Police State - Real or Imagined?

I have been watching a lot of videos on youtube lately about police brutality and corruption that people have been filming all over the United States. I have to admit, some of them were sad, alarming and some downright made me angry. People are waking up and seeing how the police are becoming far more oppressive in challenging the personal liberties of normal everyday citizens in their own neighborhoods and towns. I have read quite a few threads on this topic here on ATS and I wanted to post a few videos that many may or may not have seen. From watching these videos, it definitely laid the foundation in thought that there is something very different in the air here.



In this video, a group sets up a lemon stand as a message to police who have fined children for setting lemonade stands in different cities across the country. This has happened a surprising number of times as of late. I mean, really? When I was a kid, this was common in my little Pennsylvania town. It was a cute thing and we all as a community joined in buying to help the child who was saving up money for a favorite toy or what not. Police fining children for this makes me sick.



The woman in this video is being threatened for with a fine of $600 a day for feeding the needy out of the kindness of her heart. Since when is it a crime to help the disadvantaged? This woman should be given a medal - not a fine.



In this video, a boy with a learning disability is brutalized by a police officer after he was ordered to tuck his shirt in by the officer, to which he did not comply when told. The boy is fifteen and invoked no threat toward the officer in any manner. This video reminded me of others that I have watched of increasing police brutality and violence, not only in the U.S., but around the world.



This video shows an elderly man being beaten to the ground for no reason whatsoever. The police officer that perpetrated this sickening act received nothing more than a reprimand - for turning his camera and audio equipment off. It was extracted from the hard drive in the officer's car.



The man in this video I truly felt bad for... Losing a son to suicide is bad enough... I'll let you all watch and see what makes this video so sickening.



The man in this video was charged with the crime of eavesdropping by police. His sentence forthcoming could be 75 years in prison, for recording police during a citation and taking a tape recorder into a courtroom. The video compares other videos of crimes and explains the differences in jail sentence compared to the man being charged with eavesdropping.



This video shows a woman who lost her unborn child during an occupy movement protest, as well as a collage of violent acts by police officers on American citizens during this protest. This video bothers me the most of all that I have put in this thread. It made me angry and sad throughout. There is a short scene that shows blood in it, so those who cannot handle the sight of blood, I do not recommend watching. Please forgive me for the title of this video, as it does not represent my personal views, and was most likely named out of anger for the content of the video itself. Do not believe that I agree with the title. I do not.

When I watch things like this, I have to wonder; what the hell is going on in this country as well as the rest of the world? The things I have watched in many videos relating to this topic feel surreal to me at times. Some videos I placed in this thread just didn't happen when I was a kid growing up. You never heard of some of these ridiculous and terrible things back then. I have watched hundreds of videos on atrocities such as these and read many web articles on the same. The more I see, it makes me feel that something is definitely changing here in the United States. I have read threads from other posters here about the topic of the coming police state and the possible start of future martial law in this country, as well as threads that mentioned how our government placed orders for millions of rounds of ammunition for whatever unknown reasons. When I watch things like this, I wonder if the worry over such things is substantiated. The rights of us as citizens in this country seem to be disappearing and taken away by force on what feels like a month-to-month basis in my mind. Are things like this that we have read and have seen on the news or other sources really a sign of what could be coming? What do you think?

I want to say that I have the utmost respect for the policemen and women in this country that work to keep us safe and our rights protected every single day. For those out there that have done the things that are shown in these videos, you need to get back to what you were put in that blue uniform to do - protect us from the criminals that do these things. People should never have to fear the police doing these things to them as were done to the those in these videos.

I no longer respect the police or the stupid laws that they so brutally enforce. Many of these cops are nothing more than thugs and the less thuggish officers who work with them are just as guilty due to their silence and unwillingness to report the criminal actions of the bad cops in their mix.

We live in a 2 tier justice system, Laws for the elite and laws for the rest of the people.

Policy'd state more than a policed state

Overseers to the land owners they have become

I had this debate with a group of friends the other day and there were a number who do not agree with you. They believe that people who get battered by the Police deserve it.

That was until a blind guy was recently tasered. He had gone blind after suffering a couple of strokes and was out walking, when without warning, or at least one he could hear, he was tasered. The Officer involved thought his white cane was a Samurai Sword.

The officer's punishment? His Taser was taken from him.

This has been going on far too long. The Police seem to be nothing but paid thugs, who protect the interests of the 'Elite', under the guise of protecting the public. That is a sham and the riots in London last year proved that, because none of the 'Elites' were in direct threat from the troubles, they just let them carry on, no direct effort made to intervene.

