A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen FordClick the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.
Constitutionality aside, Barack Obama's preventive detention proposal is "damn near criminally irresponsible" and "like lighting a match in a room full of gasoline." The United States was founded on the principle that "lesser" or "dangerous" peoples should be "detained" for the good of the nation - on reservations or in slavery. Were it not for "rampant race hatred directed against Arabs and spilling over to all Muslims...there would be no serious discussion of preventive detention in the United States, today." The nation's first Black president is provoking a racial whirlwind.
Obama Out-Bushes Bush on Preventive Detention
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“Calling for preventive detention in the United States is like lighting a match in a room full of gasoline.”
If George Bush had had the gall to propose changing the laws of the United States to allow people to be detained for long periods without even the intention of putting them on trial, progressives across the nation would be howling that the fascist hordes were at the gates. And they would be right. Even the do-nothing, scared-of-nearly-everything Congressional Black Caucus would be up in arms. George Bush and Dick Cheney empowered to imprison people without trial? Progressives everywhere would be justified in crying out against the threat to civilization as we know it. But when Barack Obama last week proposed the very same thing, preventive detention without trial, there was relative silence. People pretended it was just another Wednesday.
The best thing that can be said about President Obama’s preventive detention remarks is that they are damn near criminally irresponsible. Calling for preventive detention in the United States is like lighting a match in a room full of gasoline. No nation in the industrial world has a history more entwined with detention of whole classes of people, than the U.S. More Americans are incarcerated than any other inhabitants of the planet – in raw numbers, and as a percentage of population. African Americans alone make up one out of every eight prisoners on Earth, as a direct result of decades of deliberate public policy. Japanese Americans were detained for no crime but their ethnicity. Native Americans – those that were not killed outright – were forcibly “detained” on reservations that were in fact open-air prisons. Slavery was the greatest detention of all – a lifetime of house or field arrest, at hard labor, with no prospect of escape for oneself or one’s children – detention without trial for centuries.
“Slavery was the greatest detention of all.”
It was the deeply ingrained belief among whites in the necessity of lifetime Black detention under slavery that conditioned Americans to tolerating – or demanding – the harshest criminal justice system in the developed world. Race saturates the American criminal justice conversation – so much so, that one’s race has more impact than one’s crime on whether or not one is ultimately detained in a U.S. prison. Were it not for rampant race hatred directed against Arabs and spilling over to all Muslims, and to those who are mistaken for Muslims, there would be no serious discussion of preventive detention in the United States, today. We would not have witnessed the spectacle of almost the entire U.S. Senate figuratively jumping on top of tables, screaming in terror at the prospect of a few Guantanamo Bay inmates being transferred to maximum security prisons in their states. These senators were exhibiting a kind of primal fear that is both irrational and racist in nature – and a lot scarier than any combination of detainees pacing in a cell. This is America, land of everlasting detention, and preventive execution – where evidence has never been necessary.
Is President Obama aware of the racial whirlwind that he is unleashing with his talk of preventive detention? Or does he care? On thing is certain: on this issue, Obama has proven himself to be worse than George Bush.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
Comments
I just hope that in every
I just hope that in every decision that our president would make is for the betterment of all people. Now that our country is facing a big challenge on its economy our government needs to think of ways on how to boost our weakening economy. Fiat, the Italian motor company, has been subject of a lot of coverage lately. Fiat is involved in the Chrysler bankruptcy; the two auto industry giants are considering a merger. During Chrysler's proceedings, the CEO flew in personally from Italy, and made sure he didn't need more in personal loans to get the deal moving. Italy has been hard hit along with many nations. This is not the first time Italy has been hit with something. Italy was hit with the Vesuvius eruption, that destroyed Pompeii many years ago. Fiat has been in business for over 100 years, and doesn't need a lot of credit repair on reputation.
Thanks, Glenn, I hadn't thought of the connection
between Native Americans and slavery and this "preventative detention" deal that is one of the worst things I've ever heard of. This should be the stuff of science fiction movies like "Minority Report" not a policy of a so-called Democratic administration.
I hollared at my two Senators (Baucus, Tester) and Gail Collins in Saturday's NY Times called them wimps in her piece "When Did Cowboys Get Wimpy?" Since we have more Indian reservations than any other state, I'll write them a letter and hollar at them again using this article.
Preventive Detention or Preventive Deception
Preventive Detention you say!!! Prevent WHAT??? Most of the people being held at Gitmo or Bagram (and lets not forget the BLACK SITES) are guilty of NOTHING!!! Most were picked up in mass sweeps (AKA Gang sweeps here in the USA) by the military or turned over to US military for MONEY (Read Bribery). Probably the most well known is the story of Dilawar who is the subject of the movie “Taxi to the Dark Side” here is a link to the full movie. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2987535946644608661 .
The only reason we want to detain them is because if we let them go they will start talking about how they were treated and that might lead to their countries of origin trying to pursue some legal redress. The blowback would be devastating although the press here is the US of Amnesia would try to squash that news any which a way they could (out right lying has always been a staple of the press here). But else where in the world the US would get beat like a drum.
The other reason for Obama’s preventive detention is to CTA of the Bush cabal. It is obvious that Obama is giving cover to Bush/Cheney. Again if they let most of these detainees out and they just start talking much less seek legal redress the information they could disclose in conversation or bring to light for any legal proceedings would only give more ammunition to those seeking to prosecute the Bush gangsters (as if they actually needed more evidence).
Besides that we have to find some one to bring up on charges for 9/11. We have to convict SOMEBODY!!! We cannot find Osama Been Gone. Sooo these detainees will have to do. If we keep them in preventive detention and use enough enhanced interrogation on the detainees one or more of them will confess to the crime. Then we can have a very public trial and pin the whole 9/11 thing on those detainees and everything will be just fine.
Mr. Ford is correct that there is a long well documented and rich history of preventive detention in this country Slavery being the most noteworthy. If you want some more recent example of Torture and Preventive Detention in the United States of Amerikkka check this out http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_6033.shtml . This is a link to an article about the torture and false confessions and prison time of the victims of Jon Burge of the Chicago PD. Here is another one http://www.blackcommentator.com/326/326_kir_from_bottom_of_heap.html about Robert Hillary King (aka Robert King Wilkerson) who was falsely accused/convicted and imprisoned at Angola for THRITY YEARS and for TWENTY NINE CONSECUTIVE YEARS in SOLITARY CONFINMENT!!! OOH Yea preventive detention for terrorist (I wonder where they got that idea from)????? From Geronimo Pratt to Leonard Peltier to the San Francisco Eight the United States of Incarceration has a long history of preventive detention. From Amadou Diallo to Ms. Kathryn Johnston to Oscar Grant Black folks have all too often been victims of Preventive Detention Police Brutality/Torture/Murder, just like the detainees at Gitmo Bagram and other collection centers. Just because it is a Black Man in the White House these days does not make the whole idea of Preventive Detention any more appealing.
Peace
S Murph