Free Speech: Pre-Crime

As America stands at the 220 year benchmark of the codification of free-speech as a human right, many wonder whether this right as recognized by the United States Constitution will survive the 21st century. The idea of banning free speech in America is no longer a thing of conspiracy theory as recent events prove.

Images of Americans being forcibly removed from townhalls held on healthcare for simply asking questions of their elected representatives presents our current dilemma. Even worse, in double retaliation, the cable news networks barrage these same Americans for speaking out. After all, recent polls show that a clear majority do not want the government healthcare plan. Most simply do not believe any so-called reform can truly lower costs and improve healthcare nationwide.

Yet, with even greater sheaths of terror, we may look upon the notable protesters at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September. For merely exercising their human right to free speech they were gassed and used as guinea pigs for such controversial non-lethal weapons as LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) which blasts sirens at over 160 decibels, proved to cause permanent hearing damage and in some cases cellular damage. Without question, all of this was done with the explicit aim of neutralizing protests and killing any remnant of free speech.

In 2008, a group known as the RNC 8 made national headlines after being pre-emptively arrested and charged in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after federal investigators and prosecutors accused them of plotting to incite riot in order to commit terrorist acts during the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

The evidence? Police claimed bags of urine as proof that they planned to disrupt the RNC despite the clear facts that it was protected by a slew of highly trained national security teams including the FBI, CIA, DEA, local and state police, U.S. Marshalls, the BCA (Bureau of Criminal Activiy) and countless other block-op groups trained in military sedition and execution. The absurd claims were later thrown out of court despite attempts to prosecute the protestors under provisions of the state-wide Minnesota PATRIOT Act. Even the bags of urine turned out to be nothin more than the running of the wild imaginations of police provocateurs.

As a notable protest group, the "infamous" RNC 8's only crime was to advocate peaece and enact their human right to free speech to alert others. And if such an act can qualify as "pre-crime" and arrests may be made before any acts are committed, then isn't free speech in danger of becoming a crime? Then isn't everyone, no matter what they do, possibly liable to become a criminal?

Only by mass distortion are such paradigms acceptable.

The new G.I.V.E. Act (Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act), signed into law by President Obama in late April 2009 contains provisions which confirm this subtle yet real arrangement. Under Section 125 of the G.I.V.E. Act, those serving in nationally approved civil service positions a list of prohibited activities are given. Among these are:

"attempting to influence legislation, organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes, impairing existing contracts for services or collective bargaining agreements, engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office, [and even]engaging in religious instruction, [and] conducting worship services."

While the G.I.V.E. Act may seem obscure, it is only one piece in completing a carefully constructed puzzle to tyranny. Before more legislation attempts similar conditions in broader settings, it is essential to recognize we stand at the crux of free speech. Free speech can no longer be tossed around as a "political issue." In a free society, it is a human right, and that in itself is undeniable.

We are entering a bold phase of humanity where pre-crime notions of Orwell and Huxley now breathe.