What Is The Real Agenda Of The American Police State? - See more at: http://www.theda

[mick silver]

What Is The Real Agenda Of The American Police State? November 15, 2013

Editorial By Paul Craig Roberts

In my last column I emphasized that it was important for American citizens to demand to know what the real agendas are behind the wars of choice by the Bush and Obama regimes. These are major, long-term wars each lasting two to three times as long as World War II.
Forbes reports that one million US soldiers have been injured in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccaruiz/2013/11/04/report-a-million-veterans-injured-in-iraq-afghanistan-wars/) RT reports that the cost of keeping each US soldier in Afghanistan has risen from $1.3 million per soldier to $2.1 million per soldier. (http://rt.com/usa/us-afghanistan-pentagon-troops-budget-721/)
Matthew J. Nasuti reports in the Kabul Press that it cost US taxpayers $50 million to kill one Taliban soldier. That means it cost $1 billion to kill 20 Taliban fighters. (http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article32304) This is a war that can be won only at the cost of the total bankruptcy of the United States.



Joseph Stiglitz (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/2188/) and Linda Bilmes have estimated that the current out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs of the Afghan and Iraq wars is at least $6 trillion.
In other words, it is the cost of these two wars that explains the explosion of the US public debt and the economic and political problems associated with this large debt.
What has America gained in return for $6 trillion and one million injured soldiers, many very severely?
In Iraq there is now an Islamist Shia (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/1842/) regime allied with Iran in place of a secular Sunni (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/1841/) regime that was an enemy of Iran, one as dictatorial as the other, presiding over war ruins, ongoing violence as high as during the attempted US occupation and extraordinary birth defects from the toxic substances associated with the US invasion and occupation.
In Afghanistan there is an undefeated and apparently undefeatable Taliban and a revived drug trade that is flooding the Western world with drugs.
The icing on these Bush and Obama "successes" are demands from around the world that Americans and former British PM Tony Blair be held accountable for their war crimes. Certainly, Washington's reputation has plummeted as a result of these two wars. No governments anywhere are any longer sufficiently gullible as to believe anything that Washington says.
These are huge costs for wars for which we have no explanation.
The Bush/Obama regimes have come up with various cover stories: a "war on terror," "we have to kill them over there before they come over here," "weapons of mass destruction," revenge for 9/11, Osama bin Laden (who died of his illnesses in December 2001 as was widely reported at the time).
None of these explanations are viable. Neither the Taliban nor Saddam Hussein were engaged in terrorism in the US. As the weapons inspectors informed the Bush regime, there were no WMD in Iraq. Invading Muslim countries and slaughtering civilians is more likely to create terrorists than to suppress them. According to the official story, the 9/11 hijackers and Osama bin Laden were Saudi Arabians, not Afghans or Iraqis. Yet it wasn't Saudi Arabia that was invaded.
Democracy and accountable government simply do not exist when the executive branch can take a country to wars in behalf of secret agendas operating behind cover stories that are transparent lies.
It is just as important to ask these same questions about the agenda of the US police state (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/3444/). Why have Bush and Obama removed the protection of law as a shield of the people and turned law into a weapon in the hands of the executive branch? How are Americans made safer by the overthrow of their civil liberties? Indefinite detention and execution without due process of law are the hallmarks of the tyrannical state. They are terrorism, not a protection against terrorism. Why is every communication of every American and apparently the communications of most other people in the world, including Washington's most trusted European allies, subject to being intercepted and stored in a gigantic police-state database? How does this protect Americans from terrorists?
Why is it necessary for Washington to attack the freedom of the press and speech, to run roughshod over the legislation that protects whistleblowers such as Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, to criminalize dissent and protests, and to threaten journalists such as Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald and Fox News reporter James Rosen? (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/another-chilling-leak-investigation.html?_r=0)
How does keeping citizens ignorant of their government's crimes make citizens safe from terrorists?
These persecutions of truth-tellers have nothing whatsoever to do with "national security" and "keeping Americans safe from terrorists." The only purpose of these persecutions is to protect the executive branch from having its crimes revealed. Some of Washington's crimes are so horrendous that the International Criminal Court (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/2001/) would issue a death sentence if those guilty could be brought to trial. A government that will destroy the constitutional protections of free speech and a free press in order to prevent its criminal actions from being disclosed is a tyrannical government.
One hesitates to ask these questions and to make even the most obvious remarks out of fear not only of being put on a watch list and framed on some charge or the other, but also out of fear that such questions might provoke a false-flag attack that could be used to justify the police state that has been put in place.
Perhaps that was what the Boston Marathon Bombing was. Evidence of the two brothers' guilt has taken backseat to the government's claims. There is nothing new about government frame-ups of patsies. What is new and unprecedented is the lockdown of Boston and its suburbs and the appearance of 10,000 heavily armed troops and tanks to patrol the streets and search without warrants the homes of citizens, all in the name of protecting the public from one wounded 19-year-old kid.
Not only has nothing like this ever before happened in the US, but also it could not have been organized on the spur of the moment. It had to have been already in place waiting for the event. This was a trial run for what is to come.
Unaware Americans, especially gullible "law and order conservatives (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/1905/)," have no idea about the militarization of even their local police. I have watched local police forces train at gun clubs. The police are taught to shoot first not once but many times, to protect their lives first at all costs and not to risk their lives by asking questions. This is why the 13-year-old kid with the toy rifle was shot to pieces. Questioning would have revealed that it was a toy gun, but questioning the "suspect" might have endangered the precious police who are trained to take no risks whatsoever.
The police operate according to Obama's presidential kill power: Murder first, then create a case against the victim.
In other words, dear American citizen, your life is worth nothing but the police, whom you pay, are not only unaccountable but also their lives are invaluable. If you get killed in their line of duty it is no big deal. But don't you injure a police goon thug in an act of self-defense. I mean, who do you think you are, some kind of mythical free American with rights?

