probably is being suppressed, the point of this posting is that shortly after the murders, 22 Military Police and an Officer appeared at the scene.

Per news accounts, this was not ordered by the Governor of Alabama but possibly requested by the Sherriff of the town due to manpower shortages. The military apparently assisted in traffic control and securing the crime scene(s). All in itself innocent and helpful, especially in a small town setting.

So, what is the problem?

There is a term I never studied in High School civics (since I never went to school) called, “Posse Comitatus”, which means: (Latin): Power of the county. The whole force of the county: that is, all the male members of a county over fifteen, who may be summoned by a sheriff to assist in preventing a riot, the rescue of prisoners, or other unlawful disorders. Clergymen, peers, and the infirm are exempt.

The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878 with the purpose of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. It prohibits members of the military from exercising State powers that maintain “law and order”. Simply put, the federal military is banned from acting in a law enforcement capacity except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress.

So, that one probable innocent act by the military violated the Constitution and to that degree opens the door to more and more ‘help’ from the military and of course continued erosion of the Constitution.

By the way, in doing some more studying, it turns out that last October, Congress had the US Army establish what is called the 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) that will serve as an on-call federal response force for natural, man-made emergencies, disasters and, of course, terrorist attacks. The BCT also would be used to help with civil unrest and crowd control. It should be in full combat ready numbers by 2011, with an estimated 20,000 uniformed personnel. Apparently, what is new about this is not the capability but the assignment of a permanent military force that can be deployed in to any of the United States.