"Don’t Fence Me In!"

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NOTE: This subversive rant does not reflect the opinions of RWT, but we laughed our asses off while reading it, and decided to include it at our site for your amusement.

For decades now, the wacko-paranoid-extremist fringe of the ultra-conservative Right has been warning us of the "eventuality" of concentration camps for certain elements of the Amerikan citizenry — but is this really something folks need to be worried about?

Possibly.

History has shown that oppressive governments, fearful of freedom, have a tendency to round up suspected dissidents so as to isolate them from the general populace. Could this happen here — in the "freest country in the world"? It already has. During WWII, whilst Adolf’s minions were busy rounding up Jews, Gypsies, intellectuals, and the retarded; our countrymen were incarcerating persons of Japanese descent, as well as a number of suspect Germans. A century prior to this, entire Native American tribes were forcibly evicted from their lands and displaced to "reservations," which, in many cases, were nothing more than large forts surrounded by fences and patrolled by armed soldiers. Nowadays, persons of Arab descent are being "disappeared" by the federal government and held incommunicado at undisclosed locations — usually without having even been formally charged with a crime! Are these "detainees" all being housed in the already overcrowded federal penitentiary system, or have they instead been transferred to one of many decommissioned military bases, which would serve quite well in this capacity (such as the abandoned Air Force base used for the "Woodstock 2" fiasco)? Yet another example of contemporary domestic concentration camps is the infamous "tent city" jail complex in ultra-conservative Arizona which houses a number of County jail inmates — many of whom have not yet been convicted of a crime, with the remainder serving time for petty misdemeanor offenses — in degrading and inappropriate conditions (men being required to wear pink undergarments, inmates being forced to pay for sandwiches made from moldy white bread and discolored bologna, inmates being subject to scrutiny by the general public via Internet webcams, and laboring on outdoor chain gangs being viewed as a "privilege!"). Concentration camps are nothing new to Amerika — although they are usually given a more politically correct label, such as "internment centers."

Most "conspiracy theorists" are familiar with Operation GARDEN PLOT. This is an alleged blueprint for the mass detention and transport of the population of small cities, ostensibly during a time of national emergency. GARDEN PLOT was allegedly part of the "REX-84" wargame scenario devised by Oliver North. Although the specifics of Operation GARDEN PLOT (and its preceding scenario, Operation CABLE SPLICER, which puts all of the nation’s law enforcement and regulatory agencies under a single military command group for ease of facilitation) have supposedly been revealed in a number of underground publications and at certain questionable websites, there is no guarantee that these are transcripts of actual secret government documents. They are, most likely, examples of officially circulated disinformation, in which just enough facts are disclosed to give the alleged documentation credibility, but the addition of certain dubious statements are all that is needed to prove the document false at a later date. What is not widely known is that there are, allegedly, a number of secret Executive Orders which give the government certain extraordinary powers during times of national emergency. These alleged Executive Orders supposedly permit government authorities to: take control of all airports, docks, and train stations; set up roadblocks and checkpoints on the public highways; take control of all food distribution centers; round up and transport entire populations of towns and cities; and organize citizens into labor brigades. Actually, this is quite reasonable in the event of certain catastrophic possibilities (i.e., nuclear fallout, asteroid strike, severe earthquakes, etc.), but, as we know, governments given unbridled power have shown a marked tendency to abuse those powers indiscriminately. Oh, did I neglect to mention that, due to "the threat of terrorism" Amerika has officially been in a "state of emergency" since the 1980s?

One detention scenario which has been officially acknowledged is that of quarantining affected populations in the event of a widespread biological attack. If, say, a weaponized form of hemorrhagic smallpox was dispersed by terrorists in a jam-packed NYC subway terminal, the local airport would immediately be shut down and all bridges and tunnels leading to Manhattan would be blockaded by National Guardsmen with orders to "shoot to kill" any panicked citizens attempting a mass exfiltration. M1 Abrams Tanks would probably be used as roadblocks, and the gunners would not hesitate to unload their ordinance into the cab of a semi or dumptruck which disobeyed a lawful order to "halt." Logistically, this is a very good idea, as the Center for Disease Control has clearly shown how an unchecked contagion could rapidly spread throughout the entire country within days, and possibly even contaminate the rest of the world within two weeks! If this were a fatal disease with a long incubation period — which people lacked immunities to, possibly due to deliberate genetic engineering — this could very well result in a plague of Biblical proportions. Suddenly, busting a cap in a runaway sickie doesn’t seem so unreasonable now, does it?

However, the concern here is of inappropriate detention, transport, and incarceration in the absence of either a catastrophe or a plague. What some worried folks have envisioned is nothing less than cattle cars to Treblinka! Okay, it has been established that it is permissible and desirable to remove from society those individuals who pose a clear and present danger to the safety of others. This is a reasonable and necessary safeguard, without which society would quickly break down. Felons, the criminally insane, enemy combatants, persons known to have been plotting terrorist attacks, and individuals infected with lethal contagions need to be incarcerated for the common good. However, it seems that the Current Administration is in favor of incarcerating certain classes of people "preemptively," as a precaution against what they might do! Although, in rare instances, this might indeed be justifiable, such prophylactic punishment is certainly open to widespread abuse.

Right now, the INS can snatch illegal immigrants off the streets — as well they should — but it seems that lately minor visa violations have been resulting in draconian penalties, which have included the aforementioned "disappearances" into secret detention centers as well as the deportation of refugees and defectors back to regimes which will likely execute them shortly after their arrival. If you happen to be a foreigner — even from Canada, Australia, or Europe — and "your papers" are not "in order," you now face the very real risk of detention, deportation, or imprisonment.

