Biden’s police state forges ahead under DOJ ‘domestic terrorism’ unit

Joe Biden’s police state agenda took another step forward with yesterday’s announcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that it will be launching a new unit dedicated to dealing specifically with domestic terrorism.

Biden and his DOJ have been working on building his police state from the beginning of his presidency.

Shortly after taking office in January 2021, Biden called for a comprehensive review of federal policy on the matter, and he used the information gathered to create the domestic terrorism plan he released in June 2021.

“Domestic terrorism — driven by hate, bigotry and other forms of extremism — is a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said in a statement. “It goes against everything our country strives for, and it poses a direct challenge to our national security, democracy and unity.”

Biden’s plan — National Strategy for Countering Terrorism — called for adding thousands of prosecutors and other law enforcement officials to the government payroll, and he requested $100 million to add key personnel in the departments of justice and homeland security.

When Biden used the words “other forms of extremism,” little did we know at the time that he wasn’t using them to describe terrorists. Instead, he was describing common, everyday Americans guilty of nothing more than exercising their free speech rights and resisting government tyranny.

For example, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a domestic terrorism threat advisory in August 2021 ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that identified the “terrorists” on the list as pushers of “anti-government rhetoric,” including those standing in “opposition to COVID measures.”

Later, in October 2021, Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) classified parents concerned about Critical Race Theory and the explosion of Marxist ideology being taught in public schools as “domestic terrorists” when Merrick Garland announced his plan to begin targeting the “rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”

Biden and Garland took some heat for the plan and officially denied labelling parents in the manner. However, it was later learned that not only did they do it, but they partnered with the National School Boards Association to compose a letter that was sent to Biden asking the DOJ to treat parents as domestic terrorists using provisions of the PATRIOT Act.

The DOJ’s new unit looks to build on the work already done by the Biden administration when it comes to dealing with people opposed to government tyranny as “domestic terrorists.” (via TheHill.com):

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is launching a unit dedicated specifically to domestic terrorism, the department’s top national security official told lawmakers Tuesday.

The DOJ already has a counterterrorism unit designed to handle both international and domestic cases.

Matthew Olsen, the assistant attorney general for national security, made the announcement as he noted that the number of domestic terror investigations launched by the FBI has more than doubled since March 2020.

“I decided to establish a domestic terrorism unit to augment our existing approach,” Olsen said.

“This group of dedicated attorneys will focus on the domestic terrorism threat, helping to ensure that these cases are handled properly and effectively coordinated across the Department of Justice and across the country.”

The formation of the unit shows the pains the Justice Department is taking to refocus attention on a growing domestic terror threat after spending years primarily dedicated to international terror groups following 9/11.

Domestic terrorism cases can present more complexities given U.S. laws protecting free speech of all stripes.

“We’ve seen a growing threat from those who are motivated by racial animus as well as those who ascribe to extremist anti-government and anti-authority ideologies,” he said. (emphasis mine)

One of the ways of ensuring that things are “effectively coordinated across the Department of Justice and across the country” will be from an increased focus on “open source” information, which the administration says will be achieved by “augmenting information sharing the government does with tech companies” — a partnership already in existence thanks to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act.

What this means in practice is increased government tracking of your computer and hand-held devices.

A “police state” is defined as: a totalitarian state or country in which a national police force, esp. a secret police, suppresses any act that conflicts with government policy. (Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, 2010)

For those on the far-left (and many so-called conservatives as well) ready to dismiss my concerns, even the ACLU sees where all of this is heading:

“The Biden administration is rightly focused on addressing white supremacist violence, but its strategy includes none of the civil rights and liberties safeguards that rights groups and communities of color have long sought. Embracing civil rights and liberties as a national security imperative means little when this new strategy fails to rein in abusive counterterrorism tools that result in unfair and unjustified surveillance and targeting of Black and Brown people, particularly Muslims,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. (emphasis mine)

I disagree with the ACLU about it only impacting people of color because “unfair and unjustified surveillance and targeting” impacts everyone, but I agree with them about where this will end up.

Obviously, violence should be dealt with. But when Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, and the DOJ take to labeling everyday Americans as “domestic terrorists” simply for objecting to government policies and threaten to lock them up as criminals, we are no living in a land of liberty.

Instead, we are living in a tyrannical police state.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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