2.3 million American's in prison is one of the major symptoms of how sick the United States is. Largely a result of really stupid policies. The "War of Drugs" is about as successful as the "War on Booze" back in the days of Prohibition. You have a cold beer on a hot afternoon and suddenly you're a criminal. And it made a lot of profit for real criminals, just as the "War on Drugs" is doing. You'd think the Powers That Be would learn, but that seems to be a rare thing indeed. Lots of European countries handle this sort of thing far better than we do, but obviously these same Powers seem incapable of learning from the success of others as well as from both the successes and mistakes of our own history.

I never said the United States is perfect, and I'm not making excuses for the many things that are wrong with it. What I am saying is that even though cops can—and do—get nasty much too frequently (give some guys a gun and a badge and they think they're omnipotent), I don't see this as a national policy as it is in some countries.

One should suspicious and stay alert to signs that it may be turning into a police state and be ready to take whatever political action is necessary to pull the plug on it, but the idea of pointing at every instance of a rogue cop—or in the instance of Dylan's encounter, which was merely a case of the police doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing—and yelling "Police state! Police state!" can turn out to be counter-productive in the extreme.

E.g., the story of the boy who cried "Wolf!"

Stay alert. But keep a sense of proportion. And stay cool.

Cheers!

Don Firth