- See more at: http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/34748/Paul-Craig-Roberts-What-Is-The-Real-Agenda-Of-The-American-Police-State/#sthash.dPPEm3We.dpuf

[midnight rambler]

I'm thinking one of the main reasons for choosing Boston, Mass. as the site of a FF which necessitated* the use of 10k heavily armed troops was the well founded confidence that none of the girly boys who live there would have stood their ground, whereas in redneck country there'd be an entirely different outcome under the very same set of circumstances.

*in reality gave the justification of same

[mick silver]

http://www.thedailybell.com/images/library/secretmilitary.jpg

[gunDriller]

providing (creating, administering) the police state portion of a larger Judeo-Fascist state.

[mick silver]

Behind the scenes they are not wondering if....they know what is coming...The war on terror is just cover to implement all the new crowd controls for the austerity measures that are to follow.

[mick silver]

http://bythebloodofthelamb.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/20131114-093403.jpg

[mick silver]

See on Scoop.it (http://www.scoop.it/t/liberty-revolution/p/4011030373/2013/11/14/what-is-the-real-agenda-of-american-police-state) – Liberty Revolution (http://www.scoop.it/t/liberty-revolution)
The police operate according to Obama’s presidential kill power: murder first then create a case against the victim.
In other words, dear American citizen, your life is worth nothing, but the police whom you pay, are not only unaccountable but also their lives are invaluable. If you get killed in their line of duty, it is no big deal. But don’t you injure a police goon thug in an act of self-defense. I mean, who do you think you are, some kind of mythical free American with rights?

