With its balmy, tropical climate, warm sandy beaches and swaying palms, South Florida has become the next best thing to Cuba for Cuban exiles. It’s the closest place to home here in the continental United States.
But, sometimes it can get a bit too close to home for my taste.
Up in Palm Beach County, they have a Sheriff. His name is Ric Bradshaw and he came up with a million dollar idea. His Orwellian brainstorm is to set up a program that would encourage the good citizens of Palm Beach County to report to the PBSO any “suspicious” activity or conversations that their neighbors may be partaking in. Such neighborly intervention could make “sure law enforcement knows about potential powder kegs before tragedies occur.”
His money quote- one that recently got him a featured link on the “Drudge Report”:
“We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him. What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything OK?’ “
And…get this…the Sunshine Stasi State is giving Sherriff Bradshaw a million of our tax dollars so he can set up his creepy snitch network. The good Sherriff is going to use money to set up
“prevention intervention” units featuring specially trained deputies, mental health professionals and caseworkers. The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed.
Sherriff Bradshaw boasts that his program is “the first of its kind in the nation”. Thank goodness because we are…were(?) a free country.
The program, however, is not the first of its kind in the world. It is not new under the Sun. And that is why this hits a bit too close to home. In Cuba, they a have a similar “program” it’s the CDR, Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. The CDR’s mission, in essence, isn’t that much more different than Sheriff Bradshaw’s plan. It involves citizens spying on each other and reporting to the authorities. It’s the main tool used by the Cuban regime to oppress its citizens. It spreads dread, fear and terror.
So, in The People’s Republic of Palm Beach County, if your nosy yellow dog Democrat neighbor hears you cursing out President Obama because you think he’s a lying sack of Marxist excrement because he lied to the Nation about Benghazi as you and your best friend put your AR-15’s into the trunk of your car to go target practice at the gun range, for example, your neighbor can call Sheriff Bradshaw’s “prevention intervention unit’s” 24/7 hotline so they can come knock on your door the next day…and ask you : “Hey, is everything OK?” Then they can take you in to evaluate your hatred of government and confiscate your AR-15 for your own good, just to be sure…
Maybe next year Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who helped push through the funding will push through another million or two so Bradshaw can set up “prevention intervention” homes on every block that will be tasked with coordinating and compiling intelligence on the neighbors so if they ever do anything unusual…knock, knock… Or hell, set up “clubs” in schools where children are reminded it’s their civic and patriotic duty to inform officials if their parents or other family members are potential threats…again knock, knock…
I remember a few of those “friendly” knocks on the door from [c]astro’s “prevention intervention units” growing up.
Sherriff Bradshaw’s program doesn’t technically criminalize dissent, but it can be abused as an effective method to control, put the fear of the authorities and intimidate ordinary citizens into docility and submission just like the Cuban CDR’s. It creates a first in the nation precedent where citizens who have a healthy distaste of tyranny and love of personal liberty can be singled out and ostracized as “not normal” or anti social or anti-American worse yet, mentally unstable. (that means they take your guns away)
This too, is not new under the Sun and it’s being ingrained into our children to create the next generation of conforming, unquestioning, docile sheeple. And those that do question authority are ridiculed and out casted.
Here’s an excerpt from President Obama’s commencement speech the graduating class of Ohio State University:
Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.
There’s nothing to see here…move along…don’t ask questions…and do anything suspicious…Oh sorry, I’ll have to finish this post another time…someone’s knocking on my door….