If you’ve spent anytime on a politically-oriented Web site lately you’ve likely seen the catch phrases “police state,” “authoritarianism,” or “totalitarianism” being discussed. Often times the debate is whether or not the United States — under the leadership of Bush and Cheney — is heading down the path to becoming a police state. However I’m not writing this to continue the debate, but rather to analyze it from a different perspective due to a situation I experienced commuting to work this morning.
I arrived at the NJ Transit station in Hoboken, NJ to catch a transfer to another train that would take me to my final destination. Upon arriving at the station and exiting my first train I saw two armed police officers standing in front me. The armed officers, both white males, stood like statues not flinching one bit, just giving out serious and determined death looks like they were on the hunt for someone that just killed their pet poodle. And when I say armed, I mean ARMED. The officers not only carried the standard police issued 9-mm handgun, that was just in their holster, in their arms they carried what looked to be M16 assault rifles (I was reluctant to snap a pic for fear of them confiscating my iPhone).
So you’re thinking two officers, big deal Jon. Wait, it gets worse. As I walked from my first train, which came in on track 3, to my transfer train, which was on track 13 (a distance of roughly 125-150 feet), I saw eight more police officers just as heavily armed, and with just as serious of a dead poodle problem. Now consider this all took place during the early morning commuting hours, before rush hour, so there weren’t even that many people in the station.
But wait, it gets even worse still. I’m sitting on the second train of my commute, writing this post and the police officers board my train! I’m not sure how many in number there are, so far I have counted 3 but they’re behind me between cars so there could easily be more (if only they knew what I was writing only 15 feet away from them). One of the officers traversed through the car handing our yellow security fliers stating: “Alert level — Yellow.”
Finally they have just exited the train in Newark, where an influx of people boarded the train, and it’s clearly evident that the police officers holding M16s spooked them a bit. They walked across the platform and boarded another train, likely to start the entire process all over again.
My question to all of this morning’s events is not is the U.S. becoming a police state, but rather is the U.S. already a police state? I felt like at any moment an officer was going to stop me and ask for my “papers” like I was in Nazi Germany, or that they would use some sort of RFID tracking to locate the “renegade blogger” on this train out to destroy the government with his words.
OK maybe one of those two is a little far-fetched. But the fact that concepts like that are actually being discussed means that such incidents aren’t too far outside of the realm of possibility. I’m sure the Germans during the 1930s never saw it coming until it was too late. Are we going to be students of history? Or are we going to become the Neo-Con Reich?
31 Comments
The most amazing thing is to realize the german people didnt just up and decide to hate the world. Hitler convinced them they were under attack, and that they had to fight for their lives. People were afraid for their survival, and when faced with that type of fear, people do strange things…I found this quote, which sums it up nicely, i think.
“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”
– Herman Goering, one of the highest ranking Nazi’s at the Nuremberg trials
“Are we going to be students of history? Or are we going to become the Neo-Con Reich?”
I believe the answer to that depends, in part, on what one’s socio-economic status is…at least for now. I say this because those who are profiting and without want are loathe to question the status quo or the administration; whereas the poor and disenfranchised have many reasons and pehaps less to lose if they stand up.
As far as the question of a police state-yes, I believe we are in the infancy of such a state, and the American sheeple; blinded by television and consumerism run amok, will stand by and let it happen.
No-knock warrantless entry, warrantless wiretapping, growing use of surveillance cameras. Yep, I think “already” is valid.
Zorn and Michelle are right on the mark. If only people knew how many times this has happened before. All of our modern distractions only make it more likely that it can and will happen here. I was convinced we had already become a police state when I saw the video of the police reaction to the L.A. immigrants rights rally (I think “GameJew” had the best footage).
it does in fact sound like everyone is going to be questioned where they are going? for what? to see who? at what time? this country is falling apart and we seem to just sit back and let it all happen
Seems as though Orwell was only off by a couple decades. That’s still pretty good.
So, what you described was a patrol of heavily armed police officers handing out fliers asking people to report suspicious activity in the Hoboken train station.
How exactly does this make the US a police state?
A police state exists where the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population, especially by means of a secret police force which operates above the normal constraints found in a liberal democracy.
How does what you observed qualify as rigid or repressive? They didn’t arrest anyone. They didn’t question you about your political views. They didn’t use excessive force randomly to create fear.
