2013-10-15

One Path to Secession

Most people assume secession is a political act, but one doesn't have to officially leave a legal jurisdiction to secede. One can simply ignore all authority and if the cost to the state of enforcing the law is too great, de facto independence is achieved. For example, someone living deep in the mountains can ignore the law because the state will not even make an effort to locate them, let alone investigate whether they have broken any laws.

Another case is when violence is used against state or federal agents.

Pot farms in California: Too dangerous to intervene?
With parts of Northern California's scenic hillsides illegally gouged by bulldozers for marijuana grows, frustrated local officials asked the state for help to protect streams and rivers from harmful sediment and the chemicals used on the pot plants.

They hoped to charge growers under federal and state clean water regulations with tougher penalties than the infractions local officials could impose. But they were rebuffed.

It's too dangerous, the state agency in charge of protecting the region's water said in a letter to county supervisors.

"We simply cannot, in good conscience, put staff in harm's way," wrote Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board Executive Director Paula Creedon.


.......Butte County Supervisor Chairman Bill Connelly — frustrated that even photos of illegally scraped and terraced hillsides in sensitive watersheds didn't convince the water quality board to act — accused the board of not applying the law equally.

"My concern is that legitimate business people get harassed (by the agency), but illegal people will not be harassed because they get a pass," he said. "They go after the timber industry and farmers."
Parts of California are already out of the state and federal government's control. And if Butte County sounds familiar, they are one of the Northern Cali counties looking to secede from California.

Can the federal government call upon the military to restore order? Maybe not.

U.S. soldiers accepting cash, drugs for Mexican drug cartel contract hits
Mexican drug cartels are recruiting American soldiers to act as clandestine hit men in the United States, paying them thousands of dollars to assassinate federal informants and organized crime rivals, law enforcement experts tell the Daily News.
The United States is losing control over the Southwest.

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