No, actually, that may not be a very accurate assessment. What it takes to demonstrate whether a country is a police state is the level of aggression applied to transgressions that call into question the validity of state power (directly, or indirectly in matters such as culture or finance). It is not a transgression in the US to "speak out" in a meaningless way (online, or wherever it is not restricted), but try and do the same thing with a handful of other people without a permit in front of the local state or federal legislative house, and there is a very different reaction. Either one is acceptable use of free speech according to the US Constitution, but one is a transgression that will be punished, and the fact that the rule used to punish it being a violation of my Constitutional rights will be ignored to address my transgression with police force and the force of the bureaucracy. Moreover, there is no forgiveness in our society for transgressions by the authorities once those transgressions are recognized. That is a hallmark of a police state society. People who transgress find themselves persecuted in a variety of ways, not the least of which is having unrelated minor crimes used as a wedge to separate parents from children, to restrict access to transportation resources and thereby restrict freedom of movement, etc. Just because the authorities in the US take an extra step prior to bringing that boot down doesn't mean it is any less a boot, poised and quivering. Such as my typing this out. No repercussions whatsoever. However, when I go to my state house steps and start talking about this to passers by, and I WILL get arrested. It won't be for my views, officially. Officially, it will be for not having an assembly permit, and for harassment. Unofficially, it will be for using my freedom of speech and assembly, but if we don't call it that then the abuse of my rights never happened, right? After analyzing my prior message traffic, as well as this posting, my life will become progressively more difficult and I will become one of those victims you deny exist. My kid may be taken away because my fitness as a parent will come under question because I was arrested. I will likely lose my job, and probably my home because I will not be able to make payments on it. I will be on a watch list that I cannot remove myself from, and be very difficult to travel to find new work or a new city to live in. But, you know, the US isn't a police state, because doing these things indirectly to people doesn't count, right? I mean, if a bunch of brown shirt wearing jack booted thugs kicked the shit out of me on the state house steps (vs arresting me and letting some thug in a jail do it for them), kidnap my kid (vs calling child protective services and informing them I would be an unfit parent due to my arrest), burn down my business (instead of putting pressure on the fed/state/local agencies I may have contracts with, or smearing me in the press to drive away customers), put me under indefinite house arrest (instead of putting me on a travel watch list), and have people follow me everywhere (instead of just flagging all of my internet traffic whenever they like, including my GPS location, occurrences of my license plate at various intersections, activating my phone as a listening device, tracking email metadata, and accessing all of the photographed snail mail traffic leaving my home, etc) that would be a police state. I'm still seeing the alternatives to the American movie notion of a police state (that I listed out in parens) to be no less frightening or invasive. If you are happy living in a place, and do not transgress, then you would never see those jack booted thugs, or any other state apparatus come down on you. Of course there is no police state then.