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MoonDog · 09-01-2006, 04:23 PM

Police State
1) A state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the people, especially by means of a secret police force.

I'm not sure that we have anything that truly approaches the level of a "Secret Police" force in this country as of yet. I would also have to argue that the government does not yet exercise "rigid" controls on the social, economic, and political life of the citizens of the US. Not quite yet, at least.

2) A nation whose rulers maintain order and obedience by the threat of police or military force; one with a brutal, arbitrary government.
I don't we are here yet either. I don't think recent presidents have threated the use of police and/or military force internally to maintain "order & obedience".

3) A police state is an authoritarian state which uses the police, especially secret police, to maintain and enforce political power, often through violent or arbitrary means. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism or other harsh means of social control. In a police state the police are not subject to the rule of law and there is no meaningful distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.

The police in the US are subject to the rule of law, and are most definitely distinct from our major, national political entities.

A government does not describe itself as a "police state". Instead, it is a description assigned to a regime by internal or external critics in response to the laws, policies and actions of that regime, and is often used pejoratively to describe the regime's stance on human rights, the social contract and similar matters.
I think that our international critics might accuse us of human rights lapses due to Guantanamo Bay, Iraqi prisoner abuse, etc. But those incidents, grouped as they are around the war, might not constitute the full range of such behaviors across our social spectrum to qualify us as a police state.

09-01-2006, 04:23 PM	#47 (permalink)
MoonDog Psycho Location: Buffalo, New York	Police State 1) A state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the people, especially by means of a secret police force. I'm not sure that we have anything that truly approaches the level of a "Secret Police" force in this country as of yet. I would also have to argue that the government does not yet exercise "rigid" controls on the social, economic, and political life of the citizens of the US. Not quite yet, at least. 2) A nation whose rulers maintain order and obedience by the threat of police or military force; one with a brutal, arbitrary government. I don't we are here yet either. I don't think recent presidents have threated the use of police and/or military force internally to maintain "order & obedience". 3) A police state is an authoritarian state which uses the police, especially secret police, to maintain and enforce political power, often through violent or arbitrary means. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism or other harsh means of social control. In a police state the police are not subject to the rule of law and there is no meaningful distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive. The police in the US are subject to the rule of law, and are most definitely distinct from our major, national political entities. A government does not describe itself as a "police state". Instead, it is a description assigned to a regime by internal or external critics in response to the laws, policies and actions of that regime, and is often used pejoratively to describe the regime's stance on human rights, the social contract and similar matters. I think that our international critics might accuse us of human rights lapses due to Guantanamo Bay, Iraqi prisoner abuse, etc. But those incidents, grouped as they are around the war, might not constitute the full range of such behaviors across our social spectrum to qualify us as a police state.