America becoming a Police State?

It appears that our police forces in America are changing and that we are developing into a Police State/Surveillance Society. What is the traditional model for police forces in America? Are they in the process of being militarized? If so, for what reason? How can we reconstruct the American concept of police?

The answer is yes. The orientation and underlying concept of police enforcement in America have, indeed, been changing, but changing so quietly as to be hardly noticeable except by a few careful observers. The traditional orientation of police enforcement has been local rather than national. It was the sheriff, the highest police official in the county, and his deputies who were unquestioningly in control of maintaining peace and apprehending law breakers.

Incorporated cities and municipalities have the same local orientation, but the titles change to chief of police and policemen on the beat. The general concept used to be that law enforcement was applied by the sheriff’s deputy or policeman on the beat right where problems occurred. This historic view has changed because of political pressures and monetary influences from the national level of government. But even now the sheriff, as the highest-ranking police officer in the county, still has authority to tell federal agencies and their SWAT teams (FBI, BATF, DEA, IRS, and federal marshals) how they must conduct themselves in his county. Sadly, very few sheriffs have the intestinal fortitude to buck the evolving national-statist system because doing so might threaten their careers or their standing with federal agencies on whom they have become financially dependent.

Police State Defined

Before we discuss the development of the Police State in America, it is needful to define the term. Police states are often initiated by a violent putsch: Lenin’s overthrow of the Russian government in 1917, Mussolini’s growing use of violence which led to his becoming Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, and Hitler’s Reichstag fire and appointment as Prime Minister of Germany in 1933. Each of these emerging police states focused on alleged internal and external enemies to solidify support among domestic followers. Terror, intimidation, and propaganda were freely used. Citizens were disarmed as quickly as possible to make them easier to control.

A Police State is characterized by centralized control over every aspect of society: political, economic, social, cultural, and religious. This can be done through state ownership of the means of production (socialism: France, Britain); or by being tied politically with "communist rule of the proletariat" (Lenin’s and Stalin’s USSR, Castro’s Cuba); or it can be done through a more sophisticated form of statist control by which ownership of the means of production is left in the hands of private entities (fascism: Mussolini’s Italy; Hitler’s NAZI Germany; and, sadly, our modern USA, which has over 85 government-control agencies: the ICC, FTC, FCC, FDA, EPA, IRS, DEA, FDIC, BATF, FEMA, IRS, Homeland Security, etc, etc).

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