Toward a Police State, 2

A series begun in Toward a Police State

On 12/10/08, the California Highway Patrol issued a press release that stated, in part:

The Morongo office of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in conjunction with the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department and the USMC military police will conduct a joint sobriety/driver license checkpoint on Friday, December 12, 2008, somewhere in the unincorporated/incorporated area of San Bernardino County.

Is this part of a conditioning process to the end that federal troops man checkpoints nationwide? "Papers, please!" "Where are you going? What business do you have there? How long do you expect to stay?"

Thirty-five years ago, as I recall, I was traveling by car to Mexico City with two Mexican nationals to preview the film "Flame in the Wind" which had been dubbed into Spanish. I was somewhat surprised that we had to pass through a customs checkpoint to show our papers.

As an American, I had assumed that Mexicans could also travel freely within their own country. Naive!

In New York & Washington DC, travelers on those cities' respective subway systems are subject to random searches by police. We used to think checkpoints, random searches and midnight visits by the police were confined to Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union (and other Communist nations).

We also used to think that we backed a strong military to keep such methods of totalitarian control out of this country. Maybe we were wrong.

God help us.