Army reviews troop use after fatal Ala. shootings
March 18th, 2009 . by TexasFredArmy reviews troop use after fatal Ala. shootings
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - The Army said Wednesday it opened an inquiry into whether federal laws were broken when nearly two dozen soldiers were sent to a south Alabama town after 11 people died in a shooting spree last week.
State officials said the deployment of 22 military police officers and the provost marshal from Fort Rucker was requested neither by Republican Gov. Bob Riley nor the White House, which typically is required by law for soldiers to operate on U.S. soil.
Col. Michael J. Negard of the Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va., said officials are trying to determine who ordered the soldiers to Samson, who requested them, why they were sent and what they did there.
“In addition to determining the facts, this inquiry will also consider whether law, regulation and policy were followed,” he said. He declined further comment.
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Army reviews troop use after fatal Ala. shootings
Anyone that has ever read my blog knows, I AM pro Law Enforcement and Military, that said, I know there will be some that say, ‘if all these troops did was direct traffic and help out in a humanitarian way, what was the harm?’. And therein lies the problem. Were they there voluntarily, in an unofficial capacity, and their only intent being to help out their neighbors? Were they ordered there by someone? Was there a personal agenda at work? There are a lot of questions that need to be answered on this one. Here’s why:
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction, with the intention (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (today the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain “law and order” on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) within the United States. More Here: Posse Comitatus Act
That seems pretty clear cut and easily understood to me, but it appears that the Posse Comitatus Act is subject to interpretation in modern times and in todays vernacular.
Is the Posse Comitatus Act totally without meaning today? No, it remains a deterrent to prevent the unauthorized deployment of troops at the local level in response to what is purely a civilian law enforcement matter. Although no person has ever been successfully prosecuted under the act, it is available in criminal or administrative proceedings to punish a lower-level commander who uses military forces to pursue a common felon or to conduct sobriety checkpoints off of a federal military post. Officers have had their careers abruptly brought to a close by misusing federal military assets to support a purely civilian criminal matter. More Here: The Myth of Posse Comitatus
A few freedoms won, a few freedoms lost, a few freedoms here, a few freedoms there, hey, no big deal, it’s just a few of our freedoms and it doesn’t effect ME and my getting to watch Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. Right?
Yes, it DOES matter, to ALL of us! But so many in America are as blind as bats! They can’t see what is going on right before their very eyes. ANY freedom that we allow the government to take from us is a freedom we will NEVER get back. Americans sit idly by, literally filled with apathy, as our inalienable rights are steadily being chipped away, eroded, and yet there is a HUGE part of our population that just doesn’t seem to give a damn.
As one of my favorite bloggers, Bloviating Zeppelin is fond of saying, and I paraphrase, ‘it’s all about the free cheese and as long as the apathetic are getting their free cheese, it’s all good’…
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