By the way, Don, in point of fact, I covered the war in Belfast in the seventies, one of the most extreem police states on this planet. But, more than that, those victims of this police state hardly make the news, and what is told about them in the press is simply spin and lies. My wife and I sat the other day, totally up how many of our friends died during the Bush years, or were jailed, let me tell you about one...
Filberto Ojeda Ríos was a friend of mine. I miss him. The FBI shot him, through a window, after shutting all the lights in the neighborhood. They did not hit him in the head, as they planned, so they cordoned off the house as he bled to death over a day and a night.
Ask me, ask his wife, ask his friends, those of us who loved him. It is an America, you just are not confronted by, it is an America under the radar of the comfort of your skin and your life. You can even fall out of the comfort of your expectations, get caught with pot, become adicted to pain killers or alcohol, and chances are you will go to what ever level of Betty Ford befits your color and class, but the America I walk within, it is a different story... fall out of the socail contract and you go to jail, or get shot by a state actor or some kid with no expectation of hope.
There are two Americas Don, until you spend time in the other one, don't be so confident it is not a police state.