Do we live in a police state?

[sabrina 1]

8. I was thinking about the second part of your question:

Do we live in a Police State?

Is it generally only those who seriously question authority, or those who are in control of the police state, who recognize it as such?

I wonder if the police in any police state view what they are doing as working for a police state or do they really see protesters as enemies of their countries?

What makes them capable of beating up what are most of the time, their neighbors, certainly their fellow citizens who are not a foreign, enemy army? What dynamic is at work that doesn't make them walk away and refuse to participate in the brutality?

Has it ever happened, that the police refused to follow orders?

It DID happen I remember now. It happened in Wisconsin when the police joined the protesters and refused to evict them from Capitol stating that the Gov did not have the authority to order them to do so.

But that is rare. I wonder why?