John Edgar Hoover, the original head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation leveraged his power and the organization itself as a political police force which targeted anyone who Hoover felt was off message and out of line with what the United States of America’s political climate was during that particular period. Anyone who was suspected of being misaligned with the then current presidential administration was subject to probe. Figures who were perceived to have challenged the U.S. government and its institutions without the use of hostility includes such notable figures as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lennon
Category: Criminology
The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 and its Impact Upon Modern Royals
King George III married for dynastic reasons but his 2 brothers each married commoners would had been married before. George found this unacceptable as it brought the royal family disrepute. In 1772, George passed the Royal Marriages Act which stated that a monarch is permitted to decide who members of their family marry. This new law disrupted royal marriages for over 200 years, perhaps most famously in the case of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Princess Margaret also experienced problems because of this law as she was forced to ask her sister Queen Elizabeth for permission to marry a commoner as well. The royal family considered anyone not royal to be a commoner despite their wealth, fame, or aristocratic title
The Lifetime Imprisonment of Typhoid Mary for the Spread of Disease Via Food Preparation
Mary Mallon was an Irish cook who was imprisoned for life for not washing her hands properly prior to preparing food. Mallon, an immigrant often referred to as “Typhoid Mary” unknowingly spread typhoid as she did not see a need to wash her hands frequently. Everywhere Mallon worked, people got sick or died which eventually lead to her apprehension. In 1882, the German physician Robert Koch had published a paper proving that microorganisms transmit disease. This discovery gave birth to microbiology. In 1907, New York City, United States of America sanitary expert George Soper had tracked the typhoid outbreak down to Mallon. Suspecting Mallon was immune to the disease but still a carrier, Soper pleaded with Mallon to be tested, however Mallon refused, and angrily chasing Soper off with a dining fork. After being visited by the health board of New York City, Mallon found herself under quarantine where she remained for 3 years until she swore an affidavit to never work as a cook again. 5 years afterwards, another outbreak of typhoid occurred, this time traced back to Mary Brown, however Brown was Mallon working under an assumed identity. Mallon was quarantined once again, never being let out and dying from pneumonia while imprisoned
The Abhorrent and Racist U.S. “Loyalty Examination” of World War II Designed for Japanese Immigrants and Japanese American Citizens
The U.S. War Relocation Authority created a supposed “loyalty examination” which was provided to young Nisei Japanese males of draftable age. The term “Nisei” means “second generation” in Japanese. Question 27 asked “are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered?” and Question 28 asked “will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?”. These questions were met with confusion and resentment within the population of Japanese and Japanese American internment prisoners of war. A yes answer was designed to prove unwavering loyalty whilst answering no was designed to entrap and prove malintent towards the U.S.. Some detainees answered no to both questions which lead to the term the “no-no boys”, a slanderous term designed to segregate Japanese and Japanese American citizens from their American counterparts. Question 27 was at its most fundamental roots designed to ask if a person was willing to serve in the U.S. military and Question 28 was designed to ask whether a person swore allegiance to Japan or not. Many prisoners did not know how to answer these questions, including both immigrants and American born citizens of Japanese descent. Those who were unsure and answered “I don’t know” or something similar to this with a cross out and the answer yes written in afterwards, were denied early clearance from detention and were subject to possibly being relocated. Those who passed were often permitted to leave detention upon the promise and agreement that they would not return to the west coast
The National Security System of Dubai
Dubai has one of the most sophisticated surveillance states in the world. It is incredibly difficult to bypass Dubai intelligence, which Dubai promotes as a positive aspect of its government. The Arab Spring of 2011 gave way to multiple riots and protests across the Middle East which is why monitoring and security have become especially tight within the past decade. Social media and smartphones played a pivotal role in the uprising of the public across the Islamic world which is why Dubai has stepped up its surveillance measures. Dubai’s surveillance system is an ecosystem entitled “Falcon Eye”, a nod to the importance of falconry within Arab culture, a sophisticated network with software which tracks the movement of a person from the moment they leave their home until the moment they return. Camera surveillance is not the only method used however as the Dubai government has openly admitted to the tracking and monitoring of smartphones as well as to sending state agents to follow individuals like journalists via motorized vehicle and upon foot when a person is deemed to possibly cause a threat to the states national security. The reason this activity is not hidden from the public is because the Dubai government wants citizens and foreigners to know that they actively engage in the monitoring of what people do when within its borders. Dubai started spending millions of dollars in 2011 on state of the art Israeli spyware which had the ability to infect smartphones and turn them into portable surveillance devices as they are almost always with the person who is being spied upon. In the past decade, as of 2019, the United Arab Emirates has made strides in opening up communication and relationships with law enforcement and governments located near the Indian Ocean. This allows the reach of the Dubai government to effectively be international, much the same way that the U.S. has international diplomatic links with many other democracies around the world
One of the Key Factors Behind the Rise of the U.S. as a World Super Power
The U.S. went from being an experiment in democracy and a colonial backwater during the 18th century, to the most technologically advanced and industrialized country in the world in the 20th century, with this incredible transformation occurring because of those who founded the country and their understanding that the U.S. could not farm its way to wealth, with innovation being encouraged and promoted. Because of this simple yet novel idea, ordinary people suddenly had the opportunity to invent and make life easier for society at large, and were incentivized to profit from these ideas because of patent protection. The Americans developed a system in which new ideas were sought after because they were profitable which is a much more powerful motivational factor than prestige alone or the will and desire to help the greater collective of civilization. It’s not that the U.S. population is more creative than other nations, rather it is because the U.S. government actively decided to back and support those who pursued invention by providing them with a high probability to a path of moderate to substantial fortune. Protecting invention is single handedly one of the most important and influential ideas which has ever developed within the U.S., and even during the modern era, countries which fail to inspire innovation and protect it from theft and exploitation, continue to play catch up with industrialized nations who do reward and promote innovation
Antiquitous British Law Which Sentenced Capital Punishment for Imagining the Death of the Monarchy
In antiquity, it was once considered treasonous and by definition illegal to imagine in one’s own head, the death of a monarch. This confusing and impossible to enforce judicial decree was enacted in 1351 as the Treason Act during the reign of King Edward III. The law distinguished between high treason, which was an act of disobedience directly against the crown, and petty treason, which was minor disloyalty. The Treason Act law states that a person is guilty when “a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of their eldest son and heir
