Militarized police, sophisticated surveillance, and normal citizens with little say in what goes on. The US has all the trappings of an all-powerful police state.
Police State:
Definition:
1. A totalitarian state controlled by a political police force that secretly supervises the citizens’ activities.
1.) So is the U.S. a totalitarian state?
No. It’s an inverted totalitarian state.
Nazi Germany vs. U.S.
Nazi Germany: State dominated economic actors.
U.S.: Corporations control the government through political contributions and lobbying.
Nazi Germany: Constant political motivation (rallies support for leaders) with Nuremberg rallies, and Hitler Youth
U.S.: Persistent political apathy (allows leaders to do what they want).
Nazi Germany: Mocked democracy.
U.S.: Pretends to be the model of democracy for the whole world.
The US is a ‘managed democracy.’
Definition: a political form in which governments are legitimated by elections that they have learned to control.
We definitely have the policing power:
Over the last 25 years, civilian law enforcement has been increasingly militarized in America.
There has been a 4000% increase in “no knock,” military-armed SWAT raids over the past 30 years.
Yearly Swat Deployments:[2]
1980′s 3,000
–>
1996 30,000
–>
2001 40,000
With the hotline for erroneous no-knock raids receiving more than 100 calls in one week of operation.
Even responding to calls about angry dogs and domestic disputes.
And using military tactics and weaponry on U.S. citizens.
Which looks like:
Common SWAT Armament:
Sub-machine guns
Automatic weapons
Breaching shotguns
Stun grenades
Heavy body armor
Sniper rifles
Night vision
Motion detectors
Armored Personnel Carriers
vs.
Most common weapons of violent offenders:
Knife-10.1%
Gun-12.7%
Other-12.1%
Unknown-7.6%
None-55.8%
We also have the world’s largest prison system.
The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of the world’s prisoners.
1/99 adults in the US are behind bars
1/31 adults are under some form of correctional control–
Including:
Prison
Jail
Parole
Probation
Imprisonment rates (2012-2013)
[# imprisoned by 100,000 people]
U.S. 716
Rwanda 492
Russia 475
Brazil 274
Spain 147
Australia 130
China 121
Canada 118
Austria 98
France 98
Germany 79
Denmark 73
Sweden 67
India 30
Over the last 40 years the US prison population has risen 700%
With the NSA providing constant surveillance
By Wiretapping…
Tapping entire offices…
And cell towers…
With 9,000 “Tower dumps” in 2013
Tower Dump = a record of all calls bounced off of a cellphone tower within a certain period of time.
The NSA gathers nearly 5 billion records a day on smartphone locations.
Co-Traveler is one of the NSA’s most powerful analytic tools.
By tracking cell locations Co-Traveler can discern who you’re traveling with.
All tower A phones = a lot
A+B tower phones = less
A+B+C phones = less
…
A+B+C+D+E+F tower phones = possible co-travelers.
– And even entire counties…
By installing fiber-optic splitters in telecom facilities.
– Your accounts online aren’t safe..
Online Accounts:[7]
Number of data requests from December 1, 2012-May 31, 2013
Yahoo: 12,000-13,000
Apple: 4,000-5,000
Microsoft: 6,000-7,000
Google: 0-999
Facebook: 9,000-10,000
Even unopened hardware is monitored…
The NSA intercepts computer shipments to plant spyware on new systems.
Much less powerful nations have been police states, why couldn’t the U.S. be one?
Citations:
https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9175.html
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf
https://www.topcriminaljusticedegrees.org/militarization/
https://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Trends_in_Corrections_Fact_sheet.pdf
https://www.aclu.org/safe-communities-fair-sentences/prison-crisis
https://www.criminaljusticedegreehub.com/locked-up-in-america/
https://www.inc.com/julie-strickland/nsa-tech-companies-updates.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/agencies-collected-data-on-americans-cellphone-use-in-thousands-of-tower-dumps/2013/12/08/20549190-5e80-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html
https://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/how-the-nsa-is-tracking-people-right-now/634/https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying
https://www.maximumpc.com/nsa_reportedly_hijacks_pcs_install_spyware_has_backdoor_access_iphones2013
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.