Would you like to know how many people have visited this page? Or how reputable the author is? Simply
sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.
I have 47 fans: Become a Fan. You'll get emails whenever I post articles on OpEd News
John W. Whitehead is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead's aggressive, pioneering approach to civil liberties has earned him numerous accolades and accomplishments, including the Hungarian Medal of Freedom. His concern for the persecuted and oppressed led him, in 1982, to establish The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organization in Charlottesville, Va. Whitehead serves as the Institute's president and spokesperson. His thought-provoking commentaries call people to action and address a wide range of contemporary issues from faith to politics and television to constitutional rights. He is also a frequent commentator on a variety of issues in the national media, as well as the editor of the award-winning pop culture magazine, Gadfly. Whitehead's book A Government of Wolves will be published in June 2013. Please visit On Target to view Whitehead's weekly video commentaries. He also blogs daily about the emerging police state at http://agovernmentofwolves.com/
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 27, 2016 2016: The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year
Let's not take the mistakes of 2016 into a new year with us. The election is over. The oligarchs remain in power. The police state is marching forward, more powerful than ever. All signs point to business as usual.
The lesson for those of us in the American police state is simply this: if there is to be any hope for freedom in 2017, it rests with "we the people."
SHARE Tuesday, June 28, 2016 'We the Prisoners': The Demise of the Fourth Amendment
While the First Amendment--which gives us a voice--is being muzzled, the Fourth Amendment--which protects us from being bullied, badgered, beaten, broken and spied on by government agents--is being disemboweled.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 6, 2019 How the Police State Muzzles Our Right to Speak Truth to Power
What the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don't talk back, don't challenge government authority, don't speak out against government misconduct, and don't step out of line. For those who refuse to meekly accept the heavy-handed tyranny of the police state, the danger is all too real.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 25, 2015 The Only Truly Compliant, Submissive Citizen in a Police State Is a Dead One
Americans of every age and skin color are being taught the painful lesson that the only truly compliant, submissive and obedient citizen in a police state is a dead one. It doesn't matter where you live--big city or small town--it's the same scenario being played out over and over again in which government agents, hyped up on their own authority and the power of their uniform, ride roughshod over the rights of the citizenry.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, July 11, 2016 Don't Just Blame the Cops: Who Is Responsible for America's Killing Fields?
The latest shootings--in Texas, Minnesota, Louisiana, Illinois, New York, Missouri, and every other state in the nation--are symptomatic of a psychotic outbreak by a nation that has been waging a war against its own citizens for too long.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 8, 2013 Transforming America's Schools into Authoritarian Instruments of Compliance
Despite a general consensus that zero tolerance policies have failed to have any appreciable impact on student safety, schools have doubled down on these policies to the detriment of children all across the nation.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, January 26, 2015 Handcuffs, Leg Shackles and Tasers: The New Face of Punishment in the Public Schools
On any given day when school is in session, kids who "act up" in class are pinned facedown on the floor, locked in dark closets, tied up with straps, bungee cords and duct tape, handcuffed, leg shackled, tasered or otherwise restrained, immobilized or placed in solitary confinement in order to bring them under "control."
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 13, 2016 The Imperial President's Toolbox of Terror: A Dictatorship Waiting to Happen
The powers amassed by each successive president through the negligence of Congress and the courts--powers which add up to a toolbox of terror for an imperial ruler--empower whomever occupies the Oval Office to act as a dictator, above the law and beyond any real accountability.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 24, 2019 Monsters with Human Faces: The Tyranny of the Police State Disguised as Law-and-Order
Disagree all you want about healthcare, abortion and immigration-hot-button issues that are guaranteed to stir up the masses, secure campaign contributions and turn political discourse into a circus free-for-all-but surely we can manage to stand united on certain principles that should be non-negotiable in the midst of the destructive, disrupting, diverting, discordant babble being beamed down at us by the powers-that-be?
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, December 31, 2019 Nullify Government Tyranny: In 2020, Harness the Power of Your Discontent
Twenty years into the 21st century, and what do we have to show for it? Government corruption, tyranny and abuse have propelled us at warp speed towards a full-blown police state in which egregious surveillance, roadside strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, censorship, retaliatory arrests, the criminalization of lawful activities, warmongering, indefinite detentions, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, police b
(19 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 24, 2021 After a Year Under Lockdown, Will Our Freedoms Survive the Tyranny of COVID-19?
What started out a year ago as an apparent effort to prevent a novel coronavirus from sickening the nation (and the world) has become yet another means by which world governments (including our own) can expand their powers, abuse their authority, and further oppress their constituents.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 3, 2019 It's Time to Declare Your Independence from Tyranny, America
It's time to declare your independence from tyranny, America. For too long now, we have suffered the injustices of a government that has no regard for our rights or our humanity. The danger is real.