Difference between revisions of "Police state"
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==Official Narrative== | ==Official Narrative== | ||
| − | [[image:Democracy Index - The Economist - 2007.svg|700px|right|thumb| | + | [[image:Democracy Index - The Economist - 2007.svg|700px|right|thumb|[[Wikipedia]]'s [[official narrative]] - Paler states have more freedom]] |
Until mid 2014, the [[Wikipedia]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state Police state page] provided an exemplary illustration (right) of the official narrative of which governments the {{on}} declares to be police states. As of February 2014 the results of [[The Economist]]'s Democracy Index survey for 2010 were presented with the sole description "Democracy Index 2010" on the main page. The USA ranks as a "full democracy", at the opposite end of the spectrum from the "Authoritarian regimes" in [[Africa]] and the [[Middle East]].This is an interesting contrast with the below diagram of the incarceration rate. | Until mid 2014, the [[Wikipedia]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_state Police state page] provided an exemplary illustration (right) of the official narrative of which governments the {{on}} declares to be police states. As of February 2014 the results of [[The Economist]]'s Democracy Index survey for 2010 were presented with the sole description "Democracy Index 2010" on the main page. The USA ranks as a "full democracy", at the opposite end of the spectrum from the "Authoritarian regimes" in [[Africa]] and the [[Middle East]].This is an interesting contrast with the below diagram of the incarceration rate. | ||
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==US== | ==US== | ||
| − | [[image:Prisoner_population_rate_world_2012_map.png|700px|right|thumb|#Prisoners per 100,000 | + | [[image:Prisoner_population_rate_world_2012_map.png|700px|right|thumb|#Prisoners per 100,000 in 2012 - Paler states have less prisoners]] |
The [[USA]] has over 700 prisoners per 100,000 ciizens, the highest incarceration rate in the world. Around half of prisoners are locked up due to the [[war on drugs]] and thousands of prisoners face life behind bars for non-violent offences.<ref>[http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest Highest to Lowest]. [http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief World Prison Brief]</ref> Many commentators agree that USA is a police state<ref>http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/103429</ref>, including: | The [[USA]] has over 700 prisoners per 100,000 ciizens, the highest incarceration rate in the world. Around half of prisoners are locked up due to the [[war on drugs]] and thousands of prisoners face life behind bars for non-violent offences.<ref>[http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest Highest to Lowest]. [http://www.prisonstudies.org/info/worldbrief World Prison Brief]</ref> Many commentators agree that USA is a police state<ref>http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/103429</ref>, including: | ||
* [http://www.policestateusa.com Police State USA], a continuously updated multi-contributor site with news on the emergence of a naked police state in USA. | * [http://www.policestateusa.com Police State USA], a continuously updated multi-contributor site with news on the emergence of a naked police state in USA. | ||
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In May 2014, a US police officer shot a 70 year old man at a traffic stop. He was placed on unpaid leave, but a spokesman defended the shooting as “appropriate” because the officer “felt an imminent threat to his life” - the man was getting out of his car and reaching for a cane in the truck bed.<ref>http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/05/cop-shoots-70-year-old-unarmed-man-department-defends-officer-because-he-felt-threatened/</ref> | In May 2014, a US police officer shot a 70 year old man at a traffic stop. He was placed on unpaid leave, but a spokesman defended the shooting as “appropriate” because the officer “felt an imminent threat to his life” - the man was getting out of his car and reaching for a cane in the truck bed.<ref>http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/05/cop-shoots-70-year-old-unarmed-man-department-defends-officer-because-he-felt-threatened/</ref> | ||
| − | Repeated incidents reveal that "less lethal" weapons such as tasers are being used to [[torture]] or kill members of the US public by unrepentant (and commonly unpunished) police.<ref>http://filmingcops.com/cops-repeatedly-tase-teen-boy-in-the-chest-until-he-dies-high-five-and-brag-about-his-organs-tightening/</ref> | + | ==="Less lethal" weapons=== |
| + | Repeated incidents reveal that "less lethal" weapons such as tasers are being used to [[torture]] or kill members of the US public by unrepentant (and commonly unpunished) police.<ref>http://filmingcops.com/cops-repeatedly-tase-teen-boy-in-the-chest-until-he-dies-high-five-and-brag-about-his-organs-tightening/</ref> US [[police]] have killed over 500 people with tasers.<ref>http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tasers-uk-used-children-taser-deaths-stats-517149</ref> | ||
===Pre-crime profiling=== | ===Pre-crime profiling=== | ||
Revision as of 23:20, 22 December 2014
 Police state   
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| Wikipedia terms a police state as a "fundamentally authoritarian" form of government, and cites examples of the Soviet Union and its satellites plus North Korea. No mention in the article of the 21st century global shift towards authoritarian policies by the so-called Western democracies, such as the gutting of civil liberties and the use of the mass surveillance programmes and false flag terror. |
Contents
Official Narrative
Until mid 2014, the Wikipedia Police state page provided an exemplary illustration (right) of the official narrative of which governments the official narrative declares to be police states. As of February 2014 the results of The Economist's Democracy Index survey for 2010 were presented with the sole description "Democracy Index 2010" on the main page. The USA ranks as a "full democracy", at the opposite end of the spectrum from the "Authoritarian regimes" in Africa and the Middle East.This is an interesting contrast with the below diagram of the incarceration rate.
War on terror
- Full article: War on terror
- Full article: War on terror
The "War on terror" is increasingly used as justification by governments introduction of a police state.
