Chad, thanks for the cogent reply and opinion. There's no reason as well to believe the numbers are correct either, that is, unless you drink the kool-aid that governments put out (ALL governments). If fudging stats leads to a knee jerk reaction of hiring more police to address problems that don't exist or that do not solve the problems that do exist, then indeed it moves us closer to a police state. What you guess I'm aware of or not is purely speculative on your part (you're wrong, I am aware of the "differences"). I didn't say we were a police state, I'm assuming equivalent to what you surmise are police states in your mind, but moving ever so steadily towards one. It appears to me we differ over authority - you seem to embrace it and I challenge it. Police have everything stacked in their favor and are a power unto themselves in the U.S. They are soldiers that are weaponized and trained for war, not accountable, and indoctrinated in believing they are society's saviors.