Parents of students in one Florida school were shocked to discover, after the fact, their children's irises were scanned for a new school-security system.
Then there was the Michigan town that installed specially designed lampposts to monitor traffic, track pedestrians, and record passersby and their conversations.
Secretly.
Don't forget the case of the former Marine who, in August 2012, was "taken into custody, thrown in jail, and forcibly transferred to a hospital located nearly three hours from his home and family to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, all at the order of law enforcement officials."
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His crime? He posted on his private Facebook page messages that painted the government in "a poor light."
And what about the July 2013 case of a University of Virginia student?
She was "swarmed by state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents who thought the carton of bottled water she was carrying across the parking lot of a grocery store was really a 12-pack of beer and she was an underage buyer."
"She said one drew her gun, another jumped on the hood of her SUV, and still others shouted conflicting orders and flashed badges she couldn’t read. Terrified, she tried to flee in her SUV, but agents halted and arrested her, charging her with two counts of assault.
"Even the commonwealth's attorney who investigated the incident found the case ridiculous and refused to prosecute. But the 20-year-old still spent a night in jail – for the crime of purchasing water."
This is what America has become, a "Police State USA: How Orwell's Nightmare is Becoming Our Reality," according to author Cheryl Chumley.
The petition is addressed to members of Congress:
"In recent years – but especially since the election of Barack Obama as president – America has moved progressively toward becoming a surveillance/police state reminiscent of George Orwell's '1984,'" the petition explains.
It cites the confirmation that the National Security Agency has recorded "virtually every phone call" Americans make, the rising level of video surveillance in public areas, the drone eyes in the sky, the militarization of law enforcement agencies, the illegal targeting of conservative and Christian groups by the IRS, and the apparent selective prosecution of conservative activists like Dinesh D'Souza.
It continues:
"Whereas, the CIA is building a vast database of international money transfers that includes millions of Americans' financial and personal data;
"Whereas, 'black boxes' – or EDRs, event data recorders – are already being built into almost all new cars, which while providing useful data on crashes, raise huge and disturbing privacy issues;
"Whereas, hate-crimes laws are effectively making even the politically incorrect thoughts of Americans illegal;
"Whereas, government under Obama now has gotten its hands into seemingly everything – from capturing our phone and email communications, to controlling what goes in our school lunches, to monitoring our private communications on Facebook, to determining the content of our prayers in public places;
"Whereas, the Congress of the United States possesses awesome and varied powers vested in it by the people through the Constitution, powers sufficient to totally rectify each and every one of these flagrant violations of Americans' fundamental rights:"
The signers then demand that Congress use its constitutional powers and discretion to "halt the rapidly evolving police state America is becoming."
"Congress, with its clear and uncontested 'power of the purse,' possesses the absolute power to singlehandedly say 'NO' to each and every federal overreach and outrage. Make no mistake: Funding comes only with the approval of the United States House of Representatives, a majority of whose members claim to favor governmental restraint and fidelity to the Constitution. If a federal program is harmful and unconstitutional, it exists ONLY because the U.S. Congress – and in particular the House of Representatives – has allowed it to be so."
Sign the petition to urge Congress to halt the growth of "Police State USA."
Chumley has, in her book, documented and tabulated how America got to the point of being a de facto police state, what led to it, and how we might overcome it and recapture our freedoms as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.
More on this story right after the poll:
Chumley's "Police State USA: How Orwell's Nightmare is Becoming Our Reality," marshals the terrifying evidence to show the world of Big Brother is much closer than we want to admit.
She's a full-time writer with The Washington Times and writes about politics and government for various newspapers, Internet news sites, and think tanks. She is a journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation, a prestigious conservative organization in Washington, D.C., where she spent a year researching and writing about private property rights.
From traffic light cameras to phone tapping, from militarized police forces to huge purchase orders by departments of the federal government for billions of rounds of ammunition, the government is unfettered in its desire to control the American people. "Police State USA" chronicles how America reached this point.
Chumley's timely book makes the clear case that we now live in a total surveillance society far more frightening than the one Orwell wrote about in his work of fiction, "1984."
Order your copy now of Cheryl Chumley's Police State USA.
In the foreword to Chumley's book, Rep. Louie Gohmert writes:
Look at what we know the government already has accessed. Under Obamacare, the federal government now gets complete documentation of your deepest, darkest, most personal secrets in your medical records that only your doctor once knew until the government decided to help you.
Your revelations to your doctor were completely secret, and our courts used to protect that precious doctor-patient relationship with full-blown privacy rights. Now, without a single Republican vote, the Democrats in the House and Senate decided that those full-blown rights should be fully blown up because the omniscient, ubiquitous, all-knowing, all-caring federal government needs to be in full control of our lives.
Those Democrats are hoping that the governmental god in whom they trust will be more trustworthy in controlling our lives than it is in controlling and operating a website," he said.
The coming signs of tyranny are all around us. Fortunately, they can be stopped before it is too late, but not without a courageous effort. This nation’s founders risked absolutely everything to secure the blessings of freedom. We only risk some belittling by the mainstream and government harassment for preserving those freedoms. Bottom line, the data in Chumley’s book concerns me and it should concern you.
Media wishing to interview author Cheryl Chumley may contact [email protected].
See a trailer: