In a very real way this constant threat of terror - coming from those who are supposedly going to protect us from it - is itself a form of torture: a traumatic application of the painful, then the controlled and precise reminder of that application - the beefy police sergeant with his sleeves rolled up slapping the rubber hose against his beefy palm, a glimpse of the humming transformer and the electrodes dangling from it.
"If we can't torture, if we aren't allowed to torture, if you won't give us permission to torture - bad things will happen to you."