Macy’s Parade Security Used to Promote Surveillance and Police State

By Joe Jarvis

I don’t watch the news often. But the news was playing at the family Thanksgiving gathering. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was on, and the newscasters were discussing the extreme security measures taken by New York City.

The massive police presence was welcome according to the news. People were reportedly thanking police officers for their roles. The anchors attributed this attitude change to recent terrorist attacks and shootings.

The police chief bragged that every inch of the city was covered by at least one security camera. He chuckled that there is not a corner you could find to escape being filmed.

Print news tried to give the same impression.

To ensure safety, vapor sniffing dogs wandered through crowds while officers watched from above and hid in plain sight. Officers also were escorting each of the giant balloons.

“We have people at high posts. We have observation teams, there will be sniper teams in and around. We will have undercover assets in a lot of different buildings so there’s going to be a lot you can see out there and a lot you won’t see,” NYPD Chief of Patrol Terence Monahan said.

“This beautiful event happens because we are safe. And our thanks to the NYPD for keeping us safe.” de Blasio said.

Paradegoers also showed their appreciation for police: The NYPD marching band and a group of mounted officers got some of the biggest cheers from spectators lined up as many as 15 deep along barricades.

The authorities make sure to push the idea that agents see you without you seeing them. They want everyone to know that embedded amongst the crowds are government spies.

There are plenty of bad laws that these hidden officers and surveillance might enforce. But apart from that, this is just getting people used to the idea of being watched. We don’t know what kind of crazy laws the government might make down the road. And at that point, it will be too late to do anything about the police state. The cameras will see the crime, no matter how trivial. The police will enforce the laws however oppressive.

A scared populace is more likely to accept government control. Rather than be wary of government power, fear makes people welcome the monster into their lives. They don’t realize that the government is often a bigger threat to safety and security than terrorists.

The news and police were reinforcing the opposite of Ben Franklin’s old mantra that if you give up freedom for security, you will get neither. Instead, the news was giving the impression that New Yorkers were gladly trading their privacy for security. They felt better with police everywhere and security cameras covering every inch of the city.

This attitude suggests that everyone is not just vulnerable, but also helpless to protect themselves. The only way to feel secure is to grow the police and surveillance states. With all the recent events, they say, we can’t afford to let our guard down.

But that is exactly how I feel about the government. With all their abuses, we cannot let our guard down to their growing power and omnipresence.

And of course, they ended the broadcast by reminding viewers and New Yorkers, “If you see something, say something.”

Privacy has become suspicious. Everyone has a right to poke and prod around in other people’s business because it is such a dangerous world.

Don’t be worried about strangers watching your every move. After all, they are police. And everyone knows, you can trust the government.

This attitude requires a serious myth around government. This myth involves convincing people that some magical quality makes government agents different.

But unfortunately, you don’t have to look far to see that governments agents are just normal people in uniform. The TSA fails to stop weapons getting through security in undercover tests 70% of the time. And this was actually a massive improvement from two years ago when 95% of weapons made it through.

This type of security is the worst of both worlds. People let their guard down. People are left unable to protect themselves, without always realizing that the authorities are not doing what is needed to keep them safe. And it allows abuses at the hands of the agents. Children being felt up by TSA agents is the price we pay for them to stop 30% of the weapons from getting into their “secure” zones in airports.

It is for these reasons I avoid big cities like New York. But unfortunately, I cannot avoid flying or interacting with government agencies in a number of other ways.

But I do hold out hope that the number of options for a government will only grow and compete to deliver a more choice. 

Joe Jarvis writes for The Daily Bell, where this article first appeared.


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9 Comments on "Macy’s Parade Security Used to Promote Surveillance and Police State"

  1. If only we could create a state that only brave people can live in.

    • Bravery is useless against ignorance. Ignorance is what drives the state because the people are ignorant to what abuses government creates. It is the reverse of the fallacy of discounting the positive. So when it comes to government supporters they are discounting the negative. And you can create a state with only brave people in it. But then you will wind up with a state packed full of ex-police and ex-military both of whom are mostly ignorant of what creates a free society.

  2. “…to ensure safety…” Is a flat out LIEburger unless they’re referring to the safety of the corporation’s assets because it is not the duty of the police to protect you. Their job is to protect the corporation and arrest code breakers. Sapp v. Tallahassee, 348 So. 2nd. 363, Reiff v. City of Phila. 477 F. Supp 1262, Lynch v. NC Dept. of Justice, 376 SE 2nd 247. And they do this acting in their private capacities, which require no oath, only a contract for asset protection (their people can be assets, too). So these aren’t “policemen” they are privately paid armed thugs using the illusion of authority to get away with practically everything, including murder, rape, burglary, robbery and especially kidnapping and torture (arrest and cage).

    • Police enforce policy, not Law. Policies require force in/en place to be held. The Law is the Law and does not require force to be held. The Law can be protected and upheld by peace officers, officers of the Law. That at least is my understanding from research, without attending any barrister/lawyer driven formal education.

  3. The US Government was the perpetrator of 911.

    • Now now, just because they did it that ONE TIME, you’ll hold it over their heads forever. Typical thought criminal. The first 2-3 times? Just practice, those don’t count.

      • He’s not seen all the informative narrative regarding the dancing Israelis, though. Of course, given they were even present and not had any forms of charges on them does seem to skew everything with a perception that THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA allowed it. That makes THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA culpable, aiding and abetting terrorists.

        Us common ‘mericuns though are too stupid to comprehend such a notion. We cannot even get that the whole spiel that “Russia did it” of late is a fabrication by CNN a known mouthpiece of the C.I.A, Mossad, N.S.A . Such rhetoric serves two purposes, keeps the current POTUS in line by providing an example of how the Pharisees will have what they want, or else. It also keeps Russia at bay and in line from reaching out to embrace us as the allies we’ve become since communism failed. That further assails Putin who took his motherland off the global economy ran by the Pharisees.

        It is a classic divide & conquer ploy that is losing traction by the day. This is why the Pharisees need to stir up more stuff such as false flag mass shootings, racial unrest (which to me makes no sense, we’re all part of the human race), vague threats of more and more terrorism from unnamed entities, Cold war against N. Korea (possibly in hopes to account for a defense budget in the U.S. of 400 times more than everyone else combined, reliance on oil, the holding up of our fiat currency in it’s “bubble” state).

        They need to change the script but cannot as even doing so would be noticed, and then there would be no denying the shit on their faces.

      • lol, right on. Or the few hundreds before the 2-3 times. Practice for the practice.

  4. And if people do not comply, they will use more false flags and staged events, whether people are injured/killed or no, to get the results the kakistocracy wishes. I just don’t get why those in govern-ment do they dirty work for the bureaucrats. Indoctrinated? Brain washed? Mini psychopaths? No ability to have independent or critical thought? Lack of reasoning on logic skills? F: all of the above?

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