You aren’t placing this armed patrol in context…there were just a series of car bombings in Britain at an airport a day or two ago, so stepped up foot patrols are hardly any indication of a police state…it just indicates a higher level of alertness, by the police, at a transportation hub, which terrorists are more likely to target, than lets say, Uncle Al’s bait & tackle in West Bumblefuk, Idaho.
When you start seeing foot patrols of armed police and soldiers on an hourly basis in all of our major cities, indiscriminate political based violence against citizens, wide spread targeted racial/religious killings by the police, then you know you are in a police state…and I don’t see any signs of that any time soon.
If you ever actually lived in a real “police state” you would find this comparison laughable. You’re so brave!!!!!!!
I think you are over-reacting. It’s very unusual for us to see armed guards with assualt rifles anywhere.
Don’t forget it was near the 4th of July, and we had recent Glascow bombings.
Also, travel outside of the United States a little more. You’ll see plenty of examples of soldiers/police armed with assault rifles.
Paris: go to the Louvre. Last visit I saw at least 8 French soldiers outside the glass pyramid. All with assault rifles.
Cozumel Mexico: I was there for a dive trip. I saw 7-8 police with Uzi’s on the boardwalk. Other vacation places its not uncommon to see police every 20 yards in a mexico vacation spot.
1st of July Penn Station: several bomb dogs, several police officers in tactical gear.
Not one of these soldiers stopped me or asked for any identification. In fact, in almost every instance, I saw people (tourists) asking these officer for street directions, how to read their tickets or instructions to gate numbers.
It’s people like you who are destroying this country - why can’t you just accept that these heroic men are there to keep YOU safe from the JIHADISTS and TERRORISTS who HATE our way of life?!
WE HAVE TO BE PROACTIVE IN OUR DEFENSE OF OUR PEACE AND FREEDOM! If you just sit there like a standard liberal retard and give commies and terrorists freedom, you’re dead - we should be doing MORE if anything to KEEP THESE PEOPLE OUT and AWAY from us and KEEP US SAFE.
As much as I hate too admit it, things are not as bad as some of the alternative media would have you believe. America is on a very slippery slope, and the possibility of escalation to opressive levels is very real. However, untill Bush/some other president activates his/her? emergency powers under the NatSec/HomSecPD and doesn’t give them back, constant worry is unfounded.
Right now, Bush is a lame duck, he’s lost the hearts and minds of the people and may go down as one of the most hated presidents in history. We still have hope that this atmosphere of closed government, the foundations of opression, and American Imperialism leave the executive branch with him.
If they don’t….Stop worrying and ACT.
We have been gradually becoming a police state. The rest of the world has been in a similar decline. The problem lies with the world economic system that perpetuates have nots to increase the booty of the haves. This creates a dynamic that the haves have increasing trouble of controlling. They can only control the populace through propaganda for so long. They are gearing up for control and domination by force. This is tricky as well as who is going to enforce it. Soldiers and cops can changes sides at any time when they realize its not to their advantage to uphold the status quo. This is why they are in need of automating the use of force, why there is cameras everywhere, and why they will unleash their secret weapon on population control using electromagnetic devices to make the people submit without having to have soldiers run in and attack. Urban warfare on all fronts is a battle they cannot win. The worst is yet to come. Check out Alex Jones’ documentary Terrorstorm, you can watch it on Google Video or YouTube.
“LiquorStoreStories”- all I could think while reading this post was Orwell. You beat me to it. People have been saying that a 1984-esque society is imminent for years and it only gets worse.
Righteous brother… Your racist disposition doesn’t answer the arguments of the post. Get a life, troll, and stop coming up with Arab conspiracy theories (a pizza man taking on a whole army base, blowing up jet fuel, and driving a flaming car into a skycap?, come on). Additionally privacy and liberty is what true brave soldiers have already died for not the privilege to be ignorant and imperialist. Get off your computer and go outside and exercise and mingle with people of different skin color, maybe it will improve your disposition.
The American public has degraded into a mass of disinterested individuals with no common backbone. If we were any other country with a better knowledge of our own governing body and the structure and content of our laws, an uprising would be just around the corner. Warrant-less actions from state & government officers, massively bloated fuel prices, continuously mounting numbers of dead soldiers dying because we can’t leave well enough alone (Does America really need to butt in and be the police for the whole world? Who gave us that authority?), the Patriot Act, the fact that the American Vote for leadership means less than a wet sack of taco meat, the bizarre idea that the government would like to build a 700 mile long wall along a 2000 mile long border (as one comic put it “thus creating a 1300 mile long door”), growing numbers of military and police ‘guards’ and ’security’ in mass transit locations (I’m sorry, but those people are NOT there for ‘our protection’. They are there for our ‘paranoia’.).
