Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

Our Dress Rehearsal for a Police State
The greatest threat to liberty since America's founding.

Tue May 5, 2020 Dennis Prager

All my life, I have dismissed paranoids on the right ("America is headed to c*******m") and the left ("It can happen here" — referring to f*****m). It's not that I've ever believed liberty was guaranteed. Being familiar with history and a pessimist regarding the human condition, I never believed that.

But the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking.

People will argue that a temporary police state has been justified because of the allegedly unique threat to life posed by the new c****av***s. I do not believe the data will bear that out. Regardless, let us at least agree that we are closer to a police state than ever in American history.

"Police state" does not mean totalitarian state. America is not a totalitarian state; we still have many freedoms. In a totalitarian state, this article could not be legally published, and if it were illegally published, I would be imprisoned and/or executed. But we are presently living with all four of the key hallmarks of a police state:

No. 1: Draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights.

The federal, state, county and city governments are now restricting almost every freedom except those of travel and speech. Americans have been banned from going to work (and thereby earning a living), meeting in groups (both indoors and outdoors), meeting in their cars in church parking lots to pray and entering state-owned properties such as beaches and parks — among many other prohibitions.

No. 2: A mass media supportive of the state's messaging and deprivation of rights.

The New York Times, CNN and every other mainstream mass medium — except Fox News, The Wall Street Journal (editorial and opinion pages only) and talk radio — have served the cause of state control over individual Americans' lives just as Pravda served the Soviet government. In fact, there is almost no more dissent in The New York Times than there was in Pravda. And the Big Tech platforms are removing posts about the v***s and potential treatments they deem "misinformation."

No. 3: Use of police.

Police departments throughout America have agreed to enforce these laws and edicts with what can only be described as frightening alacrity. After hearing me describe police giving summonses to, or even arresting, people for playing baseball with their children on a beach, jogging alone without a mask, or worshipping on Easter while sitting isolated in their cars in a church parking lot, a police officer called my show. He explained that the police have no choice. They must respond to every dispatch they receive.

"And why are they dispatched to a person jogging on a beach or sitting alone in a park?" I asked.

Because the department was informed about these lawbreakers.

"And who told the police about these lawbreakers?" I asked.

His answer brings us to the fourth characteristic of a police state:

No. 4: Snitches.

How do the police dispatchers learn of lawbreakers such as families playing softball in a public park, lone joggers without face masks, etc.? From their fellow citizens snitching on them.

The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, set up a "snitch line," whereby New Yorkers were told to send authorities photos of fellow New Yorkers violating any of the quarantine laws. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti similarly encouraged snitching, unabashedly using the term.

It is said that about 1 in every 100 East German citizens were informers for the Stasi, the East German secret police, as superbly portrayed in the film "The Lives of Others." It would be interesting, and, I think, important, to know what percentage of New Yorkers informed on their fellow citizens. Now, again, you may think such a comparison is not morally valid, that de Blasio's call to New Yorkers to serve a Stasi-like role was morally justified given the c****av***s p******c. But you cannot deny it is Stasi-like or that, other than identifying spies during World War II, this is unprecedented in American history at anywhere near this level.

This past Friday night, I gathered with six others for a Shabbat dinner with friends in Santa Monica, California. On my Friday radio show, I announced I would be doing that, and if I was arrested, it would be worth it. In my most pessimistic dreams, I never imagined that in America, having dinner at a friend's house would be an act of civil disobedience, perhaps even a criminal act. But that is precisely what happens in a police state.

The reason I believe this is a dress rehearsal is that too many Americans appear untroubled by it; the dominant force in America, the left, supports it, and one of the two major political parties has been taken over by the left. Democrats and their supporters have, in effect, announced they will use state power to enforce any law they can to combat the even greater "existential" crisis of g****l w*****g.

On the CNN website this weekend, in one of the most frightening and fanatical articles in an era of fanaticism, Bill Weir, CNN chief climate correspondent, wrote an open letter to his newborn son. In it, he wrote of his idealized future for America: "completely new forms of power, food, construction, t***sportation, economics and politics."

You cannot get there without a police state.

