Tyranny!: The Numbers Don't Lie

Attempting to quantify the nature or extent of the existing police state is not an easy task. How does one judge corruption, political repression, domestic surveillance, etc. After all, there is no international index of unjust laws, corrupt cops, paid-off judges and the like. There are a number of projects on the web that look at the raw data and try to do just that. I attempt to collate them here, and, in conclusion, you make your own judgement.

Total Number of Police (by Country)
Source: The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention)

1. India 1,032,960
2. United States 941,139
3. Mexico 495,821
4. Italy 322,433
5. Germany 250,104
6. Japan 231,700
7. Thailand 215,450
8. Turkey 165,833
   
9. United Kingdom 152,576
10. France 124,284

Number of Prisons (by Country)
Source:The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention)

1. Malaysia 26,294
2. Hong Kong 10,593
3. Papua New Guinea 9,474
4. Latvia 8,110
5. Kuwait 2,566
6. United States 1,558
7. Oman 1,164
8. Russia 739
9. Turkey 504
10. Mexico 448

Number of Prisoners (by Country)
Source: The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention)

1. United States 2,019,234
2. China 1,549,000
3. Russia 846,967
4. India 313,635
5. Brazil 308,304
6. Thailand 213,815
7. Ukraine 198,386
8. South Africa 181,944
9. Mexico 172,888
10. Iran 163,526

Number of Prisoner per capita (by Country)
Source: International Centre for Prison Studies - World Prison Brief

1. United States 715 per 100,000 people
2. Russia 584 per 100,000 people
3. Belarus 554 per 100,000 people
4. Palau 523 per 100,000 people
5. Belize 459 per 100,000 people
6. Suriname 437 per 100,000 people
7. Dominica 420 per 100,00 people
8. Ukraine 416 per 100,000 people
9. The Bahamas 410 per 100,000 people
10. South Africa 402 per 100,000 people

The Electronic Police State (by country)
Source: Cryptohippie, Inc.'s report called the Electronic Police State, a 2008 ranking of government high tech mass surveillance against its own people. 52 nations are graded on a scale of 1 to 4 (1=most free, 4=least free), in 17 different pertinent categories.

1. China 3.58/4.00
2. North Korea 3.47/4.00
3. Belarus 3.29/4.00
4. Russia 3.17/4.00
5. United Kingdom 3.17/4.00
6. United States 3.11/4.00
7. Singapore 3.11/4.00
8. Israel 3.05/4.00
9. France 3.05/4.00
10. Germany 3.05/4.00

Erosion of Civil Liberties in Developed, Democratic States (by country) ie. Lowest Scores
Source: Data from the Economist Intelligence Unit's Index of Democracy 2008, Interpreting column V data on Civil Liberties among economically developed Full-Democracies (Rankings 1 to 10, with 10 being most free).

1. South Korea 8.24/10
2. United States 8.53/10
3. Slovenia 8.82/10
4. United Kingdom 8.82/10
5. Italy 9.12/10
6. France 9.12/10
7. Austria 9.12/10
8. Portugal 9.41/10
9. Greece 9.41/10
10. Belgium 9.41/10
    

Now, if you as an American, are comfortable with an 8 out of 10 when it comes to our guaranteed civil rights, well than go in peace. There are many "flawed democracies" and developing nations that receive higher marks than us here in the Land of the Free, and the Home of the brave! For example, India may have a dysfunctional government, but it receives a 9.41 in protecting civil liberties. Amazingly, Mexico receives an 8.82 rating!
Make of it all what you will. If you want to pat yourself on the back, read Freedom House's Freedom in the World (66% funded by the US government). It paints a rosy, if not downright ignorant, picture of personal freedoms in today's United States. The statistics seem to prove that the good old USA has made a big business out of the criminal justice system. Particularly when viewing the stats on prisoners per capita, it would seem as if our huge government is nearly as oppressive as the states it admonishes for human right violations.