How many people was arrested? Oh, 1.5 million according to the wikipedia. Here is global research for you
about the USA.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-prison-population-dwarfs-that-of-other-nations/8801It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. So, if population of USA is 320 million and it has 751 in prison or jail for every 100,000 it means that
2.4 million people are sitting nowadays in USA.. Got it? 1.5 vs. 2.4
So why the time when 1.5 million people are arested in USSR called "Great Purge" and the same situation in USA, when the number of people is 2.4 million, called democracy?
What is that? Double standards? The USA is a police state. But not in the sense of a form of government which "exercises power arbitrarily through the police" (though this is debatable per se). It is a police state since without strong law enforcement agencies ready to open fire without a second thought there would soon be chaos and anarchy in the streets of this state. We see this happening everywhere whenever there is no more "strong hand" controlling general public. New Orleans as the most obvious example in real life and The Purge in fiction.
I do agree that the US has problems with their police facilities, as in mainly solving issues with brutality. However, that's what elections, protests and demonstrations are for, to remind the government that you are still in charge. US has to be careful in maintaining order due to the amount of cultures, religions and customs clashing with one another.
If the control was lax, the society would fracture into either religious, political or national groups ruling over regions where there are most inhabitants fitting their selected ideology. However, let's keep the discussion on-topic and discuss the issues with the US government in a thread meant for said discussion