I\’ve written this article for many reasons, but the most important reason of all is to make contact with the outside world. I\’m incarcerated, therefore, I\’m being denied many of the liberties that you outside the place take for granted, specifically freedom and the right to uncensored communication with the outside world. People in this country continually tout the virtues of living in this, so called, \”free society,\” but they don\’t really understand what freedom is until it is taken away. Since freedom is one of the most important God given rights we have, I felt it necessary to write this article so that I can begin an uncensored dialogue with you on the outside.
Why this dialogue is necessary is because many people all over the world think that they are free from all the repressive actions that their governments take against those citizens that they incarcerate, particularly here in the United States of America, and just because the incarcerated persons are supposed to be what the government calls \”criminals,\” society thinks its okay whatever the government does to them. But those of you who feel that way better take a look at what is going on around you because what they do to those of us who are incarcerated, they will soon be doing to you. I\’d like to share both my personal experiences with being incarcerated as well as occasional soliloquies on what is happening in the world and how it parallels the repressive measures the politicians continue to impose both on its incarcerated and free citizens.
I know there will be many of you who feel that whatever happens to me I deserve because I\’m incarcerated, but if you feel that way, the you should, at the least, have the nerve to investigate my claims and find out for yourself what kind of person I am so that you can make your own determination of whether or not I\’m a \”fellow human being\” or a \”menace to society\” like the politicians try to make me and all other persons incarcerated out to be. Don\’t simply rely on a politician to tell you that I should be here, or that I shouldn\’t be treated like a \”human being\” wile I\’m here just because I\’m incarcerated. If you do just a little research on the last several political campaigns that you happen to hear about or participated in, you will find that the politicians always play on the fears of people about crime whether it was real or imagined simply to win an election. Most politicians use crime as a political issue because it is \”politically correct\” to do so. It is a win-win situation because all the candidates can chant the same mantra (get tough on crime) and have a winning issue. The politician will take one incident of a crime and make everyone in society think that crime is running rampant, but in reality it was only an isolated incident. Since society rewards politicians by electing and re-electing them because of the crime issue, then people like myself suffer because that politician then begins to implement more repressive measures. One thing society doesn\’t understand is that the more they reward politicians for making repressive laws, the more all free people\’s liberties will eventually be trampled on.
Here is one example of how the repressive laws that the politicians make for prisoners affect your liberty. When DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid or Genetic Fingerprinting) was found to be more unique than fingerprints to positively identify individual people, the politicians began to require all prisoners to have their genetic fingerprints placed on record so that if any prisoner\’s DNA was found at an old crime scene or future ones, then that prisoner can be charged with that crime, and that seemed like a good law, but son after that law was implemented many politicians began to examine how else that DNA fingerprinting could be used.
The mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, in the beginning of 1999 ordered his police force to start taking DNA samples from anyone who was arrested. This move certainly will open the doors soon enough for everyone to be tested because if a person who is just arrested can have DNA taken from them, then what will stop them from taking it from people that they just stop for minor traffic violations? Whatever happened to the person being arrested declared \”innocent until proven guilty?\” If the New York police department can get away with taking DNA from people they suspect of committing a crime, then how much longer will it be before they just take it under general traffic stops? Once society accepts people being DNA fingerprinted without even being convicted of a crime, then what will stop them from requiring it from everyone? Certainly these tactics could sound like something that could only have existed in Nazi Germany. However, this is going on in the United States of America right now!
Since society doesn\’t think DNA fingerprinting is a problem for people who haven\’t been convicted of a crime, then wouldn\’t it make sense to test everyone in the United States of America? Wouldn\’t that help to solve all the unsolved murders and rapes, or at least the guilty person or persons wouldn\’t be able to stay in this country because of the fear of being tested. Better yet, why don\’t the governments of the world test the whole world\’s population and then all unsolved murders and rapes would be solved. But don\’t think DNA fingerprinting use would stop there.
What about using it to detect genetic flaws so that parents could abort their \”genetically flawed children\” before they are born, or the knowledge can be used to cut medical care cost by detecting who will have expensive diseases at they age, then they can be charged accordingly while they are healthy enough to pay for it. Don\’t think these actions won\’t come about. The government doesn\’t have any problem implementing any of these scenarios if you sit back and allow them to do it. The things I\’ve mentioned may seem extreme or even far fetched, but the DNA fingerprinting Pandora\’s box has been opened, and it started with a law politicians introduced solely to affect prisoners, but now it is affecting society as a whole. The more politicians get rewarded (getting elected and re-elected) by society for making repressive laws, the more all free peoples\’ liberties will eventually be trampled on.
Freedom in this country and around the world is becoming less of a reality simply because the people are giving them up for the illusion of being safe from crime. This crime issue is a \”false issue\” created by politicians. The more they make society think crime is running rampant, the more of your freedoms are taken away. Since people are so willing to give up many of their personal freedoms just because of a politician claiming that that is what is necessary to prevent crime, then I have to do my best to sound the alarm because I know first hand that the politician is a liar and will do anything to get what he/she wants. This article was written in order to show you how what they do to me affects the rights you think you have as a free person in society. Since I\’m incarcerated, I can tell you how the repressive laws they create for me parallel the ones they are creating for you, but to stop them you must become actively involved with groups that oppose the politicians that are creating the repressive laws.
Feel free to correspond with me. Any correspondence will be appreciated and promptly answered.
Tyronne Glenn #AM-6697
Drawer – K
Dallas, Pennsylvania 18612-0286