Flagrant violation of Posse Comitatus as Americans conditioned to accept military Humvees rolling around their neighborhoods

Americans are once again being conditioned to accept the sight of troops patrolling the streets and dealing with domestic law enforcement issues under the pretext of National Guard soldiers “helping” recovery efforts after the deluge of snow that has hit the East coast, the same soldiers who just months ago were also “helping” authorities to brutalize innocent people during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

“In the aftermath of the weekend’s storm, hundreds of National Guard members have been helping Pittsburgh’s emergency personnel respond to residents’ needs; and beginning tonight, they’re also going to be patrolling some city streets,” reports KDKA.

“We will also begin to have the National Guard patrol our neighborhoods to deal with any issues that come up,” Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced at an afternoon news conference. “So city residents,” he added, “be advised that you will begin to see National Guard Humvees in some of your neighborhoods beginning this evening.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also reported that Gov. Ed Rendell dispatched the troops to deal with all manner of calls that would normally be handled by police, including “domestic disputes”.

The use of National Guard soldiers to provide aid in emergency situations is a perfectly reasonable measure, but when those troops start to randomly patrol the streets and work with cops in dealing with “domestic disputes” and “any issues that come up,” then a dangerous precedent is being set, especially considering the fact that less than five months ago, these same troops were working with the Army and the Air Force to conduct “crowd control” duties and run military checkpoints during the G20 summit.

Indeed, Pittsburgh Guardsmen kept themselves busy “helping” troops, military, and multi-agency task force teams to abduct protesters off the streets, attack and terrorize peaceful demonstrators, and inflict LRAD torture weapons on innocent bystanders during the martial law showcase last September.

The troops had previously been deployed “in support of military operations around the world” under the banner of the war on terror.

It is important to emphasize the fact that not only are National Guard now being deployed on a regular basis around the country on virtually any pretext, battle hardened active duty combat soldiers are also being used in “humanitarian exercises” under the banner of Northcom.

As we reported in 2008, troops from 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team trained to rescue people from wrecked cars in a propaganda piece aimed at convincing Americans to accept soldiers on the streets as routine. The troops were part of Northcom’s move to deploy tens of thousands of active duty soldiers inside America by September 2011 to deal with “domestic security,” including “civil unrest” and “crowd control”.

As Alex Jones exposed back in the late 1990’s, U.S. troops have been training for this eventuality for a considerable amount of time. During numerous urban warfare drills that Jones attended and reported on, troops were trained to raid, arrest and imprison U.S. citizens in detention camps as well as taking over public buildings and running checkpoints. During role playing exercises, actors playing prisoners would scream “I’m an American citizen, I have rights” as they were being dragged away by troops.

Deploying National Guard troops on a completely random basis to deal with “any issues that come up,” including “domestic disputes” is a clear violation of Posse Comitatus. Guardsmen need to be tightly restricted to aiding only in emergency situations. Governor Rendell’s use of the soldiers in such a slapdash way is a flagrant violation of the 1878 law that forbids the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers to maintain “law and order”.

Rendell, along with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, have both breached the oath they swore to preserve and protect the Constitution.

Posted by:
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Watch a You Tube clip below where a Pittsburgh resident explains how the deployment of the Guard is another example of mission creep and fascism as the United States accelerates towards a military form of government.