If you love liberty, you must see that it is jeopardized more than at any time since America's founding. And that means, among other things, that at this time, a v**e for any Democrat is a v**e to end liberty.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Nothing more, nothing less there.

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

And you actually believe this piece of pure PROPAGANDA?

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

Can you cite specifics, rather than just issue guttermouthed attacks on other people?

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

You need to be more specific.

Exactly what are you calling gutter mouthed in my original comment, and who was I attacking?

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Simple threat statement: Fox News propaganda machine and the Trump replacement of department heads and our esteemed Attorney General are the takeover masters fowling Putin's advice.

Rose42

You’re asleep to whats going on

sumo Loc: Houston suburb

This is not about your health when the State says it’s too dangerous for you to walk in the park with your child, then puts dangerous criminals back on the street – or, when it tells you it’s safe to go in-person to a grocery store, but not to a v****g station:

When the State tells you it's safe to go to Home Depot to buy a sponge but dangerous to go and buy a flower and when the State shuts down millions of private businesses but doesn’t lay off a single government employee, it's not about your health.

When the State prevents you from buying cucumber seeds because it's dangerous, but allows in person lottery ticket sales and When the State tells you it's dangerous to go golf or fish alone but they can get make up and hair done for 5 TV appearances, it's not about your health.

When the state puts you IN jail for walking in a park with your child because it’s too dangerous but let’s criminals OUT of jail for their health and when the state tells you it’s dangerous to get treated by a doctor yet says a liquor stores essential it’s not about your health!

When the State lets you go to the grocery store or hardware store but is demanding mail-in v****g, ITS NOT ABOUT YOUR HEALTH.
WAKE UP PEOPLE — If you think this is all about your health you’re mistaken! Please open your eyes! Stop being lead like blind sheep.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Your reply exhibits your blind hatred of anything with which you don't understand. The post has nothing to do , at it's most basic reasoning, with party loyality. But our willingness to obey "well meaning" totalitarianism. Government officials of both liberal and conservative persuasions have, without legal authority, have unconstitutionally shut down the the country. They have commanded the citizenry to obey edicts they had no right to enforce. And whats even more important and truly frightening is that the people were happy to comply. Think about it. We have , for a short time, become a dictatorship. Our leaders say, close all unimportant businessnes, and they decide which they are. Stay home, and we do. Wear masks, andvwebdo. Social distance, and we do. Just think about how easy we are to control. All we have to have to believe it is that the reason for this control- dictatorship- is for our own good. Just critically think about it. It's VERY frightening. No protests. No marches against the government forcing the highestb unemployment since the depression. Think about it. And before byou blame Trump remember you Trump h**ers maintain that he did not act soon enough. He wan not an dictator soon enough. How easy we are to control. History should tell us just how dangerous a " Well meaning" government can be. BEWARE.

Leo_B Loc: Houston suburb

Well stated and exactly correct, especially the warning at the end. Only an absolute fool would v**e for a democrat in these times. An absolute fool.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

Why do you claim the stay-at-home orders are illegal and unconstitutional?

Here is an excerpt of a question answered by a legal expert:

Brad (Michigan): If people disobey stay-at-home or quarantine orders, does the government actually have legal power to enforce them?

Yes. All 50 states have laws empowering governors or other officials to impose quarantine orders, including stay-at-home orders or other restrictions, in times of emergency. Violation of those laws is punishable by fines and, in about half the states, by potential arrest and criminal prosecution, typically for fairly low-level misdemeanor offenses (though such violations can be prosecuted as felonies in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas).

redlegfrog

Be carful or you will get the government you deserve!

philo Loc: philo, ca

I keep saying i'm glad I'm 85 and have no grandchildren. OB said he wanted to change America forever, and he is getting his wish. Just look at what the OB justice department did to General Flynn. If they can do it to him; just think what they can do to us!!!!!!!!!!!

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

Stop believing the trump and Russia PROPAGANDA!

It is about your health!

Failure to social distance has caused over 79,000 deaths in just over four months!

Rose42

Uh no. This isn’t Trump or Russian propaganda. Get Trump out of your head and open your eyes.