The current expansion of police power in the United States began when Lenin ruled Russia, and hit the second half of the chess board during the height of the Cold War. It is not that Americans somehow forgot about the tyrannies of the 20th century; rather, the people who were most harmed by this trend have historically been the underrepresented and oppressed minorities. It was before World War I that American police began to claim that they needed higher-caliber sidearms to deal with black men who used cocaine. The Special Weapons Assault Team (later renamed Special Weapons And Tactics, to sound less militaristic) was envisioned in 1967 and has since become a standard feature of even rural police forces. The Controlled Substances Act was passed in 1970, which among other things gives the Attorney General the power to declare law without democratic action.

The FBI's current push is not some kind of new thing, nor is it somehow unique to this current generation. This is part of a decades-long trend, one that has been monotonically accelerating since its very beginning.