When asked a question about his approach to combating crime, presidential hopeful John McCain laid his cards out on the table for all to see.

The question on how to combat crime on city streets came during McCain’s Urban League appearance. ABC’s David Wright reported that McCain suggested that military strategies be applied to high crime neighborhoods in the United States.

“You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control," McCain said. “And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement,” he added. If this sounds an awful lot like martial law to you, welcome to the club.

On a newsblog, ABC News’ Bret Hovell’s commentary says, “The way he described it, his approach sounded an awful lot like the surge.” Hovell didn't go any further than that, but lovers of liberty and independent thinkers should be horrified – this is another suggestion to trade liberty for imposed security.

As with the “war on terror,” and the “war on drugs,” a phantom enemy is created as a pretext for moving toward a complete fascist police state — via a new “war on crime.” Contemplating how a municipal or domestic surge would be handled brings to mind many questions: Just exactly who will be sent into these neighborhoods — the National Guard, SWAT teams, beefed up local police, federal troops, or corporate mercenaries? And who decides who the “criminals” are and on what basis? What about due process? One can only imagine the “act first, investigate later” mentality of the eager surge participants once they get a taste of unbridled power.

When compared to the Bush administration, a McCain presidency has been prophesied to be “more of the same,” but his casually indifferent attitude about militarizing America's streets and neighborhoods would be far worse than what we have now. It would however, be a continuation of the path opened up by Bush and his disregard for the Constitution limitations of the power of the executive branch.
 

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