It has been nearly two years, since I reported on the dangers of creating a law enforcement run Mental Health Assessment (MHA) program. In Texas, police use MHA’s to “screen” every person they have arrested for mental illness.

But the TAPS Act, first introduced in January, would take law enforcement screenings to a whole new level. It would create a national threat assessment of children and adults.

In the course of six months the Threat Assessment, Prevention and Safety (TAPS) Act (H.R. 838) has seen support of the bill grow to nearly 80 Congress members.
 

National Threat Assessment Program announced during National Police Week

Politicians are master manipulators. What better way to garner public support for a national threat assessment program than to introduce it during National Police Week.

And who better to pick than Congresswoman Katie Hill who laid it on thick, as a KHTS article revealed.

“We do this first to honor the sacrifice of these men and women in blue, who put their life on the line every single day to protect us in the vital role that law enforcement plays in the safety and well-being of our communities and our districts,” said Babin in his opening statement. “And secondly to highlight a bipartisan solution — that we all are working on — to protect our communities and schools from the terrible acts of violence that we have seen, and are getting to be almost routine.”

Taken at face value, the TAPS Act sounds like a noble attempt to stop school shootings but not all is as it seems.

Crystal ball reading police to predict if you pose a future threat

The TAPS Act would encourage law enforcement to give everyone a personal threat assessment (kids and adults) and single out those that they deem as future threats. (Click here to see how our homes a given threat assessments.)

“By bringing threat assessment experts together, and utilizing evidence-based behavioral threat assessment and management processes, we can bolster public safety by implementing strategies to identify and stop dangerous individuals before they can commit an act of violence. We have the expertise to combat the targeted violence plaguing our schools, places of worship, and public spaces, but we have yet to fully implement it to prevent attacks.”

The TAPS Act has all the earmarks of a paranoid police state that considers everyone a potential threat.

The TAPS Act will create a “Joint Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Task Force to identify individuals that exhibit patterns of dangerous behavior that MAY precede an act of targeted violence.”

According to Senators Marco Rubio, Kyrsten Sinemea and Thom Tillis, the TAPS Act will create a national behavioral threat assessment and management process for everyone.

Requires the Task Force’s recommendations for the development of the National Strategy to:

• Ensure consideration of the different needs and resources of communities across the country, and will not be construed as a national standard. 
• Include recommendations for the most effective leveraging of existing Federal, State, local, and Tribal infrastructure, workforce, and experience. 
• Include recommendations to increase collaboration between government agencies and private entities that focus on public safety responsibilities. 
• Include recommendations on training programs to disseminate to State and Local entities.
• Include recommendations for a Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management School Violence Prevention Program to train and support a multi-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional behavioral threat assessment and management process for educational entities.

Bills like this means, America has joined paranoid government’s like China and Switzerland who consider kids to be potential threats.

“Last Wednesday the Swiss government proposed new laws aimed at preventing extremist violence and forcing people including children deemed a threat to be registered with authorities, with house arrest a last resort in some cases.”

Didn’t we learn anything from incarcerating Japanese Americans and the war against Communism?

The never-ending war on terror and the TAPS Act should not be used as an excuse to destroy our Bill of Rights.