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In reply to the discussion: Now will people believe me when I say we live in a de facto police state? [View all]treestar
(82,383 posts)212. An example of a police state exists
in parts of Soviet Russia. People who fled there to come to a place like this can tell you what it's really like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state
The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force which operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state.[2] Robert von Mohl, who first introduced the rule of law to German jurisprudence, contrasted the Rechtsstaat ("legal" or "constitutional" state) with the aristocratic Polizeistaat ("police state" .[3]
Examples of states with related attributes[edit]
The Soviet Union and its many satellite states, including East Germany and those that were part of the Soviet bloc, had extensive and repressive police and intelligence services (such as the KGB); approximately 2.5% of the East German adult population served as informants for the Stasi.[9]
Nazi Germany, a dictatorship, was brought into being through a nominal democracy, yet gradually exerted more and more repressive controls over its people in the lead-up to World War II. Nazi Germany was indeed a police state, using the SS and the Gestapo to assert control over the population from the 1930s until the end of the war.[10]
During the period of Apartheid, the South African government maintained police state attributes such as banning people and organizations, arresting political prisoners, and maintaining segregated living communities and restricting movement and access.[11]
The Soviet Union and its many satellite states, including East Germany and those that were part of the Soviet bloc, had extensive and repressive police and intelligence services (such as the KGB); approximately 2.5% of the East German adult population served as informants for the Stasi.[9]
Nazi Germany, a dictatorship, was brought into being through a nominal democracy, yet gradually exerted more and more repressive controls over its people in the lead-up to World War II. Nazi Germany was indeed a police state, using the SS and the Gestapo to assert control over the population from the 1930s until the end of the war.[10]
During the period of Apartheid, the South African government maintained police state attributes such as banning people and organizations, arresting political prisoners, and maintaining segregated living communities and restricting movement and access.[11]
Other examples at link.
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Now will people believe me when I say we live in a de facto police state? [View all]
Kelvin Mace
Dec 2014
OP
precisely! thought it required more than mere "allowance" to get what they wanted. n/t
wildbilln864
Dec 2014
#143
Why should they suffer any consequences for exercising their first amendment rights?
brooklynite
Dec 2014
#14
No. Its your problem that you don't know the difference between a real Police State
onenote
Dec 2014
#111
If that's what you think my point was, there's no point in continuing the discussion
onenote
Dec 2014
#179
So you're saying life for an black South African during Apartheid was better than life
onenote
Dec 2014
#178
Your logic is fail. Requiring cops to show respect to the people tjat employ them is far from asking
ncjustice80
Dec 2014
#120
You are the one that will give the 1% absolute control of the police by destroying the union
hack89
Dec 2014
#237
Get back to us when the military is unionized and gets collective bargaining rights.
hack89
Dec 2014
#137
a police state is not one where 'one ruler has all the power'. it could be, but it doesn't have to
NewDeal_Dem
Dec 2014
#16
What's your point? That everything is cool? It could be worse but it's bad enough. nm
rhett o rick
Dec 2014
#7
The police are killing citizens, esp black citizens, with impunity. With out control it will get
rhett o rick
Dec 2014
#11
I am still searching for a point. I hope you are not rationalizing this. nm
rhett o rick
Dec 2014
#58
My computer appears to be missing the hyperbol key that many of you seem to have
hack89
Dec 2014
#83
There is a term for when the armed forces overthrow an elected government.....
Spitfire of ATJ
Dec 2014
#55
We still do. Not as much as we should. But politicians still get punished. Police get punished.
onenote
Dec 2014
#131
The single most characteristic feature of a police state -- DEATH WITHOUT TRIAL -- is present.
Octafish
Dec 2014
#136
And the reasoning -- Efficiency and morale of the police trumping civil liberties
cprise
Dec 2014
#140
If that's the characteristic feature of a police state, then the US has always been a police state
onenote
Dec 2014
#163
And thank you as well. 2014 sucked, but I have to hope 2015 will start to turn things around
onenote
Dec 2014
#185
There haven't been many times in US history when the CIA was under control.
True Blue Door
Dec 2014
#204