“A functioning police state needs no police.”
William S. Burroughs book Naked Lunch
From the chapter entitled "Benway", p. 31
Naked Lunch (1959)
As quoted in New Musical Express (12 November 1991)<sup> http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/nme-meets-nirvana-in-1991-archive-feature</sup>
“A functioning police state needs no police.”
William S. Burroughs book Naked Lunch
From the chapter entitled "Benway", p. 31
Naked Lunch (1959)
“America is the police department for a World Zionist government”
David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon
Revolution by Number
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)
If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good ... We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long ...
Comment to the Greek ambassador to Washington, Alexander Matsas, over the Cyprus issue in June 1964. As quoted in I Should Have Died (1977) by Philip Deane, pp. 113-114.
1960s
“That’s how a police state works - everyone thinks everyone else is the police.”
Trevor Noah book Born a Crime
page 25
Born a Crime
“George, if you deport the police from America, you get Mexico.”
Bill Whittle (1959) author, director, screenwriter, editor
responding to George Lopez' "Deport the Police" comments (10 July 2017)
2010s
Carl Rowan (1925–2000) American journalist
Quoington Star article entitled "Has President Nixon Gone Crazy?", "The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-up Call" (1996)
“There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.”
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, State of the Union Address (January 2015)
Context: You know, just over a decade ago, I gave a speech in Boston where I said there wasn’t a liberal America or a conservative America; a black America or a white America -- but a United States of America.
Context: There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there's the United States of America.
Ilana Mercer South African writer
" Truman Would Have Agreed With Trump On The CIA In Syria https://townhall.com/columnists/ilanamercer/2017/07/23/truman-would-have-agreed-with-trump-on-the-cia-in-syria-n2358572," Townhall.com, July 23, 2017. <br class="br">2010s, 2017
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN
Voicing opposition to the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950
Context: The whole notion of loyalty inquisitions is a national characteristic of the police state, not of democracy. The history of Soviet Russia is a modern example of this ancient practice. I must, in good conscience, protest against any unnecessary suppression of our rights as free men. We must not burn down the house to kill the rats.
“Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do.”
Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels
Source: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler