Freedom at Risk in Obama's America

The following events shows the fragility of civil liberties in Obama's America. A story grabbed my attention dealing with Teagan Presley, a former porn star, who found that her bank account along with her husband's, canceled by Chase bank. Chase Bank appeared to be closing personal bank accounts of porn stars, but in the case of Ms. Presley, she was a former porn star! So why was Ms. Presley targeted? She may have been the victim of a Department of Justice “Operation Choke Point” which seems to target legal businesses that exist but the DOJ may feel should no longer be allowed to exist. The government is using the bank system to starve business owners out of business. American Banker Association CEO Frank Keating noted, “Justice Department is telling bankers to behave like policemen and judges. Operation Choke Point is asking banks to identify customers who may be breaking the law or simply doing something government officials don’t like. Banks must then choke off those customers' access to financial services, shutting down their accounts.”

The Federal government is now using the banking system to attack legal businesses they may not approve of, including pay day lenders or the sales of fireworks. This has the potential to be expanded to politically incorrect businesses or businesses run by political opponents of the administration. Before one can say, “really”, simply review the details of the IRS scandal in which conservative organizations were targeted by IRS with assistance from Democratic Senators who publicly demanded IRS intervene against their political opponent’s organization.

Then there was the story of Terry Dehko and his daughter, who established a grocery supermarket, where he spent six days a week. The IRS stole more than $35,000 from their business and informed the two that they emptied Dehko's bank account because the IRS believed or pretended that Terry and his daughter were involved in criminal activities when not running their grocery stores. One reason was that Terry and his daughter Sandy made frequent trips to deposit cash into the bank to avoid having it possibly stolen, but the IRS viewed this as activity to evade Federal government laws of depositing more than $10,000 at one time. It is “illegal” to structure cash deposit to be under Federal laws standard. The IRS visited the grocery store in 2010 and 2012 and declared they found nothing illegal, but Dehko found out that the IRS obtained a secret warrant and proceeded to empty the store’s bank account. Dehko had to fight to get all of his money back.

What these incidences show is that in Obama’s America, civil Liberties have never been as under siege as they are right now. The IRS has shown itself to be a law upon itself and with the recent IRS scandal or these two stories demonstrates, we are living in a bureaucratic state in which bureaucrats determine your innocence or guilt without the benefit of a trial or even evidence of guilty behavior.

Image source: Detroit Free-Press