However, you can bet that if it was happening in the 'City' they would have been out in droves, suppressing such behaviour.

They seem to be the 'Elite's' private security firm, whilst they treat the rest of us (Taxpayer's) with such contempt. People say try living in a country such as Russia or Saudi Arabia. Well that shouldn't be the bench mark should it?

A lot of the laws put in to place read more like extortion from the mob then a law passed by the government.

reply to post by Rubicant13

the police state is already here, it simply hasn't been "officially" announced

The Incremental Insertion of the US Military into Domestic Civilian Life Presents a Grave and Mortal Danger to Our Liberties & Must Be Stopped

America is being betrayed and transformed into a militarized police state in graduated increments. The logistics of military oppression are first established abroad and fine tuned by the Pentagon and the CIA in invaded countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and then gradually inserted into other parts of the world with the Pentagon's newly established worldwide "commands" (North Com, South Com, etc). The Pentagon is increasingly inserting itself into domestic activities normally performed exclusively by local or state government or civilian contractors, such as the spraying of mosquitoes in Florida. The increasing frequency of "joint" NATO urban warfare tactical training drills in American cities can only be logically intended for a NATO military assault upon American citizens in American cities at some future date. Does anyone really think that the Pentagon hasn't had sufficient opportunity to "practice" urban warfare training tactics in the hundreds of cities that the Pentagon has devastated in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past 11 years? Acclimating US citizens to the sight of Army tanks and other warfare terrain vehicles rolling down American streets is part of the desensitization process to encourage continued somnambulism by the masses The graduated insertion of the military into everyday domestic logistical operations and law enforcement will eventually herald the abrogation of the Posse Comitatus Act and the end of Constitutional liberties in America. If the insertion of the military into domestic civilian life continues to proceed unopposed by its citizens, within a few short years, this country may become a militarized, fascist police state, no different than Nazi Germany (and without hope of extricating ourselves from its tyranny). These newly activated "Law Enforcements Batallions" can now carry out law enforcement activites in Canada or Mexico or any other foreign country. Similarly, under the NATO banner, Canadian, Mexican, or other foreign troops such as Russian or Chinese troops (already secretly billeted in North America in underground bases), would have similar "authority" to carry out law enfotrcement activity in the United States. These ""training" coordination exercises involving foreign troops and foreign police began under the Clinton administration with the Joint Partnership for Peace, Multi Joint Task Force and similar benign sounding NATO progrms intended to usurp civilian law enforcement and supplant it with Federal, military, and NATO control. The very purpose of enacting the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878 after the Civil War was to prevent thiis very incursion of the military into routine domestic life, law enforcement, etc.

Yeah i think america has gone to and would think if the legal system was re-written we could form a more perfect union, a true republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Now days it's just "well protect you" as long as you pay your taxes, do not protest, dont think about doing anything "illegal" and show fear and respect to your authorities. Oh yeah, and Mcgruff the crime dog says "just say no".

Originally posted by truthermantwo
Yeah i think america has gone to

and would think if the legal system was re-written we could form a more perfect union, a true republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Now days it's just "well protect you" as long as you pay your taxes, do not protest, dont think about doing anything "illegal" and show fear and respect to your authorities. Oh yeah, and Mcgruff the crime dog says "just say no".

It's only illegal if you don't have enough money to pay them.

Drive without your seat belt and find out.

reply to post by Rubicant13


Police brutality is nothing new.Its just now the police are more'equal oportunity',the blacks were the ones who always got it in the past.

Imagined.
Next question please.

I see what you are saying here. Watching from childhood through the years to adulthood the changes you reference that have taken place in this world have been extreme.

When i think of the innocence of the world we had during our childhood and compare it to the world of today I become exasperated thinking about it. I wonder..... is this the cost of our appearingly fast advancement in our earth civilization over these last few decades ? Or is it something else ?

Is it just that we are adults now and more aware of such things that as a child we did not "SEE". I personally think this crazy kinda of stuff is much more frequent and crazier than before. & I don't have the answers as to why either ?

It makes me wonder...
Is everyone so stressed out to what has become that things such as your cop brutality examples are happening? It's like alot of folks are buckling under pressure and falling to the wayside and forgetting how to treat another human being humanely and with the kindness and love each and every one of us so deserve.

What are the cops in these videos so afraid of that they have become so indoctrinated that they are now blinded by the truth they see right in front of their face ? What would make them do such things ? Ick it makes me sick.