“Now bend over and take it for your own good, Citizen!”
This is a very cynical, selfish take on the American police state. The correct instruction is, “Now bend over and take it for the good of the community, Citizen!”
With this sort of police action on the highways, combined with NSA panopticon surveillance, TSA procedures in airports, the world’s largest prison population, indefinite detentions without trial, the proliferation of armed branches in every civil bureaucracy, the militarization of police forces, etc., etc., how can there be any doubt that the United States is a police state?
I have lived many years in countries that most people in the US consider police states and in countries under martial law. I can no longer tell the difference any more between those and the US. (In fairness, though, I ought to add that most police states have more polite and civilized airport security staff than the US TSA.)
The emergency measures adopted in response to 9/11 are now accepted as normal. Combined with the diminution of liberty that has accompanied the war on drugs, the US has become a police state.
The word “citizen” is offensive. You should say “resident”.