[mick silver]

Why have Bush and Obama removed the protection of law as a shield of the people and turned law into a weapon in the hands of the executive branch? How are Americans made safer by the overthrow of their civil liberties? Indefinite detention and execution without due process of law …read more (http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-Is-The-Real-Agenda-Of-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-American-Capitalism_American-Facism_American-Foreign-Policy_American_History-131114-662.html)

[mick silver]

America and Israel: Police States Writ LargePosted at: 11:25, November 18, 2013 (http://real-agenda.com/2013/11/18/america-and-israel-police-states-writ-large/) By Stephen Lendman (http://sjlendman.blogspot.com.br/)
http://real-agenda.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Untitled-119-685x300.png

Wikipedia calls a police state one “in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the population.”
Merrian-Webster’s definition is “a political unit characterized by repressive governmental control of political, economic, and social life usually by an arbitrary exercise of power by police and especially secret police in place of regular operation of administrative and judicial organs of the government according to publicly known legal procedures.”
The Oxford dictionary calls it “a totalitarian state controlled by a political police force that secretly supervises the citizens’ activities.”
Post-9/11, America enacted a disturbing array of police state laws. National and Homeland Security Presidential Directives supplement them.
So do secret memos and memoranda, as well as executive orders and other presidential diktats. George Bush called the Constitution “just a ******* piece of paper.”
Effectively he declared it null and void. International rule of law principles were called quaint and out-of-date.
On 9/11, a state of emergency was declared. It’s renewed annually. It currently exists. Bush usurped special powers.
He declared himself a “unitary executive.” The late Chalmers Johnson called it a “ball-faced assertion of presidential supremacy dressed up in legal mumbo jumbo.”
Continuity of Government (COG) was established. It created a shadow government. It’s believed to currently exist.
Congress is kept out of the loop. Nonexistent terrorist threats justify extrajudicial powers.
COG is defined as “a coordinated effort within the Federal Government’s executive branch to ensure that National Essential Functions continue to be performed during a Catastrophic Emergency.”
It gives the executive unprecedented police state powers. They can use them to bypass Congress, declare martial law, suspend the Constitution, and govern extrajudicially.
It lets Homeland Security operate more than ever as a national Gestapo.
Obama operates like Bush. He exceeds the worst of his policies. He’s waging war on freedom. He’s waging it on humanity. He targets whistleblowers. He wants vital truths suppressed.
Thousands of political prisoners languish in America’s gulag. It operates at home and abroad. Innocence is no defense. Freedom is fast disappearing.
Jeremy Hammond is one of many victims. Some call him the other Bradley Manning. He founded the web site HackThisSite (http://www.hackthissite.org/news/view/626/). In 2003, he created it after graduating from high school.
On March 5, 2012, FBI agents arrested him in Chicago. They’d been investigating the Anonymous hactivist group. They use computers for political activism. They’re connected to likeminded organizations.
Hammond is a patriot. He supports right over wrong. He believes government transparency is fundamental. He’s no criminal. He’s no terrorist. He did what’s important to do.
Sarah Harrison is a British journalist. She’s a legal researcher. She’s an activist. She works with WikiLeaks Legal Defense. She helped Edward Snowden reach Moscow. She said the following:
“In these times of secrecy and abuse of power, there is only one solution – transparency.”
“If our governments are so compromised that they will not tell us the truth, then we must step forward to grasp it.”
