Has America Become a Police State?
Today’s America looks more like China or North Korea than the land of the free. But some people are standing up to this attack on our liberty—and enduring the harsh consequences to their own personal lives. Dinesh D’Souza is one of them. Restoration News was privileged to attend two movie premieres for his new film Police State, where the filmmaker outlined how Americans can join in the fight to preserve our way of life.
What does it mean to have freedom? Freedom is security for yourself and your family. It’s means having money for groceries, schooling, decent living conditions, and relaxation. It means not being harassed or arrested on frivolous charges by your own government. It’s freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and other liberties we enjoy under the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
But it also means knowing these rights come from God and are rooted in His divinity. This rare and beautiful system is now under attack. Dark forces are seeking to destroy what is special about America, by turning it into a third-world authoritarian state.
Few have pushed back the way filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza has. His latest documentary, Police State, sounds the alarm on how close we are to losing everything that makes us the envy of the world. Restoration News attended two major premieres for the movie to speak to some of its main players about our great American experiment, and how it can be preserved despite the overwhelming odds now stacked against it.
The Las Vegas Premiere That Set the Stage
The same week Police State opened in select theaters there was a virtual premiere in Las Vegas, Nevada. Some guests appeared in person, but thousands were able to join online. This reporter, having worked on the film, attended the gathering and met some of the brave souls who made this project possible.
In partnership with former Secret Service agent-turned-political commentator Dan Bongino, D’Souza made the movie in hopes of highlighting government abuses infecting the foundations of America.
The goal was to have “the film reach a very wide number of Americans, because I think a film is a uniquely powerful medium,” D’Souza said during his opening remarks. “People in America have no experience of a police state. They think of a police state, they look abroad. They think of a Stalin overcoat, a Hitler mustache. The evil ingenuity of our police state is that it comes in camouflage. It claims to be saving democracy and upholding the rule of law and fighting for truth against misinformation and disinformation. So, what does this film do? It rips the veil, pulls the curtain open and you see the naked brutality of the police state.”
He said the main mission is to reach everyone across the political spectrum:
Mother Jones, this far-left outlet, comes out today bashing the film. Why would they do that? Because their journalists went into theaters, saw completely packed houses, saw people standing up after the film. People crying, people hugging each other, people applauding. People singing the national anthem ‘in solidarity with January 6th prisoners,’ and basically the [article’s author] began to react like a demon when doused with holy water. The writer began to like writhe and seethe and thrash around. And this is what we want. We want the Left to go insane. My advice to you is help us drive them insane. And the way you do that is, you push the message out. You become like an early Christian evangelist.
D’Souza said the situation in America has become so dire, it’s time for conservatives to hold leftists accountable by taking legal action, the way the Biden Justice Department has attacked President Donald Trump.
“In no way am I saying that we should, in all respects, exactly mirror the Left,” he explained. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. But what I am saying is that in some cases if we respond in the tough way, they will learn their lesson . . . Imagine right now if a major Democrat or a series of Democrats was indicted. Let’s say for example the attorney general of Texas—by the way I’m throwing out a major suggestion here—indicts [Sec. Alejandro] Mayorkas for child trafficking. There’s child trafficking going on in Texas, the government completely knows about it. They’re deliberately looking the other way. It’s a crime. Indict them. Indict nine other prominent Democrats on legitimate charges. The moment the Democrats are indicted . . . whenever it happens to them, they always rediscover the principle.”
He then described how leftists are only constitutionalists when it serves their agenda and how patriots must now fight fire with fire:
We better realize that sometimes the only way to deal with a bully, is to gang up on the bully. Kick the bully in the shins and then the bully goes, ‘well this isn’t working out so well after all.’ Because otherwise, it’s going to be the fear that the bully sees in the eyes of the kids, that makes the bully want to be a bully.
Regarding election integrity, the author of Obama’s America: 2016 said certain states have made progress to stop the fraud being perpetrated by the Left—citing his previous film 2000 Mules—but cautioned that we still have a long way to go.
“I wish I could say that we have done enough to stop the fraud,” D’Souza continued. “There have been election integrity laws. Some of the things exposed in 2000 Mules, we did not see in the midterm election. That’s not because, by the way, the RNC deployed lawyers and blocked it. Patriots in Arizona were going and kind of camping out at the drop boxes and turning on their cell phone . . . We’re going to have to be very vigilant in 2024.”
He added:
I think the big point is we need to think differently across the board and recognize that the old America is no longer. It’s hard for us to think that. It’s hard for me to think that. If you say to me, ‘Dinesh is America still a free country?’ I’m really reluctant to say no. And yet I cannot honestly say yes. . . You can dismantle the FBI, the DHS. But the censorship octopus stretches into the private sector. And so that’s where we need the Supreme Court. We need activity at the state level. Republican governors, DAs, secretaries of state. There’s a lot of power that we have in our side that is unused.
Bongino, who joined the event remotely, spoke about his experience in law enforcement and claimed he never saw anything during his post-9/11 service in the NYPD and Secret Service, that matches the abuses being carried out today. He specifically referred to his kinship with former FBI agent and whistleblower Kyle Seraphin—who was featured in the film—during an audience Q&A session.
