EDGEWATER -- I read where Congress has passed and the president has signed bill HR-347, the Anti-Occupy Law, empowering federal agents to arrest and bring criminal felony charges against citizens engaged in political protests anywhere in the U.S.A. This means no protest when the president or even your local politicians are speaking. What happened to our free speech?
Should someone protesting any political person end up in prison for a year for voicing his or her opinion?
People have been complaining about government having too much power and saying we are becoming a socialist nation for quite a while now and I have not wanted to believe it. Now I am forced to look at things that have been happening that circumvent our rights given to us in the constitution. It seems to me that Congress is not to enact any laws against things like freedom of speech.
Protesting has been going on since the beginning of this country. How can the president justify this bill?
The constitution states: “The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.”
Do you see anywhere in there the right to prohibit political protests? I don’t.
If you didn’t know, the president can order anyone to have Secret Service protection. That makes them immune to protests unless of course they are for the person speaking then the Secret Service can decide to ignore their protest which would be against the “other guy.” There's nothing fair about that. And should the Secret Service be allowed to make these decisions for or against a citizen? I think not.
Most people have no clue what the Patriot Act enacted during George W. Bush’s regime did to our rights. It was slipped by most of us after 9/11 because everyone was skittish about terrorism. It allowed many violations of our basic rights under this umbrella of fear, but the average person either didn’t take time to notice or didn’t care as long as they were “safe.”
They may have been safe from terrorists but not at all safe from their own government. The apathy in this country is what will do us in. Those who did know what was in that act now couldn’t even protest it. How many people know that? Congress does not advertise their doings. Someone has to let it slip out or most citizens are totally ignorant of laws that can affect them.
Were you aware of this latest atrocity? If you don’t like it be sure not to protest when the president is around or you might just find yourself prosecuted for a felony.