I was once astounded when someone told me that our reactions after 9-1-1 were proof that we couldn’t be beaten down, that the terrorists hadn’t accomplished their goals, and that they hadn’t won.
I say astounded because that had won. Before 9-1-1, it was possible to enter a plane with a soda, or a bottle of sun-tan lotion. It was in fact possible to carry your fingernail clippers, or a nail file. Heck, you could even take a leaf blower on the plane if you wanted.
Now: 3oz bottles, 1 quart bags, take off your shoes, take your laptop out of your bag, throw away your lighters (but not really thrown away - the government has an open auction website to sell all the confiscated items to make a little more money from us), take off your jackets, have your ticket and id out at all times (”Show me your papers!”).
We’re a country now more ruled by fear than ever before, and if that doesn’t show the terrorists won, then you don’t know the meaning of the word ‘TERRORist’.
We’re not becoming a police state. We have been one for a while. It is now officially harder to get into the USA than it is to get into Jordan, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Canada has seen how abysmal it’s gotten to live here and opened her arms to us. Even the French-Canadians, and really, let’s be honest: they hate everyone.
The USA is filled with a people who have no common sense of togetherness. We have instead an instilled common sense of fear. We have realized that we no longer vote for our president, but for a committee that may, or may not, vote for the person we want in office. Our country is now run by corporations, each one more money-grubbing than the next, and led by a man who truly believes that if he tries hard enough, he can bring about the end of days. Give some thought to this: We are led by a man who insists on leading not just from his mind, but from his religious heart.
One of the founding principles of the country has always been that we would be governed by a body of elected officials who would govern in a forum where the church and state were separate and did not interfere with each other.
Now we are led by men who believe god should be a part of the law-making process. How, with all that goes on in this world, is the topic of same-sex marriage even a topic? In the city I live in a man recently legally married himself. Crazy, but true. Somehow the legality of it was not part of the ’same-sex’ principle, since there were in fact not TWO same-sex individuals involved. But our ruling body would love to have a FEDERAL LAW on the books preventing same-sex couples from being just as miserable as the rest of us. The basis for the reasoning behind this proposal is that it’s against god. That the Bible tells us it’s a sin. (The mysterious 11th commandment, perhaps?)
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I don’t ask any longer “Are we becoming a police state?” or “Are we already a police state?”. I instead ask another, much more important question:
Why haven’t we risen up cured this issue? How much oppression is required before the collective camel has a broken back?
How about some pics of the “white male” police officers with their “M-16s”??? Did they have Hitler-like mustaches? Did they have Gestapo uniforms on? Were they wearing “Bush-Cheney” shirts? Did they have Halliburton supplied boots? Was Libby in the background giving them instructions? ROFL! Like you couldn’t get a pic from the side or the back when they weren’t looking…. My rule is PICS or it didn’t happen…
You and your ilk have story after story of how this nation is turning into a police state and yet somehow, SOMEHOW you’re able to post this story - and others like it, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, without Bush’s Jackbooted Thugs(tm) knocking down your door and taking you to a secret detention camp for torture and reeducation… you and anyone who listens to you are nothing more than PATHETIC liars…
Wait. We’re now a police state because the police are better armed than you? What were you planning to do against the 9mm handguns that would be different against the M-16 variants?
Oh noes! We’re a police state because the police looks intimidating. Grow a sack. You demonstrated beautiful cowardice in the face of authority then proceeded to go cry on the Internet about how mean other people looked to you.
God help us if handing out fliers turned the country into a police state. F***ing pussy. [profanity edited]
In Europe this is not an unusual occurrence.
However, what’s going on here is a subliminal message to Americans connected with the events in London and Glasgow. The Bushies are getting ready to have Blackwater mercs all over the place when they cancel elections in 2008.
Count on it….it will be in the form of a public health emergency and the camps they have envisioned for liberals and pinko hippie communists will finally get some use.
Too bad more people here care about American Idol than about the destruction of our republic.
All i can say is that i’m mad as hell and want it to stop!
http://sorrow.tumblr.com/post/4945967 [video]
Zorn: Good catch on that Goering quote. Obviously, it doesn’t bother anyone in this administration that their tactics are identical to that of the most evil political party in human history (until the neocon revolution started and put into motion by Osama bin Laden).
police state? My surveilence for the past four years is so strict that they know exactly when I will be having PMS … they all want off that day.
