Do we live in a Police State? Do you feel Police have too much power?

Question

Police brutality, police officers who never, ever go to prison, suspended with pay, tasers that kill people despite research to the contrary, different standards applied to police officers than non-police officers, racial profiling which does happen. Forced and coerced confessions, rush to judgement without evidence, excessive force.

Answer 1

Yes, and it will only get worse.

This has nothing to do with the officers. It has to do with the laws surrounding what thier line of work is.

Legally, officers can lie to you to get a confession, or have you immediately admit guit of some sort as soon as they stop you. Officers will admit, they can find a reason to pull ANYONE over they want. Just follow them for 5 minutes.

Instead of dealing in property rights, and the right of man and life, police are given thousahds of opportunities to damage, or ruin someones life financially.

Some use police as an excuse to disarm the public. Others use them as a tool to tax more. Others use them as a tool to repress free aspects of society.

LET ME ASK : If we do NOT live in a police state, what powers do the police not have that they should?

Answer 2

Yes, we are diffintely living in a police state.  If the people don't do something now it will only get worst.

Answer 3

Yes, police have an immense amount of power over citizens. Often when a prosecutor calls a police officer to the stand to testify, the police officer is able to twist the facts regarding what happened, and a jury will believe whatever the police officer says because he is in such high authority. They take statements that are actually opinions and turn them into facts. For instance, the officer could say "The suspect was acting very suspicious." which would actually be an opinion. For example, an innocent suspect could have had shaking hands when the police went up to and questioned him. The police interpret shaking hands to indicate guilt. However, a lot of innocent people that have never had contact with the police might have been nervous. Plus people with anxiety might have shaking hands all the time. But the jury or judge would interpret the police officer's opinion as a fact because it is believed that police officers are God-like and have experience to make accurate judgments.

Here is a story that happened to my uncle. He was at a store parking lot, walking to his vehicle, when his sunglasses unknowingly dropped out of his pocket. When he got to his car, he realized that he had dropped his glasses. He then began walking around the parking lot, retracing his steps, looking for the glasses. He found the glasses and then drove home. However, he noticed by looking in his rear-view mirror that a car was following him. He got kind of freaked up but he continued to drive home. As he got out of his car and headed into the house, two men walked up to him and asked to speak with him. They showed him their badge and explained that they were undercover cops and that he was acting suspicious in the parking lot. They actually ran his records and found that he had no criminal record. He explained the story and they finally believed him.

See, the police can take any normal behavior and say that it is suspicious. If they had arrested my uncle and he had a trial, a jury would believe the police in a heartbeat that my uncle was acting suspicious.

Answer 4

stupid pigs!

Answer 5

No, i don't feel that we live in a police state.  I feel that our police officers have a very difficult job dealing with the scum of the universe.  Police officers have to come from one scene of dealing with someone who just shot their lovers brains all over the room to the next scene of pulling you over for a traffic violation.  I think the most police officers do an amazing job being able to deal with such horrendous scenes, and then flip back to 'civilized' life again as well as they do.  I think that these instances when you see police officers using excessive force, you never seem to see that the individual who is their center of attention just ran a family off the road killing them because they don't wanna go back to prison for selling crack to your children.  

I thank every police officer i have the chance to, as well as our armed servicemen/women.  They are doing the job that nobody wants to (thank you styx)

Answer 6

Lets start with we live in a free society, society functions purely by the unspoken agreement of all citizens to abide by those informal rules. Some of these informal laws have had to be formalised over time due to none compliance. Thusly evolved the role of those who have assumed the mantle of protecting these fomal and informal rules of society.

These people take enormous risks to do what is neccessary for the steady function of society.

At the end of the day your freedom ends where it interferes or potentially interferes with anyone elses freedom.

In answer to your question do we live in a police state ... No, we do not we live in a society that requires the freedoms of all its members to be protected

Answer 7

From Georgie on down

Answer 8

Yes I agree.  Police, alot of them abuse their power and authority.  How about the police/chief that killed three women?  Also I have seen other shows on TV where police officers have staged the killing of their own wives.  They beat people up, saw a thing where a police officer slammed a teenage kid against a wall breaking his teeth because he spit on the ground.  Also in jail the guards beat people up and lie about the reasons.  Yes I think that some of them have too much power and they abuse it, but there are ones that don't do that too.  Bad cops need to be punished and not with a slap on the wrist either.  

Answer 9

I'll continue your little list there...

Risking their lives to save the lives of others, taking criminals off the street, protecting the lives of those in need, showed very little appreciation from those who judge them from what they see on TV, being shot at for no other reason than by the uniform they're wearing...

Totally. You're right on.