The American Police State

Post Reply New Topic

The capitalists are clutching their pearls as police carry military grade gear to combat student protests, political dissent, and homeless people. The definition of a "peaceful protest" is narrowed while the list of what makes up a violent protest grows and grows. More people end up in jail and/or suffer injuries such as concussions. They may even get shot. It's all about cracking down on people who are an inconvenience to the status quo. Damn Neoliberalism!

It's only going to get much worse if Trump is reelected.

I was on an overland train recently sitting next to an American tourist visiting his son. He was in his late 70s and foremost in his mind was crime and policing. He lived in North Carolina and bought a house far in the mountains after retirement. I kept quiet and listened, he happily shared what was on his mind. He feared immigrants from the south (I think he meant Mexico) and inner city gangs (he eventually was alluding to blacks moving in to where he lived).

He moved to an isolated home in the Blue ridge mountains to escape crime. He carried guns to protect himself. His gripe was not enough money was spent on policing. It was (for him) a big ticket item and as spoke it made sense why trump focused so much on immigration and policing crime in 2016 and now.

The guy is succumbing to hysteria. Crime is at an all time low in the US. Trending down, and not up. Immigrants perpetrate crimes at a lower rate than do the native born. The reason Trump "makes sense" to someone like him caught up in the hysteria is that Trump is the one feeding the hysteria in the first place by repeating the same lies constantly.

It would be worse under Trump, and even moreso under a Socialist state.

Yeah, but I think perception > actual data for a lot of these folk though. I get the impression that conservative folk are easily manipulated on issues like crime and the link trump makes with immigration. they already carry a bias and it looks like republicans are simply stoking the fires and playing to existing biases. Policing is also a major issue European conservative politicians are currently playing to and they make the link between refugees and crime (not just responsible for Brexit but also the rise of the far-right throughout Europe right now).

In the US, I've seen republican candidates using democrats "defunding the police" (a call back to BLM) on television campaigns as reasons for urban decay in some cities. I think it will be an important issue for many Americans even if the republicans are misleading the public.

"The land of the free" is becoming an increasingly humorous phrase.

What a plan. Invent a fictional problem and then make people turn to you for the solution.

On a related note, your house is infested by invisible crumple-horned snorkacks. I'll get rid of them for $300 plus tax.

Yeah, he kept checking in on me to make sure I was on board with his philosophy. I just shrugged my shoulders and let him talk. I was legitimately curious about his inner beliefs.

We live under an oligarchy. Stop acting like the Socialist Boogieman is a threat. It'll never be.

Hey! We need the police to be safe! We need Government Guys with Guns or else we'll never be safe from criminals and commies! Can you imagine living in a twisted world where the government DIDN'T kill or threaten or imprison its citizens? How could we ever feel safe? A government without the ability to imprison or kill its citizens is exactly the kind of totalitarian dictatorship those statist bleeding heart commies want!
That's what the common-sense, Small Government types tell me at least.

We are in for a Rough ride .. The Guardian reported that :
"Oct 3, 2016 — Presidential candidate chosen to adorn reissue of the Nazi dictator's oratory in response to report that Trump keeps a copy by his bed."

If this does not disturb enough people ,I do not.,,,what will ?... seriously folks ,..Where is Lee Harvy Oswald when he is actually needed.??.

You mean the boogieman isn't waiting under my bed to emancipate the proletariat and create a viable social safety net, or just that I shouldn't be afraid of it?

I'm saying the rich have too much power in this country. They have the money and power to stop anything they see as an inconvenience to their rule dead in its tracks.

No wonder the socialist boogieman is hiding under my bed. He's scared s**tless of those parasites.

Getting more concentrated and there's nothing we can do about it...From 1983 to 2016, the share of aggregate wealth going to upper-income families increased from 60% to 79%.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-tren ... nequality/

And then there's those who run the world
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases ... -two-years