Is the US Becoming a Police State?

Militarized police, sophisticated surveillance, and normal citizens with little say in what goes on. The US has all the trappings of an all-powerful police state.

Police State:

Definition:
1. A totalitarian state controlled by a political police force that secretly supervises the citizens’ activities.

1.) So is the U.S. a totalitarian state?
No. It’s an inverted totalitarian state.

Nazi Germany vs. U.S.

Nazi Germany: State dominated economic actors.
U.S.: Corporations control the government through political contributions and lobbying.

Nazi Germany: Constant political motivation (rallies support for leaders) with Nuremberg rallies, and Hitler Youth
U.S.: Persistent political apathy (allows leaders to do what they want).

Nazi Germany: Mocked democracy.
U.S.: Pretends to be the model of democracy for the whole world.

The US is a ‘managed democracy.’
Definition: a political form in which governments are legitimated by elections that they have learned to control.

We definitely have the policing power:
Over the last 25 years, civilian law enforcement has been increasingly militarized in America.

There has been a 4000% increase in “no knock,” military-armed SWAT raids over the past 30 years.

Yearly Swat Deployments:[2]
1980′s 3,000
–>
1996 30,000
–>
2001 40,000
With the hotline for erroneous no-knock raids receiving more than 100 calls in one week of operation.

Even responding to calls about angry dogs and domestic disputes.
And using military tactics and weaponry on U.S. citizens.

Which looks like:

Common SWAT Armament:
Sub-machine guns
Automatic weapons
Breaching shotguns
Stun grenades
Heavy body armor
Sniper rifles
Night vision
Motion detectors
Armored Personnel Carriers
vs.
Most common weapons of violent offenders:
Knife-10.1%
Gun-12.7%
Other-12.1%
Unknown-7.6%
None-55.8%

We also have the world’s largest prison system.

The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of the world’s prisoners.
1/99 adults in the US are behind bars
1/31 adults are under some form of correctional control–
Including:
Prison
Jail
Parole
Probation

Imprisonment rates (2012-2013)
[# imprisoned by 100,000 people]
U.S. 716
Rwanda 492
Russia 475
Brazil 274
Spain 147
Australia 130
China 121
Canada 118
Austria 98
France 98
Germany 79
Denmark 73
Sweden 67
India 30

Over the last 40 years the US prison population has risen 700%

With the NSA providing constant surveillance
By Wiretapping…
Tapping entire offices…
And cell towers…
With 9,000 “Tower dumps” in 2013
Tower Dump = a record of all calls bounced off of a cellphone tower within a certain period of time.

The NSA gathers nearly 5 billion records a day on smartphone locations.

Co-Traveler is one of the NSA’s most powerful analytic tools.

By tracking cell locations Co-Traveler can discern who you’re traveling with.
All tower A phones = a lot
A+B tower phones = less
A+B+C phones = less
…
A+B+C+D+E+F tower phones = possible co-travelers.

– And even entire counties…
By installing fiber-optic splitters in telecom facilities.

– Your accounts online aren’t safe..
Online Accounts:[7]
Number of data requests from December 1, 2012-May 31, 2013
Yahoo: 12,000-13,000
Apple: 4,000-5,000
Microsoft: 6,000-7,000
Google: 0-999
Facebook: 9,000-10,000

Even unopened hardware is monitored…

The NSA intercepts computer shipments to plant spyware on new systems.
Much less powerful nations have been police states, why couldn’t the U.S. be one?

 

 

Police State in the U.S.?

 

 

Citations:

1. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9175.html
2. http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf
3. http://www.topcriminaljusticedegrees.org/militarization/
4. http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Trends_in_Corrections_Fact_sheet.pdf
5. https://www.aclu.org/safe-communities-fair-sentences/prison-crisis
6. http://www.criminaljusticedegreehub.com/locked-up-in-america/
7. http://www.inc.com/julie-strickland/nsa-tech-companies-updates.html
8. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/agencies-collected-data-on-americans-cellphone-use-in-thousands-of-tower-dumps/2013/12/08/20549190-5e80-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html
9. http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/how-the-nsa-is-tracking-people-right-now/634/
10. https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying
11. http://www.maximumpc.com/nsa_reportedly_hijacks_pcs_install_spyware_has_backdoor_access_iphones2013