Fascism In 10 Easy Steps, a continuing series

First let me say, apologies to the thousands of readers out there who have been wondering where I have been. Wait, make that the 2 readers. Anyway, I have just been super busy at work and haven't had time to write.

Round three of “Fascist America In 10 Easy Steps” focuses our attention on the state of authority that we interact with on a local level. Without further delay, here is Step 3.

"Step 3. Develop a thug caste
When leaders who seek what I call a "fascist shift" want to close down an open society, they send paramilitary groups of scary young men out to terrorise citizens. The Blackshirts roamed the Italian countryside beating up communists; the Brownshirts staged violent rallies throughout Germany. This paramilitary force is especially important in a democracy: you need citizens to fear thug violence and so you need thugs who are free from prosecution.
The years following 9/11 have proved a bonanza for America's security contractors, with the Bush administration outsourcing areas of work that traditionally fell to the US military. In the process, contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been issued for security work by mercenaries at home and abroad. In Iraq, some of these contract operatives have been accused of involvement in torturing prisoners, harassing journalists and firing on Iraqi civilians. Under Order 17, issued to regulate contractors in Iraq by the one-time US administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, these contractors are immune from prosecution
Yes, but that is in Iraq, you could argue; however, after Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security hired and deployed hundreds of armed private security guards in New Orleans. The investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill interviewed one unnamed guard who reported having fired on unarmed civilians in the city. It was a natural disaster that underlay that episode - but the administration's endless war on terror means ongoing scope for what are in effect privately contracted armies to take on crisis and emergency management at home in US cities.
Thugs in America? Groups of angry young Republican men, dressed in identical shirts and trousers, menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000. If you are reading history, you can imagine that there can be a need for "public order" on the next election day. Say there are protests, or a threat, on the day of an election; history would not rule out the presence of a private security firm at a polling station "to restore public order". "

The idea of an increased security presence in America, indeed in the Western world is becoming not only accepted as necessary, it is being welcomed as a way to preserve the safety that we are taught to seek from the youngest ages. Obviously, a reckless pattern of living will likely shorten your life span considerably. However the degree to which we cling to our illusion of safety creates an environment that encourages us to accept whatever is presented to us in the name of “Safety” and “Security”. After observing what has transpired in this country in the last 20 or so years, and more pointedly since 9/11, it is has become much easier to imagine a scenario in which an increased military/police presence would be welcomed to help control what is deemed by those who have the most to gain to be a “dangerous situation”. It has become commonplace to see SWAT teams not only being used for extremely dangerous situations such as hostage crisis’, but in routine drug raids and even for unconfirmed suspicious activities. In addition, police forces around the country have become more militarized in a response to threats real and imagined. The US military routinely surpluses its old gear to police departments around the country. We are not just talking bullet proof vests here. We are talking about military weapons and vehicles. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens passively accept these changes as necessary to protect us from external threats, acting as if the threat would never be among us in the form of our own government, carrying out their goal of pacifying the population through police force. We act as though the government and the police are ordained by the God who founded this country and would never take advantage of the citizens, or even opportune situations. That is a naïve view of history. Acceptance of a military presence among us is acceptance of slavery. The Founding Fathers knew this, and that is why they listed garrisoned soldiers living among them as one of their many grievances to King George. I want to be sure to state that it is not my intention to imply that all police are the arm of the corrupt Government. It is my intention to state that the institution of police authority has made a gradual yet significant shift from protecting the citizens from each other to protecting the Establishment from the "threat" of active citizenship and that they have gradually amassed the tools they would need to suppress the citizenship outright.