Rollback of Civil Liberties
Periods of detention without trial have been lengthened, the right to silence curtailed or completely removed and legal restrictions on searches increasingly ignored, sometimes without even attempt at due process. Secret or juryless trials are increasingly being discussed in UK and other countries, and in June 2014, it emerged that the UK government had been trying to carry out a major "terrorism trial" in secrecy, without even naming the defendants.[1]
US
The USA has over 700 prisoners per 100,000 ciizens, the highest incarceration rate in the world. Around half of prisoners are locked up due to the war on drugs and thousands of prisoners face life behind bars for non-violent offences.[2] Many commentators agree that USA is a police state[3], including:
- Police State USA, a continuously updated multi-contributor site with news on the emergence of a naked police state in USA.
- FilmingCops.com, which has a lot of recent reports and some videos of aggression by US police
Unchecked police violence
In the process of attacking the Occupy Wall St protests, widespread illegal violence by the police was carried out and went more or less unpunished.
In December 2013, no less than 23 police officers fired at least 377 rounds at an immobilised car in what CBS described as a "shooting frenzy", killing the (unarmed) occupants and injuring others in the crossfire.[4]
In April 2014 it was reported that Police in Georgia forced a group of fifth graders to the ground at gunpoint as they attempted to build a tree fort in their own neighborhood. As the children lay face down, the officer allegedly screamed profanities and demanded they spread their arms and legs. The children's parent filed a complaint but the officer concerned remains on duty.[5]
In May 2014, a US police officer shot a 70 year old man at a traffic stop. He was placed on unpaid leave, but a spokesman defended the shooting as “appropriate” because the officer “felt an imminent threat to his life” - the man was getting out of his car and reaching for a cane in the truck bed.[6]
"Less lethal" weapons
Repeated incidents reveal that "less lethal" weapons such as tasers are being used to torture or kill members of the US public by unrepentant (and commonly unpunished) police.[7] US police have killed over 500 people with tasers.[8]
Pre-crime profiling
In 2014, Chicago police began use of a system not based on evidence of criminal activity but a computer based data mining approach that predicts crime probabilities.[9]
Property confiscation
The IRS has begun to use confiscate money based solely on suspicion, without specifying a criminal charge, effectively rendering people guilty until they can prove themselves (at their own expense) innocent.[10]
Military hardware rollout
- Full article: Militarization of Police
- Full article: Militarization of Police
Particularly in US, domestic law enforcement is making increasing use of military hardware. In 2014 the US government announced that it would be equipping police forces with 13,000 Mine Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) units that were used in the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, while the LA police department announed it would start using unmanned aerial drones.[11][12] The Department of Homeland Security has similarly been stocking up on ammunition and has several bullets for every man, man and child in the USA, including hollow points bullets which are illegal for use on the battlefield, but well purposed for use in urban environments since they explode on impact, causing maximum target damage but minimum property damage.
External links
- The Rutherford Institute — a non-profit civil liberties organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founder and president John W. Whitehead believes that the U.S. is an "emerging" police state.[13]
- Council for Secular Humanism article describing attributes of police states
- David Mery, September 22, 2005; The Guardian — example of "police state" defined in a modern context.
An example
| Page name | Description |
|---|---|
| Inverted totalitarianism |
Related Quotations
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document:The First 9-11 Sceptic | “We are going to see a great number of articles in the future from so-called experts and public officials. They will warn about more violence, more kidnappings, and more terrorists. Mass media, the armed forces, and intelligence agencies will saturate our lives with fascist scare tactics and 'predictions' that have already been planned to come true.” | Mae Brussell | 1974 |
| Bruce Schneier | “It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.” | Bruce Schneier | 2000 |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Britain - Incipient Fascist State | article | 3 February 2011 | Derek Martin | |
| Document:Conspiracy Theory meets Conspiracy Fact | Article | 1 April 2020 | Michael Buergermeister | This is all merely a bad dream, merely a dystopian nightmare. This has nothing to do with reality. |
| Document:The Essential Rules of Tyranny | webpage | 29 July 2011 | Brandon Smith | |
| Document:We got ourselves a reader | webpage | 'Chuckyman' | Solid insights into the march towards police state status in much of the Western world from someone who experienced them first hand in Northern Ireland |
Rating
8 November 2017 Robin Thought provoking readingA somewhat disorganised but fact packed page, which gives an angle on the concept never fond in the commercially-controlled media.
References
- ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/jun/04/major-terrorism-trial-secret-first-time-legal-history
- ↑ Highest to Lowest. World Prison Brief
- ↑ http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/103429
- ↑ Police Shooting Frenzy Raises Concerns
- ↑ http://www.storyleak.com/cop-pulls-gun-elementary-school-kids-building-tree-fort/
- ↑ http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/05/cop-shoots-70-year-old-unarmed-man-department-defends-officer-because-he-felt-threatened/
- ↑ http://filmingcops.com/cops-repeatedly-tase-teen-boy-in-the-chest-until-he-dies-high-five-and-brag-about-his-organs-tightening/
- ↑ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tasers-uk-used-children-taser-deaths-stats-517149
- ↑ http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/19/5419854/the-minority-report-this-computer-predicts-crime-but-is-it-racist
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/us/law-lets-irs-seize-accounts-on-suspicion-no-crime-required.html?_r=0
- ↑ http://filmingcops.com/cops-receive-13000-armored-military-vehicles-to-use-on-american-soil/
- ↑ http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-adds-drones-to-arsenal-20140530-story.html
- ↑ The Rutherford Institute John W. Whitehead to Speak to Senior Statesmen of Virginia on the Emerging American Police State and What 2014 Holds in Store for Our Freedoms
