Police state is a term denoting government that exercises power arbitrarily through policing. Originally the term designated a state regulated by a civil administration, but since the beginning of the20th century, the term has taken on the emotionally-charged and derogatory meaning.
Weare pretty free in America when you compare us to other nations around the world, but we'renot pretty free in America when you compare us to pastgenerations.
If you look at the state of what's going on in America right now—and, y'know, inmy book I chronicle easily a hundred different cases wheregovernment has overreached and encroached onConstitutional liberties of Americans—we're at the point now in America, a little girl can't run alemonadestand in her driveway without having the local zoning zealots come in and fine her fifty dollars. We're at the point now where elementary schoolkids down inGeorgia have their irises scanned as they board the bus—all in the name of "safety." We're at the point now where nebulousenvironmentallaws prevent homeowners from building a shed in their own back yard because there might be a flood plain issue in a hundred years.
This is the America where we're at, and I reallyimplore people to readmy book and tell me how we'renot in a police state, because my research shows we're right on the cusp.
The deterioration in police conduct, and themilitarization of local police forces, quite simply and quite predictably mirrors the rise of the total state itself.
We know that statemonopolies invariably provide worse and worse services for more and more money. Police services are no exception. When it comes to your local police, there is no shopping around, there is nocustomerservice, and there is nochoice. Without marketcompetition, market price signals, and marketdiscipline, government has no ability or incentive to provide whatpeople really want, which ispeaceful andeffectivesecurity for themselves, theirfamilies, theirhomes, and theirproperty. As with everythinggovernment purports to provide, the public wantsAndy Griffith but ends up with theTerminator.
[D]oesAmerica now embody this common description of a police state?
Clearly it does. TheAmerican government exerts extreme control oversociety, down to dictating whichfoods you mayeat. Itseconomic control borders on the absolute. It politicizes and presides over even the traditional bastion ofprivacy—thefamily. Camera and other surveillance of daily life has soared, with theSupreme Court recently expanding the "right" of police to perform warrantless searches. Enforcement is so draconian that the United States has moreprisoners per capita than any other nation; and over the last few years, the police have been self-consciouslymilitarizing their procedures andattitudes. Travel, formerly aright, is now a privilege granted by government agents at their whim. Several huge andtyrannical law-enforcement agencies monitorpeaceful behavior rather than respond tocrime. These agencies operate largely outside the restrictions of theConstitution; for example, theTSA conducts arbitrary searches in violation ofFourth Amendment guarantees.
As ananarchist, I view all states as police states, because everylaw is ultimately backed by police force against the body orproperty of a scofflaw, however peaceful he may be. I see only a difference of degree, not of kind. But even small differences in the degree ofrepression can be matters oflife ordeath, and so they should not be trivialized.
These people arepolitically,socially,culturally, andeconomically invisible. How many are actuallyguilty? We can't know. How many could be let out today to make a wonderful contribution to building a productivesociety? We don't know. How many are completelynonviolent, not even guilty by any normal standard of law but only guilty according to the letter of the current dictatorship? Probably a majority. … Yet the rise and entrenchment of the American police state are rarely questioned
.However, in the end, what is really needed is a fundamental rethinking of the notion that the state rather than private markets must monopolize the provision of justice and security. This is the fatal conceit.No power granted to the state goes unabused. This power, among all possible powers, might be the most important one to take away from the state.
