InOBU, regarding your statement that those of us who say America is not a police state are suffering from a case of naivete and have not been involved in any political confrontations with police, I offer this small exampleclick.

Now, I believe my country suffers from many ailments, among them
1. A loss of belief in ethical and moral value in favor of material gain
2. An unfair and immoral health care system that bleeds patients dry while enriching HMOs and Chain hospitals
3.A cumbersome legal process which has become a game played by lawyers for their own enrichment
4. The absence of a generation of black fathers, who have left their children to be raised by mothers working two jobs, and the street
5. The aftermath of Reaganomics, which led to the movement of American Manufacturing offshore

and many others. But I also know this: you cannot put the blame on police for enforcing existing law. Their job is enforcement, not interpretation. If you wish to change laws, you can try, but ultimately the people will either support your attempt, or vote down your attempt. to change them. I for one believe that all drugs should be legalized, but I also realize that the majority of people don't support me in this view. Therefore, I don't put blame on police for busting crack dealers. The law is a mutually agreed upon set of behavioral rules for society. Those who violate them do so in that certain knowledge.

I also don't believe that most people in prison are being persecuted because they are innocent victims of the drug "health crises".I believe that people have free will, and that they bear responsibility for their own actions. I recall a scene in the movie Boys in the Hood, where the father of a black teen explains that the CIA and police are behind a plot to bring addictive drugs into the ghetto, and that's the reason so many black people are addicted in Compton. "The same people" he then says,"are smuggling in the illegal guns we use to kill each other.And why do we pay twice as much for a loaf of bread as they do in Simi Valley? Because the government finances outsiders to come into our neighborhoods, while suppressing black business." In other words, the crack dealer who accidently kills a four year old child caught in the crossfire with his rival, is the victim of the government and the CIA, and will likely be further persecuted by being sent to prison. The teenager who kills a shopowner while holding up the local convenience store should be forgiven, since he is the victim of exploitation. This is paranoid,self-proclaimed-martyr crap of the highest order.Unfortunately, there are many who buy it. I don't, perhaps because I am a naive inhabitant of middle America who earns a lot less than the average crack-dealer.