The crude and bigoted bullies you describe are obviously there in the US, Frank. They are also causing untold misery for their victims. Indeed it is naive to ignore them. I still have enough faith in the US however, to believe that they are a long way from becoming powerful enough to make any major inroads into your constitutionally guaranteed rights.
Russia is a whole different kettle of fish. You have economic meltdown for the masses. Racism is endemic. The largest threat to civil rights is the decline of any confidence in the state itself. That is a very dangerous cocktail. I agree with Peace that the failure of the system to bring its major criminals to book undermines law and order itself in the long run. It certainly happens in the US. It is true in Great Britain, a country in which major gun runners (if they are exposed at all - and they frequently have official secrecy to protect them) are virtually immune from prosecution and liable to minimum penalties even if convicted. In Germany, a former local political party chairman, who stole millions from the city of Berlin, has just been given a suspended sentence. That is all bad enough, but I still fear that Russia has reached a whole different level of breakdown of law. The usual "remedy" applied in these situations is either a military coup or a fascist dictator. I would say this is getting uncomfortably close in Russia.