The correct answer to the question is: Yes - and no.
Yes, because the laws as applied to those who fall afoul of the Cheney-Bush Cabal rival those of the Third Reich. No, because for the time being, there aren’t enough “authority personnel” to enforce those draconian laws hiding beneath the misleading sobriquet of “The USA PATRIOT Act”.
Hear the various governors across the nation lamenting that their citizens are suffering from the effects of the various natural disasters now taking place, because their National Guard units are off fighting for oil and aren’t available to search and rescue.
I hate to put it this way, but maybe that is a good thing where this topic is concerned. If all of the National Guard was in the States, they would be out in the streets imposing “democracy” (read: Law and Order) on all of us.
come on people were not becoming a police state .its the socialist neo left wingers who are bringing about the problems with stupid laws to tell you where,what,when,and how to live . multiculturism instead of secularismm, too many people want to be a victim and be a apart of the new nanney state,geeee me gggggge me cauase you know you dont have to work when you can live on welfare and the nanny state will take care of you cause you know they owe it to you . cause you know if you get caught breaking the law the nanny state might take you socialist dollors and give it to others. and you know i would be bushhitlers fault ..
This is precisely the stuff I’ve been writing about.
Consider:
* An 18 year old was recently charged with felony wiretapping for… videotaping a traffic stop
* Congress, for the first time in history, recently passed a bill whcih allows the federal government to detain anyone, without judicial review, merely by calling them a terrorist
* Within 3 years the national ID cards will be in place. If you don’t have one, you won’t be able to open a bank account, get a job, get on a plane, or enter a public building.
You’re asking the right questions.
In Israel, what you experienced is a daily fact of life. You can’t enter any store or restaurant without passing through a metal detector. You have security guards on the buses that stop you and ask you questions before you can board. There are cops on every street corner brandishing all sorts of weapons. There are even cops with machine guns wearing all black, driving around on motorcycles, who jump off and harass anyone suspicious (read, Arab) looking.
After a while, you just get used to it.
Americans are the only people on Earth who have managed to evade this level of police militancy. Welcome to what the rest of the world endures.
Hey I have said to any interested acquaintances for years that we live in a police state. I use the Socratic approach: “What characteristics in a society or societal measures would you need to observe to determine if you lived in a police state?” Unfortunately, I seldom get more than blank stares as few people possess reasoning skills. So I suggest, “How about the country with the largest percentage of its people in prison?” Or how about, “What country has built secret prisons all over its sovereign territory, ‘privatized’ them out to crony capitalists, and further built hundreds of secret prisons all over the world?” One could go on for a long time with such rhetorical questions — I think most of us know the answers.
LOL! silly americans! they have the most rules about privacy and what you can do with yourself and your personal posessions thinking it makes them safer. they put hundreds and thousands of criminals on death row…. how much good is coming from all of that?
many countries who have much less “control” over citizens and who mind their business don’t have the same types of problems as the USA. i blame john wayne
yeah we’re already there.
the mounting evidence is seeping in through the cracks of the protective wall of the constitution via the steady but sure corrosive tactics implementd by the most hienous administration since nixon.
yeah we’re already there.
You just had to mention that you’ve got an iPhone, didn’t you ?
the 322 will f**k [edited for profanity] the third world in the dirty places.
-”ex mortis est”
It’s happening all over little by little ,under the heading of security,there’s an agenda here ,who’s behind it is difficult to determine,it’s not only heavily armed police in train stations,its all sorts of laws being put into effect ,but its for our protection we’re told ,much the way Germanys population was told,we’re at war w/terrorists and depending on who’s talking it covers a wide area, been to the airport lately?you on the no-fly list,and if so ,why? who put it there? I know people on the list ,they did get to fly but not until they were thoroughly searched ,esp. for the type of reading material they had,how about your local library?phone?internet?have a built-in gps tracker in your car?…WHY? on earth would you want one?you get lost often?….technology is just great in the hands of terrorists,our own on capital hill,……………we hung the wrong dictator!
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Is the United States Already a Police State?…
If you’ve spent anytime on a politically-oriented Web site lately you’ve likely seen the catch phrases “police state,” “authoritarianism,” or “totalitarianism” being discussed. Often times the debate is whether or not the United States …