“If our governments will not give this information to us, then we must take it for ourselves.”
Hammond was charged with one count of computer hacking conspiracy, another relating to computer hacking, and one more for conspiracy “to commit access device fraud.”
He pled guilty to one count of computer fraud and abuse. He was jailed for 15 months awaiting sentencing. A major campaign to free him failed.
He said the following:
“…I did work with Anonymous to hack Stratfor, among other websites. Those others included military and police equipment suppliers, private intelligence and information security firms, and law enforcement agencies.”
“I did this because I believe people have a right to know what governments and corporations are doing behind closed doors. I did what I believe is right.”
Former Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) President Michael Ratner calls Harrison and Hammond “incredible heroes and believers in transparency and truth.”
Harrison left Britain. She was advised it’s too unsafe to stay. She’s targeted for her activist journalism. Britain equates it to terrorism. She’s in Berlin. Hammond awaited sentencing.
In May, he accepted a non-cooperating 10-year sentence guilty plea. He did it to avoid the potential 37-year maximum. He issued the following statement (http://revolution-news.com/jeremy-hammond-accepts-a-conditional-10-year-plea-deal/), saying:
“Today I pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This was a very difficult decision.”
“I hope this statement will explain my reasoning. I believe in the power of the truth. In keeping with that, I do not want to hide what I did or to shy away from my actions.”
“This non-cooperating plea agreement frees me to tell the world what I did and why, without exposing any tactics or information to the government and without jeopardizing the lives and well-being of other activists on and offline.”
“I was looking at a sentencing guideline range of over 30 years if I lost at trial. I have wonderful lawyers and an amazing community of people on the outside who support me.”
“None of that changes the fact that I was likely to lose at trial. But, even if I was found not guilty at trial, the government claimed that there were eight other outstanding indictments against me from jurisdictions scattered throughout the country.”
“If I had won this trial, I would likely have been shipped across the country to face new but similar charges in a different district.”
“The process might have repeated indefinitely. Ultimately I decided that the most practical route was to accept this plea with a maximum of a ten year sentence and immunity from prosecution in every federal court.”
Hammond was treated harshly. He spent weeks in solitary confinement. He was denied contacts with family and friends. He lost other privileges.
He thanked his friends and supporters. He did so “for their amazing and ongoing gestures of solidarity.”
Ratner attended his bail hearing. It was very hostile, he said. Two criteria were at issue – flight risk and/or danger to the community.
Proceedings were orchestrated to deny. Judge Loretta Preska “probably decided this case before the arguments went on, because she essentially read an opinion after an hour and a half into the record, denying bail to Hammond,” said Ratner.
He was entrapped. FBI officials used an informant named Sabu. “He set up the crime for Stratfor. The FBI gave him the computer that Stratfor documents were actually uploaded to.”
“There’s a pretty clear case of entrapment.” They’re trying to get WikiLeaks the same way.
Entrapment occurs when law enforcement officials or agents induce, influence, or provoke crimes that otherwise wouldn’t be committed.
It doesn’t apply in cases of willful lawless intent. Government may aid, abet, or facilitate doing so.
Entrapment involves government officials or agents initiating the idea. It’s when they persuade victims to go along. Sabu was used for that purpose. Hammond was lawlessly entrapped.
Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt they didn’t do so. Otherwise due process convictions are prohibited.
