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In reply to the discussion: Can we please put the discussion, whether the US is a police-state, to rest? [View all]
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)94. Ah, a bid for "measured, thoughtful" discussion of
Last edited Tue Jan 14, 2014, 06:44 PM - Edit history (2)
our mass surveillance state targeted at citizens, militarized police departments, federally coordinated and militarized responses to peaceful protest, targeting of protesters for surveillance, criminalization of investigative journalism and abuse of the Espionage Act, persecution of whistleblowers and journalists, fabrication of evidence trails to arrest Americans using NSA information, sexual blackmail using NSA information, suspension of habeas corpus, indefinite detention...
[font size=2]No, the "reasonableness" of these police state tactics in the USA is not debatable. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4325662[/font size]
The federal government has systematically targeted Occupy Wall Street protesters for surveillance.....and not *only* surveillance, as we now know that the brutal police assaults on Occupy protesters were also federally coordinated. The federal government has partnered with Wall Street and built taxpayer funded surveillance centers in Manhattan to allow *Wall Street itself* to surveil protesters. And that is just the outrageous tip of a hideous proto-fascistic iceberg. The US Department of Defense is working with corporations to train police to treat peaceful protesters as terrorism suspects. Individual Americans are being given ratings of their potential terrorism threat and need for further scrutiny based on protest activity or political grumbling (see below). And the NSA's sweeping up of private communication is being used to chill investigative journalism and persecute journalists who challenge this corruption.
Your flippant response deserved the reply it received. Yes, they are building a police state. They are subverting our tax dollars and government agencies to crush political dissent and any other perceived dangers to the ongoing Wall Street purchase and corruption of our government.
Comparing the US to North Korea in an attempt to minimize these vicious, sustained assaults to our freedom and our Constitution is a propaganda tactic that you should recognize before you repeat it. Our corporate media compares this country incessantly with some of the most repressive regimes on earth. Why? Because the increasingly authoritarian state they are constructing cannot tolerate comparison with the democratic nations we *should* be comparing ourselves to.
NSA, DEA fabricating evidence trails to imprison Americans using spying.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023406605
2011: Wall Street firms spy on protesters with police in tax-funded center
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023286585
OUTRAGEOUS: Our Tax Money Funds Gov Surveillance Center In Lower Manhattan--& Wall St Is Part Of It!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2178769
Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12527647
NSA Monitors Porn Habits To Discredit 'Radicalizers'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024099994
How FBI Monitored Occupy Movement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101651867
FBI started surveillance of Occupy before it occupied
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10022930860
Wall Street Protesters Complain of Police Surveillance
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101618930
Whoop, There It Is... 'Evidence Homeland Security Coordinated Occupy Crackdown' -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002462465
ACLU discovers FBI is labeling peace activists as 'potential terrorists'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4500788
Why is FBI Manufacturing Reasons to Arrest Occupy Protesters, Ignoring White Supremacist Violence
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12522821
DHS Tracked Occupy Wall Street to 'Control Protesters
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101463537
'Occupy' crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials
http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies
FBI uses new powers to bug anti-war groups
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x237625
ACLU: FBI instructs police to suppress peaceful protests
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x253574
Ridiculous FBI list: You might be a domestic terrorist if ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1790765
"Clear evidence of collusion between TransCanada and the federal government assisting local police to unlawfully monitor and harass political protestors”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023049508
DoD Training Manual: Protests are "Low-Level Terrorism"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100227662
ACLU: On revenge and the NSA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023491532
On the Espionage Act charges against Edward Snowden Glenn Greenwald
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023066929
US Uses Espionage Act To Convict Manning Using Words Added In 1990: "with a computer"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023375845
Fed Court: Just changed interpretation of Espionage Act to cover leaks that are NOT Harmful To USA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023365713
Obama's abuse of the Espionage Act is modern-day McCarthyism
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023413935
NY Times: White House Uses Espionage Act to Silence Employees, Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101616764
Obama Has Charged More Under Espionage Act Than All Other Presidents Combined
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023080388
A Nation of "Suspects"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5011487
http://www.truth-out.org/nation-suspects/1314810046
That magic word, "terrorism." The government's identification of those needing further scrutiny
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022730456#post13
Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002257966
"Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator Transportation Security Administration officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists"
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.screeners.complain/
Top US counterterrorism official: drone critics are Al Qaeda enablers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002279862
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Can we please put the discussion, whether the US is a police-state, to rest? [View all]
DetlefK
Jan 2014
OP
We just had a cop here locally who had two incidents one for fighting and getting thrown out
liberal_at_heart
Jan 2014
#4
In a real "police state" you would be arrested and dragged away just for posting that (nt)
Nye Bevan
Jan 2014
#5
If someone in 1937 in a Berlin coffee shop had started whining about living in a "police state"
Nye Bevan
Jan 2014
#27
Unfortunately, I do not have the time to research and present my case properly on this...
