>US citizens being treated in the same way that the
> > prisoners in Guantanamo are being treated (incarcerated without legal
> > basis, not charged, tortured).
> >
> >
>The United States incarcerates a larger percentage of it's population
>than any other country in the world. What kind of evidence would it
>take to convince you that the legal system maintains order in and about
>this society
It's true that we have far too many people in prison and that we use prisons to take care of problems that should be taken care of in other ways. For example, the Los Angeles County jail system is one of the largest de facto mental institutions in the country. Many, many people who are locked up there should be in hospitals. Many more should be in drug treatment.
But you've ignored part of the question Jim asked. He said the people in Guantanamo are not charged. Jailing people without charges is an important element of a police state and we have not arrived there. We have prisons and jails full of people who are *overcharged*, but that is not the same as not charged.
I just spent the afternoon interviewing people locked up in the federal prison in downtown Los Angeles. I am in and out of jails and prisons in southern California a lot. From where I sit, what we have is a very bad system, but it is not Guantanamo.