If you happen to be active in any one of many "movements" (i.e., peace, civil liberties, organized labor, anti-pollution, anti-nuke, endangered species, the rights of the poor, prison reform, marijuana legalization, etc.) opposed to the policies of the Current Administration, you could reasonably expect to be targeted as an "agitator" and subject to harassment, surveillance, and possibly even set up on false charges in order to silence your unwelcome voice. If you are not active in one of these movements, but simply happen to show up at one of their meetings or mass demonstrations, you too will risk being indelibly labeled as a "subversive" or "dissident," and may receive similar treatment in the future — especially if you are fond of making a spectacle of yourself.

Persons who attend the gatherings of certain extremist, eccentric, eclectic, or otherwise suspicious groups (such organizations could be: religious, ethnic, political, social, recreational, or "other") can reasonably expect to be put on an official list of some sort — especially if their particular group is "under investigation" or has been infiltrated by agents provocateur who intend to entrap the organization into "conspiring" to commit a crime (or failing to report crimes committed by the agent provocateur, which is also a crime!). Similarly, members of gangs (which are often a cultural, rather than a criminal, phenomenon) and cliques of disaffected youths which could easily be misidentified (often deliberately so) as gangs (i.e., skaters, surfers, punk rockers, goths, skins, etc.) due to their easily identifiable outfits and hairstyles, could also be rounded up en masse, with the PR spin doctors of the Corporate News Netwerks making the masses feel relieved that these dangerous weirdos were finally "off the streets."

Some states and cities have passed "EXILE" statutes (more often referred to nowadays as "Project Safe Neighborhoods," which sounds much less ominous) which supposedly are intended to "exile" convicted felons who are walking the streets packing concealed handguns by imposing harsh mandatory minimum sentences to be served in federal penitentiaries far away from their communities. In theory, this sounds like a great idea, but in practice, it has shown itself to be a draconian statute which has regularly been misapplied and wrongfully abused. You see, this statute does not differentiate between repeat violent felony offenders and persons who had committed a single non-violent offense decades earlier. Furthermore, it is not just felons who are affected by this statute, but an entire list of "prohibited persons" which include (in part): persons who smoke marijuana, foreigners with expired visas, undocumented Mexican laborers, and persons who had previously voluntarily checked into a mental health facility due to stress or anxiety. Any one of these persons who is found in the general vicinity of: an unloaded .22 rifle, an inoperable rifle displayed on someone’s wall, a starter pistol, or even a single round of ammunition could face up to 10 years in a federal penitentiary! It does not matter if the item was lawfully owned by another person, and "constructive" (technical) possession of the item can be established by circumstantial evidence after the fact! It is no longer necessary for an unscrupulous law enforcement official to risk transporting a tiny zip-lock bag of illegal drugs in order to "flake" an obnoxious perp — not when he can impose an even harsher mandatory minimum sentence simply by surreptitiously popping a round out of his spare magazine whilst conducting a search of the perp or his vehicle! All ex-offenders, pot smokers, undocumented foreigners, and other classes of "prohibited person" can potentially be whisked away by Imperial stormtroopers simply due to an accusation of having been "in the wrong place at the wrong time," as the Current Administration has fervently expressed the desire to implement EXILE/Safe Neighborhoods nationwide.

Technically, persons on welfare who reside in Public Housing projects have no right to privacy, as this right is usually waived in the small print of their lease agreement, in which the landlord (being the government) may freely enter and inspect their residence at any time. If a relative or boyfriend happens to be there — who has not been officially registered with the State — the tenant can be imprisoned for "fraud" for failing to report the "additional income" this person is allegedly providing them. If someone happened to be smoking a joint at the time of the unannounced inspection, the tenant will be immediately evicted for "engaging in drug related activity," and may very well face criminal charges for either "possession," "accessory to possession," or "aiding and abetting." As the rules become more restrictive, perhaps law-abiding tenants will be subject to random warrantless searches for any "evidence of wrongdoing." Since most welfare recipients do not have libraries, inspectors will instead paw through their CD collection for evidence of "mindcrimes." If they happen to find an album by the likes of Bob Marley or Ani DeFranco, that would surely indicate that they were dealing with a "dangerous subversive!" And what might they find in the back of the tenant’s closet? An unloaded .22 rifle? An old bong? A double-headed dildo? If they find anything other than old shoes and fundamentalist religious tracts, it may be used as evidence of non-konformity.

The Current Administration is chiefly composed of ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalists with a marked "Us vs. Them" mentality. If you are not an affluent, White, Christian, Republican flag-waver, then you are obviously "part of the problem." In their opinion, persons who refuse to recite the "Pledge of Allegiance" when commanded to do so, as well as individuals who dare to grow their hair too long, refuse to wear bras, or wear T-shirts that proclaim such anti-establishment filth as "Peace," are clearly antagonistic to the existing order. If they had their way, all Muslims, Rastas, hippies, homos, and heathens would be rounded up and incarcerated in secret underground facilities, where they could then be quietly and efficiently dispatched with Dow Chemical’s modern equivalent of Zyklon-B. The incriminating corpus delecti could then be ground up to make Prozac-laced Soylent Green patties to be sold by grinning, polyester-wearin’ automatons at popular fast-food franchises . . . do you want fries with that???

In conclusion, yes, the possibility exists that concentration camps, internment centers, or "Happy Fun Time Resorts for Special Folks" could be established on Amerikan soil in the event of a (possibly contrived) catastrophe which the talking heads tell us "clearly necessitate" such dire action on the part of our wise and benevolent government. Other "necessary precautions" may entail the clandestine installation of miniaturized CCTV cameras in all newly manufactured televisions and computer monitors, as well as "invisible" ultraviolet UPC bar code tattoos on the hands of all loyal citizens which could be scanned for identification, medical, and credit purposes. Such a dystopic nightmare would be the Current Administration’s wet dream.