Police State in the U.S.?


Police State in the US graphic examines how the country has all the characteristics of an all-powerful police state.

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Is the US Becoming a Police State?

The United States has militarized police, sophisticated surveillance, and also ordinary citizens with little say in what goes on. Thus, the US has all the trappings of an all-powerful police state. A Police State is a totalitarian state controlled by a political police force that secretly supervises the citizens’ activities.

So is the US a totalitarian state? No. It’s an inverted totalitarian state. Corporations control the government through political contributions and lobbying. The persistent political apathy allows leaders to do what they want. The US pretends to be the model of democracy for the whole world. But, the US is a managed democracy or political form in which governments are legitimized with elections that they have learned to control.

Over the last 25 years, civilian law enforcement has been increasingly militarized in America. For example, there has been a 4000% increase in no-knock, military-armed SWAT raids over the past 30 years. Standard SWAT armament includes sub-machine guns, automatic weapons, stun grandees, and breaching shotguns.

We also have the world’s most extensive prison system. The US has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners. Over the last 40 years, the US prison population has risen by 700%

The NSA provides constant surveillance by wiretapping entire offices and also cell towers. It gathers nearly 5 billion records a day on smartphone locations. Additionally, 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. In addition, the NSA intercepts computer shipments to plant spyware on new systems. Much less powerful nations have been police states. So, why couldn’t the US be one?

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