Opinion by George McClellan:So, Governor Deal thinks he needs his own police agency out there meddling in our daily lives. So did Hitler. He called his the Gestapo. That is almost what will happen with the passage of HB 310. Talk about waste in Government? This silly idea, apart from being duplicative, wasteful and frightening, is dangerous as well, because it expands the power of government far beyond its allowed constitutional grant. This bill is a formula for limitless government, like we need any more of that. Readers shouldn’t need be reminded that the Governor was once a democrat.

Giving arrest authority, as this bill will do, to do-gooder social service personnel implies they will become a police force in their own right with the idea they can bust down one’s door in the dark of night and snatch little children from their beds for “protective custody” just because some snooty neighbor reports one has been smoking a cigarette in the presence of said children. Soon, even igniting a BBQ will constitute a crime requiring forced arrest by black clad do-gooders waving arrest warrants in your face with authority to shoot your dog if it barks at ‘em.

That Sen. Tyler Harper, Chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, who fancies himself a “Defender of Liberty”, allowed HB 310 out of committee, is clear evidence that something else, not for the good of the public, is afoot. HB-310 is a monstrous 119-page bill that expands the size of Georgia government and grants all kinds of police powers designed to harass and intimidate us, not make our lives easier. The agency to be created, the Department of Community Supervision (a Gestapo) will have an unlimited budget allowing them to meddle in all aspects of our lives. The Commissioner will answer directly to the Governor.

Also, the head of that agency, the Commissioner, would have the authority to employ as many folks as necessary, including family members apparently, to ensure that Georgia’s citizens comply to all the new rules and regulations the DCS thinks it needs to impose on us. The authority given to the agency head is a cash cow for government employee unions and favored contractors. Can we see a potential for corruption here?

Why is this bill so dangerous? Because it creates three powerful agency’s, under one head, to implement the criminal justice reforms required in the bill. They are: The Department of Community Supervision, The Board of Community Supervision, and The Governors Office of Transition, Support and Recovery. Sounds like something the Soviets had, doesn’t it?

This super agency will have no limitations on the number of employees it can hire. it will perform the existing functions of five current organizations without dissolving any of the existing ones. By design, it can convert career employees to political toadies who serve at the Governors and his Commissioner of Community Supervision, pleasure. Even more scary, it allows the DCS Commissioner to confer police powers on any or all of its employees so “as to assist law enforcement in maintaining peace”, don’t you just love it?. This is handing dictatorial powers to the governor and interferes with the Judicial process by allowing DCS (the governor) to handle cases that would normally be reviewed in a court. Too, it removes the presumption of innocence in some cases by pressuring a defendant to agree to pre-trial release programs (your guilty, but…) and imposes political restrictions before a defendant had been convicted of a crime. Kangaroo courts will become vogue for the DCS. Political opponents, beware!

Where the hell are the Republicans we elected to our state government to limit the size of government? What will it take for them to learn that we don’t want their big government? Remember, freedom is the goal, the Constitution is the way. Now, go get ‘em! (27 March 2015)