Is the U.S. turning into a police state?

[Dis]

I'm beginning to think that it is (see Australia migrant thread- I'm too lazy to copy paste ).

Plus you watch these reality cop shows and you begin to wonder. And you see these cops harrass people for stuff like drugs. It seems they only push certain agendas. They don't seem to enforce all laws equally. The police force has become too political minded for my tastes.

I do see drastic changes as soon as 20 or 30 years. I believe that we will live in a country where you have id cards that have to be scanned for any major area you go. I don't want to live in a country like that. I'm even prepared to move to Canada or Australia if I have to . Yes very drastic measures indeed.

I don't see manned police checkpoints like in some sci-fi movie. This will all be tracked electronically. Every movement you do will be tracked. Certain activities such as hiking or travelling will require permits. I figure any movement whatsoever outside the city will require a permit. These measures will be put in place to track terrorists and other deadly criminals of course. And they will say this makes us safer.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Depends on your definition. A police state is generally defined a something imposed, but what's happening in the US is that it's being willingly embraced by a population that really does believe
1) If you're innocent, you have no reason to worry, and
2) "You're either with us or against us."
The philosophical conundrum is: if citizens of a democracy willingly give away all their freedoms, is it still a democracy?

[Kaak]

Banana republic is a retail store with nice clothes. My favorite as a matter of fact. http://www.bananarepublic.com
So, no, the US is not turning into a retail store

[Provost Harrison]

Same all over the Western world. We have Herr Blunkett and his vision of authoritarianism for the UK

You've got to watch it. Give the authorities an inch sometimes, and they'll take a mile. Kiss goodbye to your civil liberties, they are getting more and more restricted by the era. But I don't subscribe to this libertarian bollocks, they don't hold the answers. You just need to oppose each measure.

[Seeker]

Turning into??

[SlowwHand]

Selective law enforcemet? Certainly.
Every single State has antiquated and ridiculous laws on the books.
Clean up what's required to be enforced. That's the key.

[chequita guevara]

You seem to imply that it is not already a police state.

[Ramo]

But I don't subscribe to this libertarian bollocks, they don't hold the answers.

Anarchists do.

[Cairo_East]

No. I lived in a state with limited individual freedom, I know what police states can do. This is not a police state. In fact, it's the farthest thing from it. There's this pesky little thing called civil liberties that gets in the way of governmental control. Also, it's hard to control a population when they are armed themselves (A democrat who's also an NRA member, what a concept!). Yes, people can be arrested and be spied on, but only with a warrant that eventually must stand up in court. Illegal use of policing powers has made more guilty people go free than it has interfered with the innocent.

[chequita guevara]

cg points at Cairo_East and laughs.

[faded glory]

Oh yes there beating protesters in the street. Arresting people for random torture/confessions about there ideology and the constitution somehow no longer exists. Conspiracys about this and that and the shadow government.




Same old Chorus, Same lame accusations

Cairo? Where you from?

Eygpt? (wild guess)

[Cairo_East]

Originally posted by faded glory

Same old Chorus, Same lame accusations

Cairo? Where you from?

Eygpt? (wild guess)

USA. But I lived in Colombia, Singapore, and Egypt.

[faded glory]

People who live here tend to gripe about insignificant crap. They take for granted there freedoms, and the warm beds they sleep in.

Tho I imagine if they spent a week in Cuba or Iraq, they would remember why USA is the still the most free land on earth.

[Adalbertus]

they would remember why USA is the still the most free land on earth.

You cannot learn this from a comparison to unfree countries but other free countries. Try Switzerland, unless freedom means for you not to invariably step into a mountain or to cross the border every other step you do ...

The philosophical conundrum is: if citizens of a democracy willingly give away all their freedoms, is it still a democracy?

I never thought of the Nazi Third Reich as a democracy - and what you described was exactly what happened. Hitler used mostly democratic means to remove democracy.
Probably a poll on "giving away all freedoms" would not have succeeded, but what we understand as democracy is to elect a few people who do the decisions for us. If they want to decide to remove all freedoms they are allowed to do so unless the constitution objects. That's the same in most western democracies. Only Switzerland has a major plebiscitary culture.

[Jon Miller]

the US is getting less free

it is better than other places however

Jon Miller