French PM: We Need Permanent Police State

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls thinks the present state of emergency in France shoulkd be maintained until ISIS is defeated.

France’s state of emergency, declared in response to the attacks in Paris in November, should continue until the “total and global war” against militant group Islamic State (ISIS) is over, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the BBC.

More police presence and a ban on mass public gatherings are just some of the methods used by the French state to help it hunt down suspects and prevent further attacks. The state of emergency expires in February, but Valls believes the measures should be extended until ISIS, the group behind the November attacks, is defeated.

Speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Valls said France is “at war,” and that it is right to use “all means in our democracy under the rule of law to protect French people.”

Source: Newsweek

The state of emergency in France grants powers similar to the US PATRIOT Act.

“A decree similar to the USA Patriot Act was hastily put together to allow searches in all buildings and private residences, and the preemptive arrest, without probable cause, of any individual deemed by French authorities to be suspect or dangerous. The notion of dangerous is, of course, vague and elastic and could potentially apply to anyone, including political dissidents,” writes Gilbert Mercier.

The French constitution, drafted during the nation’s war in its former colony of Algeria, allows for “pouvoirs exceptionnels,” extraordinary powers in exceptional cases.

Source: Info Wars

The course of history shows that power ceded is usually permanent. When sovereign nations act to deprive their citizens of their rights in order to protect them, they have lost what they wanted to protect. Without the rights guaranteed to French citizens, can France still call itself a republic?