Jim Bovard | The Libertarian Institute

New Report Obscures Killing of Duncan Lemp

by Jim Bovard | Feb 3, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

One of the most positive developments from last year's political strife was a stronger focus on police abuses and no-knock raids. Some states and cities have imposed new restrictions, others are working toward greater transparency when it comes to police shootings. Unfortunately, Maryland, a state that has wrestled with some of the most egregious SWAT and no-knock cases in the country, remains mired in controversy. The state has a long record of SWAT debacles. After police wrongfully raided a mayor’s house and killed his dogs in 2008, Maryland required police to report every SWAT raid....

Testing Positive for COVID-Bootlicking

by Jim Bovard | Jan 26, 2021 | Featured Articles

The COVID pandemic has shown how easy it is to make people hate anyone who is not as frightened as themselves. Since last March, politicians and health officials have fanned fears to commandeer far more control over Americans’ daily lives. And millions of Americans have been happy to condemn any violators of the endlessly changing rules. After the start of the COVID pandemic, my local Harris Teeter grocery store in Montgomery County, Maryland voluntarily made extensive changes to safeguard its employees and customers. But one panicky customer wailed to the local health department that he...

Congress Prepares to Excommunicate Millions of Americans

by Jim Bovard | Jan 18, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

"Have you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” was the question used in congressional hearings in the 1950s in what was portrayed as a witch hunt against leftists that blighted American freedom of speech. A new witch hunt is sweeping Washington, Silicon Valley, and much of the media based on the following question: “Do you currently have any doubts or have you ever written or said anything disparaging the vote counts of the 2020 presidential election?” Anyone who questions the final vote of that election is now literally being derided as a traitor. Regardless of 65...

Congress Cares When It’s Their Windows Being Broken

by Jim Bovard | Jan 15, 2021 | Featured Articles, Politics

The political hysteria unleashed by last week’s clash at the Capitol between police and Trump protestors poses a growing danger to Americans’ constitutional rights. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer ludicrously compared the ruckus to Pearl Harbor—a “day of infamy.” Schumer complained that the “temple to democracy was desecrated…our offices vandalized” and that rioters were able to “stalk these hallowed halls.” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) compared an incursion that broke some windows and furniture with the 1814 British invasion that torched the Capitol. The pro-Trump mob should not have...

New Report Continues to Obfuscate Killing of Duncan Lemp

by Jim Bovard | Jan 2, 2021 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

Why did a Montgomery County, Maryland SWAT team kill 21-year-old Duncan Lemp, in a no-knock predawn raid on March 12? The county released an official report yesterday stating that a violent no-knock raid was justified “due to Lemp being ‘anti-government,’ ‘anti-police,’ currently in possession of body armor, and an active member of the Three Percenters.” The report also noted that “police had viewed several videos showing Lemp handling and shooting firearms.” Distrusting the government and police and appearing in photos or videos with firearms is a catch-all that could apply to millions of...

How 2020 Destroyed the Myths of America

by Jim Bovard | Jan 1, 2021 | Featured Articles

Thanks in large part to COVID lockdowns, this year has left vast wreckage in its wake, with ten million jobs lost, more than 100,000 businesses and dozens of national chains bankrupted or closed. Up to 40 million people could face eviction in the coming months for failing to pay rent, and Americans report that their mental health is at record low levels. But the casualty list for 2020 must also include many of the political myths that shape Americans’ lives. Perhaps the biggest myth to die this year was that Americans’ constitutional rights are safeguarded by the Bill of Rights. After the...

How Coronavirus Put the Nanny State on Steroids

by Jim Bovard | Dec 16, 2020 | Featured Articles

The COVID pandemic this year has profoundly transformed the relationship of government to American citizens. Constitutional leashes have been obliterated as state and local politicians and officials have issued endless decrees that were vastly more effective at destroying freedom than at curbing a virus. And the Biden administration may soon take further leaps towards making our political system into a Cage Keeper Democracy where citizens’ ballots merely designate who will place them under house arrest. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito aptly declared last month, “The pandemic has resulted...

How Barack Obama Killed Political Idealism (Good)

by Jim Bovard | Dec 5, 2020 | Featured Articles

Americans are sickened of an “idealism that is oblique, confusing, dishonest, and ferocious,” as H.L. Mencken wrote a hundred years ago. Though Mencken was condemning President Woodrow Wilson, the same verdict could characterize the legacy of former president Barack Obama. Obama is now on a book tour issuing calls for honest government, civic virtue, and similar tripe. But Obama did more to discredit idealism than any president since Wilson. A dozen years ago, Americans were enthralled by the newly elected president from Illinois. After the deceit and demagoguery of the George W. Bush era,...