The first and most important signal of impending oppression is alienation from the enforcers.
To the degree you find yourself in a community where the police tend to view citizens as the enemy, you are in a police state. It matters not how benign their actions may seem on the surface; the state of enmity means you are de facto an occupied territory, held by a foreign enemy. We are there, America.
Let’s clarify this further. This is not a matter of whether the local citizens have been cowed into compliance and doctrinaire love of the enforcers. No, the burden of community spirit is upon the enforcers. It is their responsibility to represent the community which pays their salaries. It is the responsibility of the police to seek peace with the citizens.
Law enforcement was never meant to be an absolute. In a fallen world, crime is simply a fact of life. There must be an expectation of unsolved crime, simply because making it possible for police to always solve crime is itself a crime against life. It is not possible to give police the upper hand without making them a threat to the people they are supposed to protect. Law enforcement was never meant to protect government privilege against the rabble, but to become a part of the community and balance things out. Their presence minimizes crime to the degree possible without oppression, when done right.
Accountability is key. If there is no accountability, there is total freedom to screw up, and screw up royally, without any thought of possible personal consequences.
It is not being done right any more in most places in the US.
As one who adheres to the full meaning of Christian Mysticism, I notice on the one hand these insufferable violations of God’s Laws. On the other hand, I am commanded by God to be reluctant to take action against anyone for any reason. First, there comes the necessity of discerning whether His divine justice, as expressed in the Law Covenants, grants anyone the justification for armed resistance. It’s not a simple question, and any answer must be equally complex. Note, please, it has nothing to do with any constitution or written laws of men, because God’s Laws trump all of that. Also note, the entire mess must pass through the filter Jesus set for these considerations: (a) unlimited devotion and loyalty to God and (b) proper respect for your fellow humans. Jack-booted thugs are people, too, even when they forget you are, as well. Theoretically, at some point that can still place upon some individuals, possessed of full spiritual awareness, the necessity of taking up arms against unconscionable oppression.
Second, such action must be consistent with your calling. Whatever you may believe about your calling, it remains rooted in revealing God. Whatever you do must be a revelation of God, consistent with what He has commanded of all mankind. John the Baptist did not stop preaching the truth when he was in prison. The Apostle John did not stop writing Scripture when he was in prison. Their particular callings placed them in a passive resistance mode. What got them in trouble was expressing the truth of God, but the means of enforcement did not stop them doing it. This is the default mode of Christian service. You are bound by the weight of apostolic example to consider this first.
Please note what Jesus said in a very pragmatic warning to His disciples regarding the coming dark days when Rome would lay siege to Jerusalem:
Then let those in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; nor let him in the field turn back to take his clothes. And woe to those who are with child, and to those who give suck in those days! But pray that your flight is not in the winter, nor on the sabbath day; for then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:16-21, MKJV)
There comes a point when you realize your best bet is to flee the situation. Prepare your minds well in advance to seek refuge in places where the power of the state is weakest. To the degree possible, prepare your body and your possessions for such an event. Prepare your mind to dismiss anything which is not necessary for your clear witness of God’s truth to this world, and leave it behind. (Note: If you are a dogged literalist, you will completely miss the point of this passage.)
All the while, the fundamental fact remains: The police in particular, and the state in general, are not your friends. They are not an extension of the combined public will, nor have they been since almost the beginning of our constitutional republic. Rather, they have quickly taken the position of manipulating the public will as those who simply know what’s best for us. Sure, the idea of a republic is that we should choose wise servants and judge the net results of their service at regular intervals, to prevent the madness of direct public rule. But because those in power have by long custom taken advantage of their position to ensure you cannot possibly know the truth of their doings, nor even the truth of what their doings do to us in the long run, we have ample proof these noble ideas were pure manure from the start.
God made it abundantly clear His original intention is that all mankind was meant to live in the extended family, tribal setting. The only people with any just authority over you must be related by blood or marriage. Otherwise, you have no reason to expect they spare the least concern about your welfare.
