It certainly describes parts of the US.
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Why Socialism?
- Thread starter ksen
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It certainly describes parts of the US.
arkirk
Veteran Member
Oh, come on, Loren! Let's stop this silly "It doesn't match my defininitions" game you play all the time. The cops are running roughshod over our constitutional rights and they are doing it in spades in the black community. Open up your eyes, Mr.
A police state is one which the police attempt to run. They do it with authority, weapons, imprisonment, and as Eric Garner found out, with outright murder. We have that here and now. Please stop your bellyaching about Untermensche making up definitions.
You are the one attempting to redefine "police state".
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/police state?s=t
Reading the link shows Untermensche to be correct, and Loren wrong.
A nation whose rulers maintain order and obedience by the threat of police or military force; one with a brutal, arbitrary government.
A record of mass incarceration on racial grounds would certainly fit that definition.
One of the examples given is Boston in 2013 during the manhunts. Loren's idea that police state can only be used in a very narrow sense is clearly wrong.
George Orwell's 1984 is often cited as a classic example of a police state, despite not depicting any policeman, in the sense that Loren uses them.
Arbitrary?
I've been in real police states--the average man on the street absolutely doesn't want anything to do with the police. They would not call the police other than in the most dire of circumstances. That does not remotely describe the US.
It depends on how these police affect YOU...and only YOU! You are simply not getting it. It most certainly describes the US for a hell of a lot of people...and you don't even seem to know it.....lack of empathy....your problem.
Axulus
Veteran Member
arkirk said:
Source?
arkirk
Veteran Member
The streets of North Hollywood, Oakland, I wouldn't expect you to understand either.
You live in a kind of neo-liberal bubble...not the same world. There are no scholarly journals of busts on the streets of L.A. or Ferguson. You apparently live in a neighborhood where the cops only come and hassle somebody who does not belong there. It is the same where I live...come 11 or 12 p.m. don't be a brown boy in a white tee shirt on the street.
untermensche
Contributor
A lot of white people claim there is no problem.
Not many blacks say the same.
But as long as it is only blacks being disproportionally targeted I suppose all is well.
The streets of North Hollywood, Oakland, I wouldn't expect you to understand either.
You live in a kind of neo-liberal bubble...not the same world. There are no scholarly journals of busts on the streets of L.A. or Ferguson. You apparently live in a neighborhood where the cops only come and hassle somebody who does not belong there. It is the same where I live...come 11 or 12 p.m. don't be a brown boy in a white tee shirt on the street.
Simple test. You're lost, you see a cop. Do you ask for directions or do you go the opposite direction?
Reality of a police state: We had a run-in with the police in Romania--their mistake, no big deal beyond the language barrier. The hardest part was they wanted us to fill out a report on what happened--in Romanian. Nobody would translate for us because it was a police matter. Finally a businessman from Vienna overheard our problem and offered to help--he knew we were going to have a big problem getting a local to translate for us. Note that their name would not be associated with it in any way, there would be no repercussions. It was just the blind fear of anything police.
The streets of North Hollywood, Oakland, I wouldn't expect you to understand either.
You live in a kind of neo-liberal bubble...not the same world. There are no scholarly journals of busts on the streets of L.A. or Ferguson. You apparently live in a neighborhood where the cops only come and hassle somebody who does not belong there. It is the same where I live...come 11 or 12 p.m. don't be a brown boy in a white tee shirt on the street.
Simple test. You're lost, you see a cop. Do you ask for directions or do you go the opposite direction?
Reality of a police state: We had a run-in with the police in Romania--their mistake, no big deal beyond the language barrier. The hardest part was they wanted us to fill out a report on what happened--in Romanian. Nobody would translate for us because it was a police matter. Finally a businessman from Vienna overheard our problem and offered to help--he knew we were going to have a big problem getting a local to translate for us. Note that their name would not be associated with it in any way, there would be no repercussions. It was just the blind fear of anything police.
Again, that could be a story from many places in america.
untermensche
Contributor
You don't think North Korean police ever help anyone?
It's not whether they would actually help, it's about whether the people would go to them for help.