Is the United States Quickly Becoming a Police State?

Day after day you hear more stories of your rights being set aside for technology. Cameras photograph your movements, software recognizes faces based on government mug shots, computers scan license plates, and cops in Wisconsin can even attach a GPS unit to your car to track your movements. Every where you look there are stories of things I expect from the KGB, not the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department.

I have been concerned about this for a while now. It seems these devices are always sold to the American public as safety. They always work to assure you it’s just safety. Now I am not so sure.

I was forwarded a piece from World Net Daily which they ranked the top police states in the world. The United States has moved is in the top thanks to the Patriot Act and technology. Remember I have been saying for many years freedom and liberty have become rhetorical words for the Fourth of July, but seem non existent during the rest of the year. That seems to be truer than ever, and I am glad to see Americans waking up to this fact. I hope it’s not too late.

This is the first known assessment of its kind. It measured the use of technology from the government against its people. The report called “Electronic Police State” looks at 52 nations, and was released by Cryptohippie, Inc. Normally I would have my doubts seeing the name of the company, but it’s not hard to see what’s taking place in front of us. There is a reason everything has gone digital. It’s easier to monitor and store the data over conventional analog signals, and I believe this is the real reason analog TV goes dead next month.

No big surprises in the first four positions. China is number one and North Korea is number two. Belarus takes the third position while Russia has slipped to fourth. Now comes the surprises–well, maybe not. Number five is the United Kingdom. Number six is the home of the brave and the land of the free. So America, how does it feel to live in a police state?

I am not thrilled! We know this was happening. There were even reports at the tea parties of government agencies tracking who were at them. Yes we are all enemies of the state, and now that movie seems even more frightening.

The report graded each country on the following criteria:

Daily documents: How much is required day-to-day for residents to present state-issued identity documents or registration.
Border issues: What is demanded for a border entry.
Financial tracking: The state’s ability to search and record financial transactions.
Gag orders: The penalties for revealing to someone else the state is searching their records.
Anti-crypto laws: Bans on cryptography.
Constitutional protections: Either a lack of protections or someone overriding them.
Data storage: The state’s ability to record and keep what it uncovers.
Data search: The processes to search through data.
ISP data retention: The demand for ISPs to save customers’ records.
Telephone data retention: States’ requirements for communications companies to record and save records.
Cell phone records: The saving and using of cell phone users’ records.
Medical records: Demands from states that medical records retain information.
Enforcement: The state’s ability to use force (SWAT teams) to seize someone.
Habeus corpus: Either an absence of such rights or someone overriding them.
Police-Intel barrier: the absence of a barrier between police and intelligence organizations.
Covert hacking: State operatives meddling in data on private computers covertly.
Loose warrants: Warrants that are being issued without careful review of police claims by a truly independent judge.

As you can see from the list, we should move up in the rankings the next time they perform a study. As you know medical records, further wire tapping with federal immunity, airport searches of hard drives, and other infringements have started or are ready to start in the United States.

The United Kingdom ranked high because they actually record and store every phone call made in the country. Something tells me a certain faction of people who forced Sharia Law on Churchill’s Island probably are immune from intelligence gathering. That seems to be the way of the world today.

The report defined a total police state as “every surveillance camera recording, every e-mail you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time.”

The United States has the ability to do all of these things, and for all we know, they just might be. It’s been long known the Clinton administration began monitoring phone calls for buzz words in a program called Eschelon. Since then this has become even easier as all forms of electronic communication are digital.

Yes George Orwell, you were right. Big Brother is watching.

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Originally Published at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom

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