Call It What It Is: America Is A Police State

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
March 2, 2016

Over the years in my own articles, I have used the terms “creeping fascism,” “growing police state,” and “descent into totalitarianism” among others to describe the domestic situation in which we find ourselves. I have often written that, if Americans do not stand up to the myriad of laws being passed by Federal, State, and local governments we will soon wake up to find ourselves in an Orwellian police state nightmare.

Now, however, I cringe whenever I read those words in contemporary articles. This is because such warnings are so far past their time they are utterly useless. In fact, they may do more to hurt any potential for change in American society than they do to promote it.

These warnings work on the supposition that the U.S. is not a police state yet but, if things do not change, it will become one in the future. Thus, the readers are left with the impression that, while their freedoms are being taken away, the police state is somewhere down the road -in the future - and they have plenty of time to entertain themselves until it comes knocking on their door with a uniform and a bright flashing neon sign that says “ATTENTION!!! POLICE STATE!!!.”

But the police state is not coming – it is here.

The United States is a police state.

Americans may not be able to admit it to themselves but the military soldiers parading on the streets as police officers, police-operated tanks, and horrifying number of imprisoned citizens have spoken for them. The number of Americans brutalized physically and mentally by those who are sworn to “serve and protect” are speaking clearly enough.

Militarized Police Occupy Myrtle Beach Bike Week

Dees Illustration

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
May 26, 2014

For residents of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Memorial Day Bike Week, (aka “Black Bike Week”), has long been synonymous with vastly increased crime, violence, and destruction of property. Likewise, the event attracts a high number of police that set up shop to detain and harass attendees with roadblocks and other traditional hallmarks of a police state.

Despite the city’s dependence on tourism, most residents and business owners generally dread the event year after year. Between the police and the crime, “Black Bike Week” is a great reason to get out of town if you live in Myrtle Beach.

Yet, while nonsensical violence has come to be expected at the rally year after year, the spate of shootings that occurred during this past event, Memorial Day Weekend 2014, has made national headlines. With three people being killed at a hotel early on, new reports surrounding the shootings were barely off the presses before another shooting took place, injuring two people at a Myrtle Beach resort.

Yet the real story is not so much the shootings (although anti-gun fanatics have predictably latched on to them) or even the investigative response of law enforcement. Instead, the story might be the militarized presence of police stationed in Myrtle Beach which should remove all doubt that civilian policing has been turned into military occupation.

This is because many of the police stationed in and around the Myrtle Beach area during the bike rally could scarcely be distinguished from National Guard troops or regular Army soldiers.