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Fortress DC: ‘Your Papers, Please’
I have lived and worked in the DC metro area for more than 50 years. I have seen or joined numerous large demonstrations prompted by civil rights, the Vietnam War, abortion, and/or the Tea Party. I recall the 1968 riots after the assassination of MLK and saw the aftermath of the more recent Floyd rioting.
With the exception of the 1968 Riots, I have never seen such a comprehensive response by authorities as is currently underway in anticipation of the Biden inauguration. Never this far in advance for anything. Downtown streets are closed and every Metro train station within a 100-block area is to be closed a full week in advance of the event. Downtown is almost empty and (mostly unmarked) cars with flashing lights are blocking the single lane entrance to the affected roads each with large concrete barriers. There are now actually more police on the street on K Street than civilian pedestrians.
Yesterday, our office needed a service call for the A/C in the computer server room. (We are aberrant–we almost never close and we show up despite weather, riots, fascism, and/or pandemics and the existence of Zoom and Teams.) To arrange that visit, we needed to email a service request in writing so the company could print it out to be shown to the police to prove the tech has a valid reason for entering the cordoned zone. His truck was still banned so he had to park outside the zone and come on foot carrying tools and testing equipment. He was permitted to do that even though he fit the new dangerous profile: a working-class white guy in work boots and jeans–with tools.
The endless government COVID closure and the death of numerous downtown businesses killed off by lockdowns and looters have reduced commuter traffic to a trickle. But yesterday, there was a backup for Virginians crossing Key Bridge and expecting to use the Whitehurst Freeway and K Street to get downtown. They were instead routed northward in a bizarre detour around Washington Circle.
Street barriers at 15th and K behind Gen. McPherson.
Huge white concrete barriers are everywhere. And where there are openings just wide enough for one vehicle, there are police stationed. Pedestrians are now discouraged from going past the VA towards Lafayette Square and the White House from the north.
In April 1968 when I a teenager, my father decided to take me with him to the DC Courthouse at night as the MLK riots were subsiding and the entire DC bar had been mobilized to handle arraignments of the thousands arrested. It was to be a teaching moment in a historical event. My father was a nonstop teacher.
At the place where Pennsylvania Avenue merges into M Street, there were huge X-shaped barriers and barbed wire, military vehicles, and blindingly bright floodlights. We slowly approached the center of the checkpoint with guns pointed at us. An officer approached the vehicle to ask why we were in violation of the curfew. It felt like a movie scene entering or leaving some sector in Berlin in 1970. That event is the only thing I can recall that is comparable in scale and scope to what is being set up now.
The view of “Black Lives Matter Plaza (the 800 and 900 blocks of 16th Street) from K street. This street section is now permanently closed to traffic. The hotel and offices in that 2-block stretch must be thrilled to be part of the statement.
The security measures have been disconcerting and enhance existing fear. DC and the surrounding counties are bluer than most places other than Boston or Portland and the over-the-top pre-emptive measures by police have enhanced the widely held latent fears that hordes of mythological toothless gun owners are coming to restore their deposed führer. The prevailing belief appears to be that the cops would not be doing this if there was not some known massive threat. The MAGA trogs must be even more dangerous than was previously thought. It is a self-reinforcing idea fomented by actual morons in response to a threat posed by largely imaginary morons.
Once Biden is in the White House, why would the threat recede and the measures lessened? The imagined hordes are still out there and even harder to detect for being imaginary. Sheer inertia in government is such that it will not readily restore the freedoms we began to sacrifice in order to fight the War on Terror and then even lost even more to fight COVID.
Proof of loyalties untainted by inciteful (conservative) online activity, proof of lawful purpose, and proof of vaccinations just to get across town sounds like something in a Communist state 50 years ago but it appears to be headed our way. The weird guy in the Viking horns and painted face who sat in Pelosi’s chair is now a kind of Emmanuel Goldstein. And now, our betters will soon tell us that vigilance and loyalty to suppress the anti-party must be absolute.
Published in General
But here’s the interesting part to me. We know Trump and I don’t think what he did in this really surprises anyone. He is paying a price for his typical behavior. You notice that his actions continue to cause his opponents (should I say enemies) and weak-hearted supporters (give me a better term for those Republicans who seek personal advantage above all) to reveal themselves.
Speaking for myself, I’m not sure about that. I figured he would stop mouthing off about the election after the legal challenges petered out, and focus on positioning himself for an influential post presidency. That would have been the smart thing to do. And I thought that before the riots, so we’re not talking about 20/20 hindsight.
