Donald Trump Promises A Police State

Well, I should have known better. I couldn’t find a New York Times link for the Trump quotes given. The part below on the shredding of the Fourth Amendment stands.

But there was this. Trump wants 800K police officers trained to fight terrorism, Giuliani says.

“Are they walking around a building too much? Are they standing on a subway platform too often?” Giuliani said.

What exactly is the standard for “too much” or “too often”?

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Trump Announces Plan to Federalize American Police Departments.

Less than twenty-four hours after accepting his party’s nomination and delivering the longest acceptance speech in nearly four decades, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unveiled his plan to restore law and order in America, which he bleakly described as being under siege by illegal immigrants, the Islamic State, and race-related violence.

“We’re going to put an end to that,” Trump said during a post-convention interview with The New York Times. “We’re going to federalize every police department in this country. We’re going to eliminate the red tape and it’s going to give police the ability to do their jobs effectively and, believe me, this is something that’s going to happen within my first one hundred days in office.”

Under Trump’s plan, city and state police departments would fall under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security and would therefore be granted broad authorities to enforce the law. “They’re going to receive the best weapons, training, and resources this country has to offer,” Trump promised. “We’re going to put an end to jurisdictional restrictions and increase police capabilities in terms of surveillance and the use of deadly force. Not only that, we’re going to eliminate this so-called standard for probable cause; it’s very limiting and, frankly, outdated. Our police forces are going to have much more freedom in terms of who they can arrest and why.”

As if the shredding of the 4th Amendment already done wasn’t enough.

Police can carry out warrantless searches on homes, cars, persons and property based on a “reasonable” concern that a suspect (or occupant) might be attempting to flee or destroy evidence.

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Police have free reign to use drug-sniffing dogs as “search warrants on leashes.”

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Police can conduct sobriety and “information-seeking” checkpoints.

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Police officers are free to board a bus, question passengers, and ask for consent to search without notifying them of their right to refuse.

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Police can arrest you for minor criminal offenses, such as a misdemeanor seatbelt violation, punishable only by a fine.

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Refusing to answer when a policeman asks “What’s your name?” can rightfully be considered a crime. No longer do Americans, even those not charged with any crime, have the right to remain altogether silent when stopped and questioned by a police officer.

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Police may stop any vehicle as long as they have reasonable cause to believe that a traffic violation occurred. A vehicle can be stopped even if the driver has not committed a traffic offense.

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Police officers can stop cars based only on “anonymous” tips. Police can also pull you over if you are driving too carefully, with a rigid posture, taking a scenic route, and have acne.

And Trump intends to broaden that list? As if what we have isn’t enough?

He is damn lucky I’m voting against Hillary. Because under more usual circumstances I wouldn’t be voting for him.