"Concerned About The Emerging Police State?"
No – because there is no ‘police state,’ ‘emerging’ or otherwise, the thread premise fails as a slippery slope fallacy.
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While it certainly is true that a fully developed police state does not presently exist in America, whether or not there are indications that such a condition might be emerging is a matter of opinion. Your opinion vs the opinions of a hell of a lot of Americans who believe otherwise.
The platform for my argument is a factor with roots in America's Colonial era, when the "police" were in fact soldiers, British
Regulars, who patrolled the towns and residential communities for the purpose of enforcing laws imposed by the Crown. Because tax evasion was a common offense in the colonies, the
Regulars (police) frequently conducted early morning break-in raids on the homes of individuals they suspected of harboring or trafficking in illegal items.
These break-in raids were among the most antagonistic provocations for the American Revolution. The bitter resentment evoked by these brutally humiliating invasions of privacy accounts for specific constraints and requirements contained in the Fourth Amendment. The sense of outrage associated with these so-called "no-knock" break-in raids remained constant until very recently.
I can remember a time in America when break-in raids were an extraordinary and newsworthy occurrence which invariably involved extremely dangerous criminals. Back in the 1950s and beyond magistrates were sensitive to public opinion and were concerned with political ramifications, so issuing a warrant to break into someone's home in the middle of the night called for unusually demanding circumstances. But as a direct result of the ill-advised and wholly counterproductive
War On Drugs that constraint no longer operates.
Today, "no-knock" break-ins take place more than 20,000 times a year and the number regularly increases. 20,000 divided by 365 means about 55 break-ins took place yesterday and 55 more will happen today, but except for some extremely unusual circumstance we won't see, hear or read about any of it. In many examples the useless goons who carry out these raids get all dressed up in their SWAT costumes, including balaclava masks and exotic leg-strap pistol holsters, kick in the door of some insignificant, non-violent, hapless individual whom they have cause to
suspect of
marijuana possession, ransack his meager belongings and terrorize his family.
The alarming rise in the frequency of break-ins plainly suggests the enforcement apparatus of government isn't very concerned with how We the People feel about the practice. By itself, that rather annoying fact does not suggest the emergence of a police state. But when we consider the recent militarization of our civilian police, our outlandish national prison census, and the rise of the law-enforcement and prison industrial
complexes -- it does tend to make one think.