When Washington wants them, judicial fairness seldom occurs. Guilt by accusation suffices. Complicit judges enforce injustice.
From the moment he was targeted, Hammond never had a chance.
On November 15, he got the bad news. Preska threw the book at him. He was sentenced to 10 years. Under his plea agreement, it is the maximum allowed.
Preska should have recused herself. She had an obvious conflict of interest. Her husband is Thomas Kavaler. He works for Cahill Gordon & Reindel. It’s an internationally known financial/corporate law firm.
Hacking unrelated to Hammond revealed his password. Doing so made his emails accessible. Preska clearly was hostile. According to Ratner:
“(I)f there’s any appearance of impropriety, appearance of – you know, of a closeness to the case, that basically you have to recuse yourself.”
“You have to do it automatically, even if the defendant doesn’t make a motion.”
Hammond’s lawyers failed to force Preska’s recusal. She lied claiming no conflict of interest. Federal courts notoriously deny justice.
It bears repeating. Hammond never had a chance. He faces 10 years hard time. He does so for doing the right thing. Police states operate that way. America’s by far the worst.
Israel largely matches its harshness. Israeli forces willfully attack Palestinian civilians. They do it maliciously. They do it systematically.
Crimes against humanity continue daily. In the week ending November 14, two Palestinians were murdered in cold blood. Two others were wounded.
Excessive force was used against peaceful West Bank protesters. Two children were wounded. Dozens suffered tear gas inhalation effects.
Israeli forces conducted 68 community incursions – on average nearly 10 a day from November 8 through the 14th.
At least 46 nonviolent Palestinians were arrested. Their numbers included eight children.
On November 16, Israeli forces targeted Kfar Qaddum village. They did so lawlessly. They arrested four young children. They were aged 5 to 9.
They were brutally treated. They were handcuffed. They were terrorized. Murad Ashtiye represents Kfar Qaddum’s Popular Struggle Coordination Committee.
Weekly peaceful protests were ongoing, he said. Israeli security forces intervened violently. “Four children who were present in the area had stun grenades thrown at them.”
“Then the soldiers arrested them and tied their hands behind their backs using plastic strips.” They were later released.
These type incidents repeat with disturbing regularity. In July, seven IDF soldiers and an officer terrorized a 5-year old boy. They threatened him and his parents.
They handcuffed and blindfolded his father. They handed the boy over to police. They wrongfully accused him of stone-throwing. Many other children face similar charges.
Guilt by accusation is policy. Justice is a four-letter word. Fines, detention or longer-term imprisonment follow.
Israel terrorizes Palestinians brutally. It does so with impunity. It’s longstanding policy. Children are treated like adults. Age and gender make no difference.
Torture is official policy. Forced confessions are extracted. Under international law, adulthood begins at age 18. Under militarized occupation, criminal responsibility begins at age 12.
Israeli security forces are prohibited from arresting anyone younger. They do so anyway. Human rights organizations document numerous incidents.
UNICEF’s March report is titled “Children in Israeli Military Detention (http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/1ce874ab1832a53e852570bb006dfaf6/1ee6b43ba34634f885257b260051c8ff?OpenDocument).” It calls Israel the only country trying children in military courts.
It said Israeli practices include “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”
“Ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized.”
On average, Israel arrests and detains “two children each day.”
Police states operate this way. Israel matches some of the worst anywhere. Palestinian children suffer its harshness. They do so before they’re old enough to know why.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”
- See more at: http://real-agenda.com/2013/11/18/america-and-israel-police-states-writ-large/#sthash.MbaW6Xj8.dpuf

