This is what a police state looks like folks

[Kelvin Mace]

72. Killing people is on the extreme end

and they have done precisely that. But, they have also covered the bases in between.

1st Amendment: Unless you worship a state-approved religion you may be investigated, arrested and detained without trial. Freedom of the press? Reporters have been arrested and assaulted. The corporate media pretty much is an organ of the state. The right to peaceably assemble and petition government for redress of grievances? Ask the Occupy folk how that worked out. Freedom of expression? Government is very quick to harass anyone saying things it doesn't approve of. Arrest and detention (and possible execution during arrest and detention) are possible.

4th Amendment: Warrants are no longer required, just "security letters", and many times not even that.

5th Amendment: You may be forced to incriminate yourself under torture. You may be deprived of life or liberty by fiat.

6th Amendment: Guantanamo is filled with people denied a "speedy trial" and the government may present secret witnesses and/or evidence which you are not allowed to examine. You may be detained and tortured without charge or access to counsel.

7th Amendment: If you are declared an "enemy combatant" by fiat, you have no right to a jury trial

8th Amendment: You may be imprisoned and/or tortured and/or murdered by fiat, and this will not be considered "cruel or unusual punishment".

Oh, and then there's this right, found in the actual unamended text of the Constitution:

"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

We have not been invaded nor is the country in a state of rebellion, thus this right should still be in play. However, the Patriot Act apparently outranks the Constitution.

So, I think we have a VERY compelling case that we are a "police state" by any reasonable definition of the term, yet we still have people out there who want to argue the point.

Your guess is as good as mine as to why.