“I think that’s why me and Kyle [Seraphin] have such a bond, is that we saw some things we didn’t like and decided we were going to do something about it,” Bongino stated. “The level of police state corruption we see now, [I saw] nothing of the sort . . . But it goes to show you how they were doing this unconstitutional thing for so long, just because someone had told them to do it. It’s not that the guys were dumb or we’re trying to be thugs at the time. They were doing it because . . . it’s just this, ‘I’m just doing my job mentality,’ and it’s up to us to stay on top of that.”
The former Fox News host explained how leftists are seeking to implement a system of total control, that has nothing to do with Republicans versus Democrats.
“They don’t give a damn if you’re a Democrat or Republican,” he declared. “It has nothing to do with Democrats. It has everything to do with centralized government power. And honestly, the police state is the first big step towards getting there and that’s why we’ve got to avoid it.”
Defiant Gala Held at Mar-a-Lago with Trump’s Support
Several days after the Vegas screening, a red-carpet gala was held at President’s Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. The same one raided by FBI agents over his ongoing persecution related to classified documents. The gathering was similar to the 2000 Mules screening which Trump attended in 2022. Although he couldn’t be at this recent event, D’Souza shared Trump’s message of support before the screening began:
This movie exposes the witch hunt that the deep state has against me. And the police state is coming for you.
Actor Nick Searcy of Cast Away and Justified fame, who plays a corrupt federal agent in the film, discussed the movie with Restoration News and referenced German theologian Martin Niemoller who opposed the Nazi regime in the 1930s:
America has already become a police state. We have a two-tier justice system and political prisoners. Violent criminals go free, while non-violent protestors have their lives destroyed by a corrupt FBI and a corrupt judiciary. I joined this project because I wanted to help sound the alarm. Too many Americans don’t know that this is happening, and others don’t care because they think it’s only happening to their political opponents. If they don’t wake up, it will be them next, as [Martin] Niemoller said.
Former Congressman and Georgia lawmaker Vernon Jones was also in attendance and told Restoration News he supported the project because, “I saw 2000 Mules. Police State was a continuation of [the actions of] our corrupt U.S. government.”
Pro-life advocate Frank Pavone—who was controversially defrocked from the Catholic priesthood for speaking out about his beliefs—was at the gala as well and told Restoration News he “originally planned to view the movie the first day it was released in the theaters, but I prefer to see it at Mar-a-Lago in the company of those who created it. And of our best people in America, who are fighting against this police state. It was a great inspiration.”
This reporter had the chance to speak with two of the main whistleblowers in the film. Kyle Seraphin, was suspended without pay “forever” from the FBI and had his security clearance revoked. He told me he left the FBI when his Catholic faith conflicted with Bureau policy. Mainly, the mandatory COVID vaccination agenda that the agency was pushing. Seraphin took issue with being tested for COVID every 72 hours, “despite not having any symptoms,” referring to the government’s behavior as “Nazi-esque.”
“The main reason [I joined the project] was I had a conversation with Dan Bongino about the weaponization of government and how that message could be more broadly conveyed to people, and a conversation with Dinesh about their idea for it and being able to convey to [the public] what the various types of totalitarian states look like,” Seraphin said. “And whether or not we meet the criteria that would show the American people that we are currently living under a growing one. Based on my experience in the federal government, based on the treatment that I had in the post COVID mandate world and the post whistleblowing experience, I felt like when you start creating dissent, and people who would otherwise be inclined to stand up for freedom are willing to hide, simply to be able to maintain their jobs—their paycheck and their government pensions—then they are enabling something that is essentially totalitarian, and the world police state . . . If you comply with tyranny, it just leads to more tyranny.”
He was also disturbed as a parent, that other parents were being targeted as terrorists, simply for standing up and expressing opinions at school board meetings.
Ryan Hartwig, a former content moderator at Facebook who was featured in the movie, said:
I joined this project because many people have left Facebook, rightly so. But still, too many Americans are using Facebook and other social media sites that continue to suppress and censor Americans for their political views. America is already well on its way to becoming a police state, although it’s a different flavor and variation of police states we’ve seen in the past. We’re in the slow-walk version of this police state that will eventually control every aspect of our lives. The premieres for this film have been successful at sounding the alarm but we still have a lot of work to do to share it with our friends who may not be as politically aware as the rest of us.
After sharing Trump’s remarks, D’Souza thanked the President and spoke briefly about how political persecution is “happening to a lot of ordinary guys who are just going about their life, and suddenly they find the hot breath of the police stay on their face.”
Where Does America Go from Here?
Political escalation has brought Americans to a make-or-break crossroad. We can either bow down in servitude to earthy masters, allowing them to twist the truth until our existence is nothing but a lie, or we can work together in solidarity to preserve what God has blessed us with. A land of opportunity, beauty, and freedom—driven by faith, the rule of law and empathy for one another.
As a former TV/film critic, I can only express optimism about our country’s future in the words of Nathan Petrelli, from the hit television show “Heroes,” that got it right on the money.
Our father always said that we had a responsibility, to use what God gave us, to help people. To make a real difference. Pop always made the hard choices, for the greater good. He believed in that. And so do I. Our children deserve that. They deserve a better future. A future—where they don’t have to face their fears alone. But can look into the darkness, and find hope. I challenge everyone here to inspire by example. To fight the battle, no matter the cost. Because the world is sick. It’s spinning out of control. But we can help. With our help it can heal. With our love, with our compassion, and with our strength, we can heal it. Let’s put aside our differences. Let’s embrace our common goals. Let’s do it for our children. Let’s show them all exactly what we’re capable of.
