Are we declining into a police state?

[mizzou]

I keep hearing people saying we are becoming a police state, etc. I'm not sure what specifically they are referencing.

Here are some new things that have been introduced that have given more power to the people that I can think of.

1. Internet and camera phones - Youtube/Blogs, etc., routinely call out illegal police/feds activities and are successful in catching/punishing those who go beyond or completely disobey the law. Before this, it was much easier for police/feds to hide these activities or routinely pursue them.

2. More pro concealed carry gun laws. Basically every state (soon Illinois) allows legal concealed carry. This gives significant power to the citizen.

3. Beginning the deregulation of certain controlled substances (Marijuana)

4. The growing expectation of hiring of college educated people in the police workforce.

5. Overall, a very liberal court system.

6. Short prisoner retainment
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Some "Police State" things I can think of

1. Federal Government Dept. of Homeland Security and whatever else that entails. This was a huge reduction in personal freedom. This basically consolidated existing agencies and reorganized Federal agencies.

2. Anti-Immigration laws being passed in southern states (probably the only recent laws i can think of)

3. Wiretapping (actually this only applies to other countries and not US citizens.)


Basically shit doesn't seem a whole lot different to me now then it did decades ago. So why all the blogger outrage on police state stuff?

 

[davmat787]

2. Anti-Immigration laws being passed in southern states (probably the only recent laws i can think of)

It has been awhile since I read on the subject, but I thought those laws were aimed at illegal immigrants, rather than being anti-immigration? Not playing semantics here, there is a big difference between wanting to curb illegal immigration vs. being anti-immigration.

 

[WelshBloke]

It's probably more that you lock way more people up than comparable countries and that your courts seem happy to just take the polices words as fact.

 

[Screech]

3. Wiretapping (actually this only applies to other countries and not US citizens.)

Surely you can't be serious......and no, I won't stop calling you shirley:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/

That said, I don't think we are anywhere close to anything even approaching a police state. Most of the people saying we are seem to be of the "I hate the government, it is a fascist police state, keep the government hands off my medicare!" variety.

 

[xj0hnx]

It has been awhile since I read on the subject, but I thought those laws were aimed at illegal immigrants, rather than being anti-immigration? Not playing semantics here, there is a big difference between wanting to curb illegal immigration vs. being anti-immigration.

Come on, you know the left likes to conflate the two so they can say conservatives are against immigrants, and immigration, which is a prelude to them being racist.

 

[Angry Irishman]

Come on, you know the left likes to conflate the two so they can say conservatives are against immigrants, and immigration, which is a prelude to them being racist.

What I find alarming are the masses of people who care very little or at all about what their government is doing or not doing. Just as foolish are those who zealously align themselves with a political party. The people of the United States are bigger than a party system and certainly trump the federal government. This is true despite what laws are passed or policies put in place. Just because a law is on the books doesn't mean it's right or not oppressive in nature. In my opinion I think there is an unchecked federal government that is thriving and growing ever larger ever more powerful.

I've said it before I'll say it again. It's not my original message. It's a warning stated by those who founded this country. If people don't remain skeptical of their government then the it's too late. The creation of the Dept of Homeland Security is especially alarming. It was created "for our protection" and out of "immediate need". The NSA is another agency that is in business for the same reasons. The problem is those powers that are meant for our enemies can be used just as easily against American citizens.

Every amendment is under attack in some form or fashion. The second amendment is the current leading right in the news today. Whatever your opinion of guns I don't think anyone can really say that banning guns above what's on the books now isn't a further erosion of that right. The first and fourth amendment rights have already been eroded and this trend continues. Where does it stop? Where is the line when it becomes too much?

When I hear the executive branch making statements like this: "just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right." Another, "Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time — but it does require us to act in our time”. The President constantly speaks about the inequality of the wealthy vs. the middle class in this country yet Congress and the President are exempt from the same mandated health care system as the remainder of the country by laws they passed. If these type of statements and unequal standards don't raise concern then maybe it is too late and we've lost the basic principals which makes this a government by the people and for the people.

 

[Pia]

There are far too many laws that the average person could realistically avoid breaking them. If cops and prosecutors want to find something to hit you with, they can. Even if you eventually manage to defeat whatever charges they come up with, your assets, reputation and health will quite possibly be ruined before it's over. And there will be no recourse for you, and no repercussions of note to the people who manufactured the case against you, unless they were particularly stupid about it.

That's what a police state is about.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

NY seems to be trying pretty hard but it's still the exception.

 

[Leymenaide]

http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-we-know-so-far-about-drone-strikes

We are killing people whose names we do not know because we think they are bad. That’s Democracy in action for you:
Doesn’t the U.S. sometimes target people whose names they don’t know?
Yes. While administration officials often have frequently framed drone strikes as going after “high-level al Qaeda leaders who are planning attacks [37]” against the U.S., many strikes go after apparent militants whose identities the U.S. doesn’t know. The so-called “signature strikes”

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Alex Jones certainly thinks so!

 

[Texashiker]

I keep hearing people saying we are becoming a police state, etc. I'm not sure what specifically they are referencing.

We have been declining into a police state for the past 100 years.

In the early 1900s there were several laws passed that prohibited the hording of food, and prohibited speaking out against the US government.

In the 1950s and 1960s there were hearings in congress in an attempt to flush out communist.