All Hail the Police State, part 16

One of the things that identifies a police state is police using deadly or overwhelming force in trivial matters.  If a cop catches you committing a minor property crime and they beat you so you end up in the hospital rather than issue a ticket or summons, you're living in a police state.  And this week it went down like that in Miami.  Only the guy who was spray painting graffiti was killed by the cops instead of just beaten.  Not even Judge Dredd is that severe in doling out instant punishment.

But wait!  There's more!  Look at the picture of this lady who was caught shoplifing.  Beaten like a rented mule.

Cops enter a nursing home and tase then shoot a agitated 95 year old man sitting in a chair.  The only weapon he had was a cane.  Cops respond with deadly force to a man who was old and crotchety.

A disabled man is standing on bus and refuses to sit down.  Why?  Because a spinal injury he suffered when he was hit by a train makes sitting painful.  So cops tase him and drag him off the bus.

Lastly we have a incident in Florida where cops are looking for a suspect.  Without warrant they break into an innocent person's home and immediately shoot their dogs.  The people who lived there were suspects in no crime and the police entered their house with impunity.  Imagine being woken up by someone breaking into your house and firing guns, then being left with a dead dog and this to clean up:

Lastly we have a woman in New York City who stated a common opinion (wishing there the policy of "Stop and Frisk" would come to an end) and she's promptly arrested.  If this isn't a police state, what is?  Former societies that have been called out as police states have gotten the label for much more minor violation of rights.  Keep in mind this is a collection of news that has broken in a single 24 hour period.  Incidents like this happen every day in this country. 

These sort of actions will continue to happen until people start making this a priority at the polls.  Unless you are doing that, you are complicit with this escalation of violence by our increasingly militarized police forces.  It's up to all of us to enact positive change.