“From that point on, the extraordinary system of spies and informers which has played an important part in the political work of the French state into our own time took shape. (Sartine, who became lieutenant general de police in 1759, is supposed to have said to Louis XV, "Sire, when three people are chatting in the street one of them is surely my man.") Eighteenth-century police manuals like those of Colquhoun in England or Lemaire in France are no less than general treatises on the government's full repertoire of domestic regulation, coercion, and surveillance.”

~ Charles Tilly

The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), p.60.

E Archer, NYC 3/14/07

A secret police is essential to rulers of the masses -- it is the bane of freedom everywhere.

Mike, Norwalk 11/3/17

Patrick Henry, Red Hill 11/3/17

The antithesis of that which the Founders intended that we know, as Americans.

How different America was from the States of Europe.

Was.

Ronw13, Oregon 11/3/17

Like Liberty, that which is of value, is spied upon.