[mick silver]

U.S. is the Worst Police State in the World – By the Numbers
Tue, 08/28/2012 - 21:18 — Glen Ford



solitary confinement is torture (http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/solitary-confinement-torture) |
Mass Incarceration (http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/mass-incarceration) |
American gulag (http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/american-gulag)


Printer-friendly version (http://blackagendareport.com/print/content/us-worst-police-state-world-%E2%80%93-numbers) http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/imagecache/feature400/welcome_to_america_prison_state.jpg



A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
There’s no getting around the fact that the United States is the Mother of All Police States. China can’t compete in the incarceration business. With four times the U.S. population, it imprisons only 70 percent as many people – about the same number as the non-white prison population of the U.S. Even worse, 80,000 U.S. inmates undergo the torture of solitary confinement on any given day.

U.S. is the Worst Police State in the World – By the Numbers
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“The American People of Color Gulag is as large as the entire prison population of China, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people.”
When U.S. corporate media operatives use the term “police state,” they invariably mean some other country. Even the so-called “liberal” media, from Democracy Now to the MSNBC menagerie, cannot bring themselves to say “police state” and the “United States” without putting the qualifying words “like” or “becoming” in the middle. The U.S. is behaving “like” a police state, they say, or the U.S. is in danger of “becoming” a police state. But it is never a police state. Since these privileged speakers and writers are not themselves in prison – because what they write and say represents no actual danger to the state – they conclude that a U.S. police state does not, at this time, exist.
Considering the sheer size and social penetration of its police and imprisonment apparatus, the United States is not only a police state, but the biggest police state in the world, by far: the police state against whose dimensions all other police systems on Earth must be measured.
By now, even the most insulated, xenophobic resident of the Nebraska farm belt knows that the U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world. He might not know that 25 percent of prison inmates in the world are locked up in the U.S., or that African Americans comprise one out of every eight of the planet’s prisoners. But, that Nebraska farmer is probably aware that America is number one in the prisons business. He probably approves. God bless the police state.
For the American media, including lots of media that claim to be of the Left, it is axiomatic that China is a police state. And maybe, by some standards, it is. But, according to United Nations figures, China is 87th in the world (http://www.allcountries.org/ranks/prison_incarceration_rates_of_countries_2007.html) in the proportion of its people who are imprisoned. China is a billion people bigger than the United States – more than four times the population – yet U.S. prisons house in excess of 600,000 more people than China does. The Chinese prison population is just 70 percent of the American Gulag. That’s quite interesting because, non-whites make up about 70 percent of U.S. prisons. That means, the Black, brown, yellow and red populations of U.S. prisons number roughly the same as all of China’s incarcerated persons. Let me emphasize that: The American People of Color Gulag is as large as the entire prison population of China, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people.
“Solitary confinement beyond 15 days at a stretch crosses the line of torture.”
However, police states must be measured by conditions behind the bars, as well as raw numbers of inmates. And, by that standard, the American Gulag is even more monstrous.
Civilized people now recognize that solitary confinement is a form of torture. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, reports that solitary confinement beyond 15 days at a stretch crosses the line of torture, yet, as Al Jazeera recently reported (http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/20128694647587767.html), it is typical for hundred of thousands of U.S. prisoners to spend 30 or 60 days in solitary at a stretch. Twenty thousand are held in perpetual isolation in so-called supermax prisons – that is, they exist in a perpetual state of torture. Studies now show that, all told, 80,000 U.S. prisoners (http://solitarywatch.com/2012/02/01/how-many-prisoners-are-in-solitary-confinement-in-the-united-states/) are locked up in solitary on any given day.That’s as many tortured people as the entire prison system of Germany, or of England, Scotland and Wales, combined.
If that is not a police state, then no such thing exists on planet Earth.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to Black Agenda Report.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.c

[mick silver]

back up for more to know what about to comehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/image.png

[mick silver]

Measuring the Extent of a Police State November 21, 2013

Editorial By Wendy McElroy

I believe America's political institutions are beyond redemption. The hope for America lies with individuals who live freedom rather than talk about it or pursue it through authorized means. Freedom now rests with individuals who say "no," in combination or alone.
But the issue of where America falls on the spectrum between "free" and "totalitarian" is important to air for at least two reasons. First, there is a key difference between America and most police states. In East Germany, the average person knew he lived under tyranny and he did not expect justice to result from petitioning the tyrant. In America, many if not most people still trust the government enough to believe in reform rather than in the quiet revolution of saying "no." They still listen to the mainstream media, no matter how bitterly they complain about it. Nothing else can explain why people surrender their liberty and money in return for broken and retreaded promises.
Secondly, even if America is a police state, it's not intuitively obvious how far the process has progressed. North Korea and the United States exist at different points on a sliding scale of totalitarianism, and merely pointing to rights violations by the U.S. proves little. All states violate rights. When does one become totalitarian?



