Reason #987,263,429,837 why I won’t go to the US if I can avoid it: american police are a lot more militarized than they have ever been, and many of the checks and balances that made the U.S. a democratic republic have been eroded by both courts and politicians.
1. Escalation of the War on Drugs
Although the war on drugs started in the 60s, it was expanded considerably during Ronald Reagan’s two terms as president. Reagan aggressively promoting militarized no-knock drug raids, asset forfeiture laws and mandatory minimum sentences. The drug war has greatly increased the prison population and placed a heavy burden on taxpayers, as well as imperiled many innocent Americans. Since the 1980s, there have been countless examples of narcotics officers targeting the wrong house or apartment for a no-knock SWAT raid, brandishing assault weapons and killing or injuring innocent people who had nothing to do with drugs.
2. 9/11 Terrorist attacks fallout
With the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda was hoping to destabilize the U.S. and weaken its standing in the world. And the Bush administration played right into al-Qaeda’s hands, promoting a climate of fear and intimidation with the blessing of a Republican-dominated Congress. The Bush years brought a variety of authoritarian measures, from the Patriot Act of 2001 to no-fly lists to the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security.
After 9/11, the U.S. crossed a dangerous line when the CIA, with the blessing of the Bush administration, openly supported the use of waterboarding on detainees at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. During the Cold War, the U.S. allied itself with a long list of fascist regimes that practiced torture. But it wasn’t until the post-9/11 era that an American vice president, Dick Cheney, came right out and flaunted the use of torture by the U.S. government itself.
3. Growth and expansion of asset forfeiture laws turns police into legal thieves
During the Reagan years, asset forfeiture laws were aggressively promoted as part of the war on drugs. But abuses in the name of asset forfeiture have become much more widespread since the 1980s, and there have been countless examples of police seizing property under the pretense that some type of crime might have been committed. If a motorist pulled over by police for having a broken taillight is carrying $600 in cash, the officer can confiscate that cash and claim there was reason to believe the money was being used in connection with a crime. Even if there is no arrest or evidence of wrongdoing and no charges are filed, the person still has to hire a lawyer to try getting the money back. The property is guilty until proven innocent.
4. Erosion of Habeas Corpus
Historically, one of the many positive things about the U.S. was its recognition of habeas corpus, the right to be spared indefinite detention without a trial. But the National Defense Authorization Act, which President Obama signed into law , gives the U.S. military the right to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely without trial. If a U.S. citizen is declared an enemy combatant, indefinite detention without trial is possible.
5. Militarization of Local Police Departments
The militarization of American police departments escalated after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Department of Homeland Security launched a program that provides military surplus equipment to American police departments (including the type of weapons used by the U.S. soldiers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Police departments in Des Moines, Iowa or Fargo, North Dakota now have the type of military weapons they didn’t have access to in the past. This disturbing trend has continued in the Obama era; in 2011, the Department of Homeland Security gave $2 billion in grants for local police departments to obtain military weapons, but proper training has been lacking behind the acquisition of the hardware.
6. Growth of the Prison/Industrial complex
Anti-drug laws and prosecutions have turned imprisonment into a huge industry. From manufacturers of prison uniforms to companies that sell food to prisons, the prison-industrial complex has an interest in locking up as many people as possible. The U.S. incarcerates, per capita, more adults than any another country in the world. Especially disturbing are the growth of privately owned prisons, which the American Civil Liberties Union has vehemently opposed.