ChisolmTrailDem
Jan 2014
#29
No, you wouldn't. That is a fallacy about how police states operate. Perhaps you read more
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#46
Sure, police states are nothing if not determined to APPEAR to be fair. Has Stop and Frisk ended
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#69
And the liberal and progressive new mayor promptly hired the shithead who
Warren Stupidity
Jan 2014
#100
We need a national commission on law enforcement standards and practices.
Comrade Grumpy
Jan 2014
#7
A police state by any other measure, is still a police state. If you think we're not already
ChisolmTrailDem
Jan 2014
#19
Oh, I don't know...maybe since the Vietnam (think Kent State) era. Probably before. You
ChisolmTrailDem
Jan 2014
#22
I have friends in Moscow, none in N.Korea which is way, way worse than a police state, it is a
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#50
Well, here's one way to see why the US is increasingly viewed as a Police State as opposed
sabrina 1
Jan 2014
#63
That's not the definition of a police state. And I agree we have an issue with police brutality and
stevenleser
Jan 2014
#16
I think that is exactly right. It's not a police state or Stasi state, its a violent culture.
stevenleser
Jan 2014
#28
We get the government we deserve, right? Do we get the law enforcement we deserve, too?
randome
Jan 2014
#44
Under the real Stasi, what do you think happened to people who publically complained about it? (nt)
Nye Bevan
Jan 2014
#33
Not only that, one of the defining characteristics of the STASI was their prolific recruitment of
stevenleser
Jan 2014
#51
As a child, I was taught East Germany was terrifying, as you were always under surveillance.
Romulox
Jan 2014
#32
Well for one thing you can stand in Times Square and throw insults about President Obama,
Nye Bevan
Jan 2014
#36
OK. But I am still under surveillance in my home and in all of my "private" communications.
Romulox
Jan 2014
#42
If the United States qualifies as a police state, the term has become utterly useless.
WatermelonRat
Jan 2014
#35
Yes, I recall Glenn Beck once making that very same analogy. I called BS then too.
WatermelonRat
Jan 2014
#55
You're right, that was improper on my part. I apologize for the undue snarkery.
WatermelonRat
Jan 2014
#73
Ah, now a "corporate controlled country" is very different from a "police state".
Nye Bevan
Jan 2014
#66
Constant, dragnet style spying on every American, in direct contravention of our founding principles
Romulox
Jan 2014
#48
It is wrong. Improper overreach fueled by the desire not to have the next 9/11 be on their watch.
WatermelonRat
Jan 2014
#82
Well, that's another formerly useful term that DU has killed. "Police state" means nothing
Recursion
Jan 2014
#40
Wow 16 rounds into a man holding a cell phone, the fatal shots from BEHIND?
AtheistCrusader
Jan 2014
#57
Mass surveillance, secret laws, secret courts, indefinite detention, militarized police...
woo me with science
Jan 2014
#90
I'm surprised to read this from you. What you're saying is that yes, we have all the elements, but
Egalitarian Thug
Jan 2014
#127
OK, go on down that road. How is it that you imagine we can not go through this arbitrary door?
Egalitarian Thug
Jan 2014
#130
"a new kind of police state". Exactly. What purpose does arguing terminology serve, when the
Egalitarian Thug
Jan 2014
#135
Yes, we can put it to rest: the answer is "of course not, don't be so silly".
Donald Ian Rankin
Jan 2014
#107
Yes. Words have meanings. Hyperbole doesn't make one's case stronger. Quite the opposite
stevenleser
Jan 2014
#131
Out of curiosity I asked Skinner whether law enforcement has ever asked for info on DUers
Nye Bevan
Jan 2014
#137