We Have Become a Police State, and None of Us Should Be Okay with That
dailywire.com
dailywire.com
As long as Americans see the police force as an evil to be starved, instead of a social necessity to be filled with capable people with proper training, the police will never get the funding or oversight needed for improvement. The cycle continues.
Have you? It usually starts with people excusing and defending police state behavior. And usually happens during "days of chaos and confusion".
> As long as Americans see the police force as an evil to be starved
We see the police, like government/etc, as necessary evils.
> instead of a social necessity to be filled with capable people with proper training, the police will never get the funding or oversight needed for improvement.
What? Police are already well funded. Some police department are funded better than armies.
> The cycle continues.
Hopefully as it is the only way to maintain a free and civil society. The state naturally tends toward tyranny and a free people naturally tend toward anarchy. If the "cycle" doesn't exist, it means we are living in a tyranny or anarchy.
> Have you?
Yes.
> It usually starts with people excusing and defending police state behavior.
I can only speak for my own country, but it started with America cutting a deal with the Soviet Union, several prominent leaders getting assassinated during partisan conflicts, and America picking what they imagined was a safe bet which turned out to be a human butcher. (Well, to be fair, it wasn't like the US deliberately chose a bad guy - they picked someone with a Princeton PhD.)
But I can tell you how a country gets out of police state. It doesn't involve people doing whatever they want because it's their freedom. It involves people sacrificing their own freedom for the greater good, standing in front of total strangers facing the police, and saying "I don't know them, but they are my brothers. If you want to shoot them, you will have to shoot me first."
In other words, if your "police state behavior" is telling people to go home during an ongoing pandemic, it belongs to "not even wrong" category.
BTW, I don't believe the police are well funded in the US in general. Maybe in some sector. (And the funding could definitely become smarter.) But when residents of a major city (SF) have to avoid used needles on the street, it seems pretty clear to me that there aren't enough police to serve these people. (Well, maybe there are enough police officers but they're all deployed in doing something useless - which would mean we can't afford to hire competent managers.)
The point is to not get into a police state in the first state. You get into police state by being compliant and being manipulated by fear. Slowly but surely, they take all your rights and condition you to slavishly obey.
> and saying "I don't know them, but they are my brothers. If you want to shoot them, you will have to shoot me first."
That's most definitely not how police states end. Police states would shoot you or take you away and make you disappear. Maybe you weren't in a police state to begin with?
> In other words, if your "police state behavior" is telling people to go home during an ongoing pandemic, it belongs to "not even wrong" category.
See, you are completely missing the point. But then again, it might be because you were raised in a police state and have been conditioned to be obedient and subservient. It's hard to shake off a lifetime of bondage.
> But when residents of a major city (SF) have to avoid used needles on the street, it seems pretty clear to me that there aren't enough police to serve these people.
It has nothing to do with police pay. It has to do with laws/rights. Are you seriously contending that SF of all places is underfunding their cops?
Also, SF drug problem is a societal problem not a police problem. But once again, those controlled by fear always to look the police to fix all their problems and hence you end up with a police state. Ultimately, people's mindset are to blame for police states. People naively and foolishly allow police states.
What if it violated our right to assembly?
Even if it was a needless it's a massive abuse of power and a constitutional violation.
Virus or not civil liberties still exist as provided by the Constitution.
If the police is to do their job, they will be wrong sometimes. The only way to make sure that they're never wrong is to keep them from doing anything. Americans should stop acting like a pointy-haired boss running over sysadmins. It's getting ridiculous.
Also, if you want to protest police brutality there are legitimate cases all around the country. You don't need to sell made-up outrage.
If you aren't american, why do you care?
> Also, if you want to protest police brutality there are legitimate cases all around the country.
Police state isn't about brutality. It's about control. Like where you can go, when you can go, how you should exist. It's pretty much a state of mind. Where the population, out of fear, will accept any restrictions without pushback.
> You don't need to sell made-up outrage.
Physical restriction isn't "made-up" outrage. A single case of police brutality is horrible but not the end of the world. Police state is systematic. Also, people can be upset at both. Not sure what your angle is here.
It's strange how you relentless defend authority and cavalierly dismiss the issues of police state.
File a lawsuit against them and see how far you get. I'm sure they are acting lawfully.
The courts are closed in many places right now so lawsuits aren't possible.
Hence the police can act with no reprisal.
The ACLU will probably have a field day after this is over.
That's like saying we've not really become a police state. Like saying the constitution really hasn't been thrown out.
Like saying the police can't really act without reprisal.
p.s. don't tell anyone
More funding turns into more MWRAPS, not better oversight.
A police state is a one-party state whose domination is maintained through the application of despotic force against the civilian population.
We, on the other hand, are experiencing a once-in-a-century, world-wide, corona virus pandemic with a mortality rate at least 10x the normal rate of corona viruses and which no one has immunity to because it just recently jumped species.
Since the vast majority of ultimate victims of this disease are the old and the infirm, we are undetaking a collective, other-sparing, selfless plan of action.
No one is alarmed by this action. It says absolutely nothing about our form of government and.what it says about our national character is inspirational and affirming.
See the difference?