There seems to be a fair amount of commentary floating about regarding internment camps for ethnic groups that prove to be "dangerous", and this has lead to some discussions of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, with some saying that it was wrong only because it wasn't necessary.
There has been significant reaction, some of it with more information about the WWII camps. There's even a video documentary (which I haven't watched yet).
The discussion is centered on the recent appeals court ruling that Americans can be held in military detention without representation basically for the duration. I'm sure we'll see this case again at higher levels, but when coupled with the Attorney General's stated plan to create his own little detention camps for Americans, I begin to get a little concerned.
Think about it, we are back at a place where we could easily be sent over the edge into more camps like those in past, and I get the feeling, based in part on our treatment of prisoners at Camp X-Ray that new camps won't be as "nice" as those found earlier in our history.
The fact is, though, that rounding up people simply based on ethnicity, religion, or political affiiation is not only wrong, but it violates the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. There are some really weird legal precedents from World War II regarding internments, but any reasonable reading of the Constitution would clearly imply that mass round-ups just aren't legal.
But then, if no one complains, what happens?
Posted by Chris at January 14, 2003 09:03 AM