What is a Police State?
The Oxford English Dictionary says the term "police state (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/3444/)" can be traced back to 1851 but the German word Polizeistaat popularized it in the 1930s as a way to describe the rise of fascism (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/1902/) in Europe. A police state is generally defined as one that exerts extreme social, political and economic control over peaceful citizens. The control is maintained by widespread surveillance, through campaigns of fear, via a vast array of laws and the draconian enforcement of them. There is a standing political police force, such as the Stasi or KGB (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/2816/), that operates with no transparency and few restraints. The sole purpose of the political police force is to exert social control and act as an enforcement arm of the state.
There are several ways to estimate how far America has gone down the road toward a police state. One of them: Compare the current situation to the above description. Surveillance is close to total. Public fear is stoked through the engineered hysteria known as the war on terrorism, which has kept Americans on battlefields for 12 years. A myriad of laws now dictate the minutia of daily life and their enforcement is draconian. Police departments resemble military units thanks partly to a little known program called "1033 " through which the Defense Department gives surplus military equipment to the local police forces. Meanwhile, the standing political police force called the Department of Homeland Security functions without transparency or accountability; its purpose is to enforce social control.
Another way to judge the extent to which a police state exists is to ask yourself four questions.
1. How many peaceful activities would make you a criminal if you did them? In his book, Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, civil rights attorney Harvey Silverglate argues convincingly: "The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague." It is not merely that laws and regulations have vastly multiplied. They are now so nonspecific that almost any activity can be criminalized. Consider "obstruction of justice." This criminal offense involves interfering with the operation of a court or a law enforcement officer. The 'interference' could be actions, words or even a facial expression that an officer finds disrespectful.
2. How much of life do you spend working to pay taxes, fees and meeting other government requirements? According to the watchdog Tax Foundation, Tax Freedom Day will occur on April 18. The rough date is estimated by dividing the total of federal, state, and local taxes by the total American income. In 2013, Americans will pay $4.22 trillion in various taxes, or 29.4 percent of their income. April 18 represents 29.4 percent of the year or 108 days. Factoring in the federal deficit, the Foundation concludes, "If we include this annual federal borrowing, which represents future taxes owed, Tax Freedom Day would occur on May 9, 21 days later." The figure hardly captures the scope of economic plunder. It is not merely the taxes that consume a third of life, it is also the less visible expenses. For example, compliance with labyrinthine regulations costs small to middle-sized business an estimated 1 in every 3 dollars earned. The expense gets eaten by producers or passed along to consumers; the benefit goes to government.
3. How freely can you relocate your assets and person outside the state's jurisdiction? Consider what should be the easiest asset to move – money. There are at least three stages in such a relocation. The first hurdle is finding a foreign bank that still accepts American customers. In the wake of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/2916/), Americans have become financial pariahs. The second stage is getting your own money back. In an article entitled "Get Your Assets Out of the U.S. Now," a relocation expert warns that an American bank will "make a federal case out of it. Literally." You will wait from five to ten days for the transaction to clear. The manager will "begin to ask you a lot of questions. She's required to do it." He adds: "Here's the scary part. When you tell them you want to withdraw $100,000 in cash or wire it to a foreign bank, they are REQUIRED to file a SAR. They are PROHIBITED from telling you that they are filing it....They can freeze your account until they are satisfied that what you want to do with YOUR money is legitimate." Those are just some of the problems arising at what should be the simplest part of relocating assets. As much as possible, the U.S. Government is trapping money within its borders so that wealth cannot escape.
4. How freely can you use your assets and person within the state's jurisdiction? This varies from individual to individual and much depends on personal circumstances such as lifestyle. But one factor is indicative of how freely Americans can live. America has by far the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Since 1980, the rate has soared from 220 per 100,000 population to over 700 per 100,000. The increase is due almost entirely to the imprisonment of non-violent 'criminals,' especially in relationship to drugs. Breitbart reported (Sept. 21, 2013), "According to FBI (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/2344/) statistics, there were 1.9 million violent crimes committed in 1992 versus 1.2 million in 2011, even though the US population increased by almost 70 million." And, yet, imprisonment has soared to the point that approximately 25 percent of the world's population of prisoners is housed in America. The current prison system is estimated to hold over two million inmates with 6 million people in total falling under penal supervision of one sort or another. By contrast, the Gulag labor camps in the Soviet Union are estimated to have held about 14 million people from 1929 to 1953.
I am convinced America is a police state and that we have only seen the tip of what will develop. The NSA revelations shocked the public by revealing how pervasive state surveillance had become. Before the stone-hard evidence of malfeasance emerged, most people would have scoffed at the idea of the state collecting every email written in America. Oddly, the same people would still scoff at the suggestion that other agencies are every bit as totalitarian (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/1924/).
People dismiss America's drift into totalitarianism for several reasons. One of them is how thoroughly Americans have come to identify freedom with political procedures, like the 'right' to vote, to run for office or to petition a congressman. But these alleged freedoms still exist because they serve the state and not the individual. The state relies upon people's participation for its legitimacy. These faux freedoms only keep people from demanding the real thing. Freedom does not rest upon access to the state; it rests on the word "no," spoken by individuals.

- See more at: http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/34765/Wendy-McElroy-Measuring-the-Extent-of-a-Police-State/#sthash.X8zY8dgg.dpuf