I have never felt more oppressed than when my wife was intentionally disallowed from re-entering the U.S. with me during COVID, since we happened to be out of the country when Trump levied his moronic bans against visa holders. It wasn't until Biden became president that she was able to return. If Trump had remained president, it's likely I would have had to leave the country to see her again. We were separated for 15 months, for literally no reason other than Trump's idiocy and a bureaucracy that has no thinking mind of its own. I felt helpless, and I think the scary thing was that I was helpless. No one cared, at all. There was not even a person you could speak to for help or guidance.

It boggles the mind how these prisoners and others can remain even remotely sane during their times in literal holes and figurative holes of bureaucracy while being mentally and physically assaulted and tortured.

While I do agree about the bureaucracy, I believe that these bureaucracies don't have to be this way. But what it requires is that the people in charge of the bureaucracies care about finding deficiencies and fixing them, assuming they aren't the ones directing the non-niceties in the first place.

In case of American law enforcement (of every level), it is not just that. It's permeated with that "sheep / wolf / sheepdog" mentality, thanks to Dave Grossman and his lectures. And once you've neatly subdivided people like that, it's only natural to dehumanize the "wolves" if you're the "sheepdog".