Who are criminals, these days?

Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Innocent Citizens and Protect Criminals

I would say that this administration’s most recent edict is the most terrifying, but that would wholeheartedly discount the many executive orders unleashed over the last 100 days. Even so, I am gravely concerned.

From Section 1:

“The result will be a law-abiding society in which tenacious law enforcement officers protect the innocent, [and] violations of law are not tolerated.”

What is the law? Karoline Leavitt at the first White House press conference let the American people know that this administration IS the law. Trump, who has 34 felony counts himself, quoted Napoleon Bonaparte on Truth Social: “He who saves his country violates no law.”

So, what is considered a violation of the law under this administration?

Is coming to this country to seek asylum a violation of the law? The deeming of ALL undocumented immigrants as “criminals,” makes it so.

Is attending a town hall and expressing dissent a violation of the law? The use of tasers and arrests at Marjorie Taylor Greene’s town hall in Georgia would indicate such.

Is exercising our first amendment right to assembly a violation of the law? The deeming of Tesla vandals, and by extension protestors, as criminals deserving of felony charges, would make it so. The forced disappearances of university student on visas for protesting for Palestine would indicate so. Columbia University’s revoke of diplomas already earned by graduates for their presence at protests would indicate so. The banning of masks in states like Texas at protests, a thinly veiled “OK” on surveillance and retaliation, would indicate so.

Is being a journalist, speaking out against Trump, a violation of the law? Things are headed in that direction already: the AP News’ expulsion from the Oval Office, the resignation of the executive producer of CBS due to pressures from the Administration, the sane-washing and normalizing from national news outlets like the Washington Post are all signals of media compliance and action under intimidation. With this edict, the administration poises itself to bolster military assets against newspapers and local journalism outlets.

What is NOT, apparently, a violation of the law is the violation of Supreme Court orders and decisions. What is NOT a violation of the law is stock market manipulation, insider trading, Hatch Act violations, dissolving due process, enacting discrimination in the military… Violations of the law ARE, therefore, tolerated. We have felons serving in this administration. We have liars, adulterers, rapists, drunks, thieves, dog killers, and pedophiles in this administration.

Before the Trump era of politics, we knew what defined a criminal and what laws meant. Now, in this landscape, there is no law.

Another concerning part of the edict is Section 4, which details the following:

“Using National Security Assets for Law and Order: …increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions.”

What are excess military assets? Is it Joe Private, the young E-2 who enlisted at age 17 to put himself and his family in a better financial situation? Is it the Air Force Academy graduate who enrolled to better their education?

Calling our servicemembers “assets” is dehumanizing and weaponizing people, most of whom have no interest whatsoever in occupying their local towns and turning on their fellow Americans. It sickens me how often administrations have sent these servicemembers overseas to die for the interests of a few. The military is an apolitical, autonomous entity that yes, falls under the Commander in Chief. However, the military’s oath is to the Constitution of the United States, not Donald J. Trump.

Under this edict, they will be sent to patrol and enforce Trump’s whims on their own soil. Increasing military presence for the purpose of monitoring “criminals,” who could be ANYONE that this administration deems, is not only a vast overreach of executive power; it is disruptive to our communities. This administration is more than happy to sic young men and women who have sacrificed their time and lives to serve in the military on their fellow countrymen, community members, fellow church attendees, golf buddies, what have you. Is the purpose of allocating these “assets” in local jurisdiction related to intimidation? Or is it setting a stage for something far more nefarious: the pursuit of invading Americans’ privacy and way of life to ensure “safety” by means of violating the American Constitution, our first amendment rights?

The servicemembers who choose to obey their country’s laws and oath will be put, once again, in a precarious position. It won’t be Trump or Hegseth who has to patrol their fellow countrymen. It will be the Air Force Academy graduate or the junior officer or Joe Private. The blame and pressure will be on everyday Americans who chose to serve their country. The moral injury will not fall on the administration. Choices will have to be made by individual servicemembers, who may face prison or discharge should they disobey these traitorous “orders” to honor the oath they took, bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution.

I don’t know what is to come from this “edict,” but it will impact EVERYONE. I fear for those who assemble in big cities with right-wing government infiltration who call upon the National Guard to respond to protests, like in Austin, Texas. I fear for those who came to the United States to further their education and contribute to new treatments and cures and ideas who now face deportation or disappearance. I fear for the servicemembers who may have to soon face moral choices between bad and worse, between self and others. And I fear that those who believe themselves to be innocent just may find themselves deemed a “criminal” by the Criminal in Chief.

We can no longer simply follow the law and believe ourselves to be safe due to any Constitutional protections. “Protections” are only as valid as the administration in charge believes them to be. We cannot believe ourselves to be “innocent citizens” for obeying the law any longer. “Innocent” means nothing when the President of the United States has 34 felony counts and makes edicts about enforcing the law.

But we cannot let this edict dictate our state of being. We cannot allow this obvious intimidation tactic to deter us from exercising our freedom and rights. We cannot be paralyzed in fear and hide out in our residences. We must continue on our path to civil resistance. We must open our arms to those around us, our local community members. We must recognize that under this administration, we are ALL in jeopardy. And we could ALL be considered criminals. This administration wants us to be afraid.

We must use our resources and our privileges, whatever those may be, to fight back for those of us without those privileges and resources.

We must choose to live freely.