It’s Time to Handcuff the Police : The brutality and lawlessness of federal police agencies is real and Americans should be afraid.

“I love my country, but I’m afraid of my government.” That’s not just a slogan on the bumper stickers of a handful of radicals. It also reflects the sentiments of a growing number of thoughtful Americans.

In spite of bipartisan pledges of governmental accountability, many citizens are more concerned about assaults from federal agents than attacks from common criminals. Although lawful, for now the odds are not good when defending oneself from a renegade government. When Randy Weaver tried to protect his family from an unprovoked assault by some 400 federal agents, his wife Vickie, holding their baby in her arms, was shot through the head by a government sniper. Half her face was blown away. She died instantly. Their 14-year-old son Sammy was shot in the back and killed. The Branch Davidians’ attempts at self-defense were also disastrous. Eighty-six women, children and men were killed. Some were shot to death; the rest were gassed and burned alive. In spite of the elaborate cover-up by the Clinton Administration, exhaustive documentation of FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms treachery is becoming known. It’s overwhelming.

As Paul Craig Roberts said in the Washington Times, “There is no longer any doubt that federal law enforcement agents committed illegal and unconstitutional acts in their bloody assaults on U.S. citizens at Waco, Tex., and Ruby Ridge, Idaho.”

Although the Weaver and Branch Davidian atrocities were a turning point in the march toward government through terror, a pattern of unwarranted paramilitary assaults on Americans by various federal agencies is well-established. Testifying before a House Judiciary Committee, ATF Director Stephen Higgins noted that hundreds of “activations” similar to the Waco attack were routinely employed by his agency. Moreover, 10 public policy organizations, including the National Assn. of Defense Lawyers and the ACLU, have documented “widespread abuses of civil liberties and human rights” committed by federal agencies. In a paper presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Criminology in November, 1994, David Kopel and Paul H. Blackman point out that while “it might be hoped that the Randy Weaver and Waco disasters would prompt a cutback in federal military-style strike forces intended for use against Americans, just the opposite has happened.”

There are only two references to a specific need for federal police action in our Constitution: “To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States” and “to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offenses against the law of nations.” Nevertheless, extraordinary federal police powers of questionable constitutionality have evolved from the “necessary and proper clause,” the interstate commerce power and the taxing power. We are reaping the whirlwind. If we are to survive as a free people, we must curtail the size and power of federal law enforcement.

Roughly 79,000 law enforcement officers work for the federal government--almost 10% of the country’s law enforcement personnel. Fifty-three separate agencies are authorized to carry firearms and make arrests. Since the Weaver and Branch Davidian debacles, the U.S. Marshal Service has added a new 100-person “Special Operations Group” and the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (of Waco fame) has expanded to 150. And thanks to exemptions in the Posse Comitatus Act, by alleging drug violations, federal agencies can access the equipment and manpower of the United States military.

“Spurred by the ‘drug war,’ ” warns Kopel and Blackman, “law enforcement in the United States, particularly federal law enforcement, has become increasingly militarized. No-knock raids with battering rams, agents dressed like ninjas and spray-firing machine guns, the fabrication of information in warrant application, forfeiture and confiscation of property without a trial and a steadily blurring distinction between the standards appropriate for law enforcement in a free society and the practices typical of military occupation of a conquered nation have been the most important law enforcement trend of the last decade.” Undoubtedly, the reprehensible Oklahoma bombing will exacerbate this trend.

The brutality and lawlessness of federal law enforcement agencies are real. They do not, however, justify brutality and lawlessness from our citizenry. It’s not too late to avoid totalitarianism or anarchy. Our Constitution and the rule of law can quash them both.