In the last few months I've seen a couple of astonishing and frightening stories about the US. I'm not sure how much of a problem those stories really are.
Police, Agencies and Justice
Faking Terrorism
On Thursday, roughly 67% of prosecutions involving suspected ISIS supporters include evidence from undercover operations, according to The New York Times.
In many cases, agents will seek out people who have somehow demonstrated radical views, and then coax them into plotting an act of terrorism — often providing weapons and money. Before the suspects can carry out their plans, though, they're arrested.
Business Insider: The FBI is 'manufacturing terrorism cases' on a greater scale than ever before
Police legally robbing people
It is called "Civil Forfeiture":
More
- John Oliver: Mandatory Minimums
- John Oliver: Death Penalty - costly, and innocent people get executed
- John Oliver: Bail
- John Oliver: Municipal Violations
- No Fly List
- John Oliver: Torture
- Guantanamo Bay detention camp
- John Oliver: Elected Judges
- John Oliver: Public Defenders - not having enough time to properly prepare
Democracy
In the US there seem to be several measures in place solely to keep people from voting. And if they can vote, then they can't get what they want with their vote. Namely:
- John Oliver: Voting - voter registration laws which were designed to make minorities vote less
- An overly complicated, unintuitive voting process (John Oliver: Primaries and Caucuses),
- John Oliver: Washington DC Statehood
- John Oliver: Puerto Rico
- Felony disenfranchisement: Not allowing people to vote - this seems to be a problem in Germany, too.
- Voter suppression in the United States
- John Oliver: Gerrymandering
- Excluding larger groups of the population by
- Having election day not on a Sunday (e.g. Super Tuesday)
- Voter ID laws
- Having extremely long queues in some areas (having to wait several HOURS! - I'm used to being finished in about 10 minutes)
- Tactical voting: People don't vote for the candidate they like best, but for the one they think has the highest chance to win. This would be fixed by ranked-choice voting.
Consumer Safety
Education
- John Oliver: Sex Education
- John Oliver: Native Advertising - I think we have that problem in Germany, too (Apotheken Umschau, if I recall correctly)
- John Oliver: Student Debt
- John Oliver: Texas Republicans. Mary Lou Bruner on the Texas State Board of Education.
- Creationism (e.g. Creation and evolution in public education in the United States)
- John Oliver: The Lottery - Cuts in education spending which should be filled by revenue from the lottery.