Help get this story out! What Bush wants:new Patriot Act Personal US cops!

[NVMojo]

From Mark Crispin Miller's blog:

""A permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division,'" empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence" (what is "an offense against the United States?), "or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony" (what are "reasonable grounds"?)."

more...

http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2006/01/american-gestapo.html

the link on the site to the revisions at Thomas Locator is not working at this point but he has it all posted.

Help get this story out!

[FloridaPat]

1. Goes with making "disrupting" a federal crime. No need to have

those wishy washy local police arrest protestors. Let the feds nab them and put them in Gitmo with all the other non-criminals that * doesn't want to see.

[NVMojo]

2. ...and they'll be whisked away in a flash, no problem for the Prez

or his media whores.

[Kindigger]

3. Spookiest paragraph IMHO

`(d) In carrying out the functions pursuant to paragraphs (7) and (9) of subsection (a), the Secretary of Homeland Security may utilize, with their consent, on a reimbursable basis, the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of State and local governments, and is authorized to reimburse such State and local governments for the utilization of such services, personnel, equipment, and facilities. The Secretary of Homeland Security may carry out the functions pursuant to paragraphs (7) and (9) of subsection (a) by contract.

[rodeodance]

5. so Homland Security wants its own Police Force. no no no no!

...The Secretary of Homeland Security

[rodeodance]

6. Is this one of the provisions being objected to by the Dems?

[onenote]

11. No. Because it doesn't do anything new.

There are real problems with the Patriot Act that some of us are trying to get fixed. The hysteria over this provision is very unhelpful in that effort because it undercuts our credibility.

onenote

[onenote]

10. There is nothing spooky about this. You should try reading the law.

Its pretty obvious that you didn't take the time to look up the cross referenced sections (7) and (9). If you had, you'd see that what this provision does is allow the Secret Service to ask local officials to provide security protection with respect to certain foreign missions (consulates, etc) located outside Washington DC and to foreign officials when they are visiting US cities outside DC. The reason is obvious: its not cost effective to send dozens of secret service agents all over the country to protect every foreign dignitary that visits. So, for example, if Prince Charles comes the US and visits LA, the Secret Service can ask the LA police to handle some security duties and the US government picks up the tab. That's it. Big whoop.

onenote

[MADem]

13. In short, yer local cops can be DRAFTED into the federal Storm Troopers

It's nothing short of reprehensible.

[onenote]

16. not true

They can be requested to provide security services for foreign missions located in cities outside Wash DC and for visiting foreign officials travelling in cities outside DC. That's it.

onenote

[NVMojo]

24. does this mean cities strapped for cash could bid to be "holding

areas"??? the options are endless.

[unblock]

4. they had a name for such an organization in germany once

they called it the 'gestapo'.

but that has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with anything the banana republicans are doing.

:sarcasm:

[onenote]

18. if you dropped the sarcasm smilie, you're post would be correct

[unblock]

28. i can't win whether i use the smilie or not :)

i just meant it for the "nothing whatsoever" part....

[rodeodance]

7. some kind of glorified secret service seems to me.

......
`(a) There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the `United States Secret Service Uniformed Division'. Subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division shall perform such duties as the Director, United States Secret Service, may prescribe in connection with the protection of the following:

`(1) The White House in the District of Columbia.

`(2) Any building in which Presidential offices are located.

`(3) The Treasury Building and grounds.

[onenote]

8. Help kill this story. The sky isn't falling.

This story has nine lives, apparently. It also is largely BS.

To briefly summarize: The Uniformed Division of the Secret and has been part of existing law for years. What the new law does, for the most part, is move the existing statutory language from title 3 of the US Code (which deals with the presidency) to title 18 (the criminal code, which happens to be where the authorizing language pertaining to the Secret Service in general is located). A detailed explanation of what this law does and does not do can be found here:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=201297&mesg_id=209673

onenote

[NVMojo]

25. You must not like Mark Crispin Miller???

[onenote]

27. I don't have any opinion of him at all

I don't like it when bloggers exagerrate, misstate and otherwise mislead, which is what the reports on this so-called "gestapo" provision are doing.

Some folks are working hard to get Congress to change certain provisions of the Patriot Act that are truly dangerous. It doesn't help that effort when blatantly untrue claims are made about other provisions. It undermines the credibility of those pointing out the real problems. In short, bad arguments hurt good arguments.

onenote

[CJCRANE]

9. They would then literally become "Secret Police" nt

[6th Borough]

12. Your summary is a bit misleading. The jurisdiction is rather limited.

Here is a working link to the section mentioned in the blog:

http://tinyurl.com/d9vxm

Here is the text of the U.S. Code which it amends (the previous linked text is inserted into the end of the following chapter):

http://tinyurl.com/an7zh

Hopefully these work.

Remember, when written in Roman numeral fashion (though without the "Roman numerals), indented text only applies to the the last, "less indented" portion.

Yes, the powers granted the SS seem a bit foggy; however, the scope in which these powers can be used is quite restricted; see subsection a at the top, it details the the duties given to the renamed SS, the duties under which the authorities granted by the bill can be used.

To put it in further context, here is the verbatim text of Subsection 2:

"Members of the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division shall possess privileges and powers similar to those of the members of the Metropolitan Police of the District of Columbia."

So...are DC cops granted extraordinary powers I am unaware of?

[CJCRANE]

14. Doesn't the fact that they are basically

the President's personal police service have something to do with it?

If you look at the way * appoints cronies to top positions I think you can prob see where this could lead...

[Village Idiot]

15. Jeez - sixty years ago we called them Geheimstaatspolitzei.

Funny how time flies.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...

[onenote]

17. no, sixty years ago we called it the "White House Police Force"

35 years ago we called them the "Executive Protection Service". For the last 30 years they've been known as the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service.

http://www.secretservice.gov/ud.shtml

onenote

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. Wow.

I used to enjoy Miller's writings. It's disappointing to see him promoting shit he found on prisonplanet.com. Read onenote's posts on this subject if you want to understand what's actually going on.

[no_hypocrisy]

20. Holy Gestapo, Batman!

[AtomicKitten]

21. Just what I was thinking,

well maybe not the Batman part.

[lynne]

22. GOOD GRIEF, NOT AGAIN! -

- PLEASE google "United States Secret Service Uniformed Division" and see what comes up. This is the 3rd or 4th thread on this topic and I am stunned that so many have so little knowledge about their government and about history that they would be sucked into this story. Hint: Don't believe everything you read and at least do a minimum of fact-checking before posting to avoid looking silly.

[NVMojo]

26. oh, beat me, Lynne, beat me!!! You and onenote are so intelligent!

[mom cat]

23. K&R...Damn...We MUST defeat Alito!