OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Close to three quarters of voters believe that we are living in a police state and a new movie by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, aptly titled “Police State,” tackles that precise issue.
A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports survey showed that 72 percent of respondents said that they are worried that “America is becoming a police state.”
The description Rasmussen used to describe a “police state” was “a tyrannical government that engages in mass surveillance, censorship, ideological indoctrination, and targeting of political opponents.”
The poll showed that 76 percent of Republicans believed that the nation is becoming a police state but, stunningly, 67 percent of Democrats believed the same.
D’Souza spoke to The Washington Examiner about his new movie, screening in select theaters on October 23 & 25, and what he believes is happening in America.
“I came to America as an immigrant in the late 1970s because America offers these basic inviolable liberties: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, the right to assemble, the right to petition the government, equal justice under the law. These rights are supposed to be above politics. Even a majority cannot override these rights,” the filmmaker said.
“It’s been very shocking to me to see the way in which all these rights are now in jeopardy. And so that’s the theme of “Police State,” and clearly, the results of the Rasmussen survey show that this is a theme that worries not just me, but also the American people,” he said.
On the movie’s website the staff, which includes D’Souza and conservative host Dan Bongino, spoke about what they see happening in America.
“’Police State’ is a movie that I never wanted to make, because I never wanted America to get to a point where a movie like this needed to be made. I feel like the animal that alerts the herd to approaching danger, so we can take precautionary steps before it’s too late,” D’Souza said.
“The police state isn’t coming, it’s already here. The signs are everywhere. And once you recognize them, your senses will be heightened to the danger we’re all in,” Bongino said..
Actor Nick Searcy, who stars in the movie, said “The relentless persecution of political opponents by the party in power is a hallmark of totalitarian countries. In a police state, the only real crime is daring to question the State. America is now a police state.”
But the “police state” does not always emerge victorious.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, chastised special counsel Jack Smith and his team for failing to give Trump’s legal team “timely” access to evidence materials.
Smith had requested to keep the documents in a secure area in Washington, D.C., nearly 1,000 miles away from the southern Florida district where the case was filed, something Cannon found unacceptable.
“The parties are advised that production of classified discovery to defense counsel is deemed timely upon placement in an accredited facility in the Southern District of Florida, not in another federal district,” Cannon wrote in her order on Tuesday.
“It is the responsibility of the Office of the Special Counsel to make and carry out arrangements to deposit such discovery to defense counsel in this District, in consultation with the Litigation Security Group for security purposes,” she added. “The Office of the Special Counsel shall update and/or clarify any prior responses to the Standard Discovery Order in accordance with this Order.”
In an order earlier this year, Cannon detailed the rules for viewing the documents Trump is accused of mishandling.
Watch the teaser trailer for my new film “Police State”, exclusively in theaters October 23 & 25. You can get theater tickets now, and sign up for email updates at https://t.co/L3EAH8RhJx pic.twitter.com/HWSxYsP9wy
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 8, 2023
Trump hasn’t gotten many court wins in recent months, but his team managed a small victory last week in the case, and it could lead to a big victory.
Cannon said she was “temporarily delaying a previously set schedule of deadlines stretching from October through May for the Justice Department to make classified documents available to Trump’s lawyers and for the defense team to have time to review them,” Yahoo News reported, citing The Messenger.
