In June of 1215, King John of England and a rebellious group of barons signed a document called the Magna Carte Libertatum. We generally call it the Magna Carta. For centuries, the Magna Carta has been used as a primer on human and citizen’s rights. It basically says (and I am greatly simplifying here, for the sake of space) that rulers are not above the law, and that citizens have the right to speak, worship and interact as they please, without fear of the government.
It’s a simple document, but it served as the basis for many a law, philosophy and practice throughout the centuries. Thomas Jefferson likely could recite it by heart; John Locke mused over it; some law schools that focus on the law, not hairsplitting and moneymaking, still teach it in detail. I’m fairly sure I am of the last generation to have a history teacher who taught her elementary school kids about the Magna Carte, but then again, I had some incredible teachers.
For centuries, the Magna Carta formed the basis for English common law, even when politicians began ignoring the inconvenient parts. Much of it was tossed aside when England voted to enact socialism, ironically in the wake of having just helped defeat socialism.
I share this rather boring information simply because the United States is heading down a similar sad path, and not for the reasons you might think.
England is now arresting its citizens for saying mean things on social media about immigrants who are raping school girls, stabbing children, and attacking native citizens. The politically correct pendulum has swung far, far to the left in Britain. George Orwell put it perfectly in Animal Farm, when he showed what happened to a society when some animals are more equal than others.
In England, quite a few animals have become more equal than others – and the rest of the barnyard is upset.
Folks over there began by getting upset at the lenient way immigrants were being treated in the courts. Two-tiered justice has become a part of the government’s policy of making immigrants welcome in order to help diversify society.
Now, I do not under any circumstances condone violence as civil disobedience, but I can understand the frustration of fathers, sons, husbands and brothers seeing people allowed to commit crimes because said individuals “didn’t know” certain acts were illegal.
What I cannot understand is law enforcement being coerced into protecting said immigrants, to the point of instructing them to hide their machetes, baseball bats and axes in a mosque so the police won’t see the weapons. I am no lawyer nor a legal scholar, but I have never seen nor heard of a circumstance where being from another country and culture gives one immunity from the law in one’s new country of residence.
For the past couple weeks, people have been burning cars, destroying pubs, and trashing stores in England. Unlike the “mostly-peaceful protests” of 2020 in the United States (which were supported by certain current presidential and vice presidential candidates), the English people do not have to ship in paid protestors from across the country. Their protestors are working class folks who have had it with a government turning a deaf ear. The Brits may not realize it, but they’re involved in a civil war not unlike our own revolution, which also began at the grassroots level.
As is always the case, people on both sides of the issue are taking advantage of the situation. One side, though, has the support of the government, to the point of arresting people who speak out against immigrants who commit crimes, instead of addressing the lawlessness that has caused the problems in the first case.
I’ve read a lot of posts from the immigration riots in England, and honestly some are truly hate speech. Most are not. But we are not protected from words we don’t like, although there are folks who claim to have our best interests at heart who would love to be able to muzzle words they don’t like, for our own safety.
Most of the posts I have read questioned why the government was allowing and even supporting criminal activity rather than moving to protect all its citizens by applying the law equally. Sadly, making a statement like that can and will get you arrested over there.
You won’t find much about the riots on the mainstream media, in part because the English media is controlled by the government in England. Not controlled with a favor, a wink and a nod like much of ours is here, but literally to the point where some bureaucrat can decide to turn the lights off and padlock the doors of a television station or news outlet that reports things that are not spun to the government’s liking.
Think that could never happen here? It wasn’t long ago President Obama suggested that media monitors be in newsrooms. Biden and Harris have both suggested that free speech doesn’t necessarily mean free speech for everybody.
Never mind the example of the treatment of people arrested, harassed and bankrupted just because they went to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Just the other day a Washington Post reporter asked if the government was going to do anything about the Donald Trump and Elon Musk interview on X. The White House spokesperson said officials were working on combatting “misinformation and disinformation”.
Yes. The spokesperson for the president of the United States said the government was working on ways to stifle a privately-owned website and stop a political adversary from speaking.
Across the pond, the Brits’ national police chief is threatening to extradite Americans for exercising their free speech rights to criticize politicians who are causing the fall of the modern British Empire. I am not making that up. The chief of national police in Britain has said he will send officers to America to arrest Americans, rather than arresting rapists, child molesters and violent felons.
Unregulated immigration, followed by government handouts for immigrants, is leading to a civil war in England. And the English government doesn’t want people to complain about it.
What does that have to do with America?
It is in some ways a reflection of our possible future.
We have unregulated immigration, regardless of what the current administration in Washington claims. The equivalent population of several small cities walks across the border into America every month, and that population is being handed health benefits, cash, cellphones, food and housing paid for by the American citizenry.
While many, I daresay most, illegal aliens are good folks hoping for their version of the American dream, others bring fentanyl, heroin and other drugs into our country. Some bring children for sale in the sex trade.
Regardless of their motivations, the key is that they entered our country by breaking the law – yet the lawmakers force law-abiding citizens to support these lawbreakers. The lawmakers also want these illegal aliens to have the right to vote.
The same lawmakers have, by their own admission, lost track of 100,000 children who were documented coming across the border. How do you lose 100,000 kids? For that matter, how do you lose several million people – which is exactly what the talking heads in Washington say has happened.
If America doesn’t make some major changes, it won’t be that long before we find ourselves being arrested for saying or posting the wrong things. I pray our country has a change of heart and we can turn things around, but I worry all the time that it’s too late.
I wonder how much longer it will be before America’s leaders decide that some animals are indeed more equal than others.