You know, during the last month of the 2016 campaign, he did put a lid on it, and it contributed to his victory. If he was capable of doing that in 2016, why couldn’t he do it in 2020?
So in that sense, I underestimated him.
@alsparks
The US Capital Building employs a vast number of people. In fact 2,200 people serve as police for that building.
Even NBC News hardly a news entity that is out to protect Trump’s reputation, complained that on Jan 6th, there were not enough police deployed, nor were they prepared for any serious problems.
But the really big news is coming out: This entire militant activity, that cost 5 people their lives, seems to have been pre-planned by the political opposition to Trump, before Trump ever turned on his microphone that day. If there continue to be reports on this, from such long time reporters as John Solomon, and if the media lets it out, there will be hell to pay for those involved.
Meanwhile, in a nation where suicides in the restaurant and hospitality field continue to out pace COVID deaths, our beloved Congress critters tackled another important matter: bannin g Trump from entering the US Capital ever again:
Oh no, Biden actually got ONE MILLION BILLION TRILLION VOTES!!
We lived in Southern Maryland for ten years, (1996-2006) and at least once a month we’d go up to D.C. to eat out, to go to a play, to entertain visiting relatives, etc. etc. It was a totally awesome city! I taught fourth grade for the entire ten years we lived there and we went on field trips every year to the Smithsonian Museums because all of those places on the Mall are free! We only had to pay for the bus. Only two summers ago, I took my daughter and her three children there for a week of visiting and sight-seeing–a planned version of “Grandma Camp” which we usually hold at our home here in Las Vegas. I LOVE the nation’s capital! It’s filled with history and ceremony.
I feel devastated that this glorious symbol of our Republic is being wrecked by idiots! I know it changed a lot after 9/11. I was still living back East when that occurred. But this new crap is all being done by Americans! What is going on? Why can’t people get a grip!? Was the disruption of Trump’s election really such a blow to those who had expected Her Royal Highness Hillary to take over? It seems like the Bureaucracy has never recovered from that election.
Is there something else going on that I’m too naïve to understand? I cannot believe that Donald Trump is such a heinous human being that his total destruction is worth this cost.
It has nothing to do with what quality of person he is, or isn’t. It’s all about their power.
What you describe most closely resembles the East Berlin I saw in 1963.
Communism. I was in the military at that time. The two big issues were fighting Communism and the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King. Oh, we were still a religious people and taught actual history in our education system. Lyndon Johnson and Mayor Daley were our experts on voter fraud at that time, a more limited operation than now.
For those who need reminding, Democrats are liars and scoundrels who cheered the last storming of an American capitol.
I’m going to take the contrary view here. I agree this is probably an overreaction but what if *you* were in charge of securing the inauguration after rioters broke into the Capitol? The Capitol Police have already taken a lot of heat for what happened on the 6th and I’m sure behind the scenes jobs and reputations are on the line. Add to that we have no way of knowing what intelligence they have at the moment. If Joe Biden so much as stubs his toe (which is actually probably pretty likely…I’m amazed he can still walk) then there will be media field day. I would even go so far as to say if you are a Trump supporter you should be thankful for this response. Another day like the 6th and wearing a MAGA hat would likely be a felony offence….back away from your keyboard everyone who is going to make the point that it will be/already is anyway.
The aim of the new established order is to discourage not only Inaugural Day protest, but all right wing protest in the capital now and in the future. I am a Washingtonian who until recently felt that American nationalism and American sovereignty had a pulse in the nation’s capital.
I understand that our demographics are a bit different than China’s, but no one can convince me that the regime the Tianamen square protesters gathered to defy is more corrupt and evil than that which we have here, today.
If true conservatives do not soon gather in huge numbers somewhere on American soil (DC or NY) to protest the demise of free and fair elections and/or express their “humble appreciation” toward the U.N., we will be looked upon by freedom loving people everywhere as a nation of cowards.
Just so I understand, exactly what are you saying is less corrupt/evil then China’s regime?
DC has more experience with large demonstrations than any other city. This is less about crowd control than an attempt to deny any assembly at all. The perimeter being established is enormous, unprecedented and nuts. The likely government targets are known and already defensible.
Unlike the previous urban disturbances over the last few years across the US and in DC where the policy was to accommodate, contain and otherwise tolerate crowds that were expected to be destructive, this policy is qualitatively different. Closing public transportation a week in advance to a 100 block area? Nuts.
@floppydisk90 Your question doesn’t make sense. The quoted statement says Washington today is more corrupt the the Chinese in the 1980’s.
Honest question: do you not see a qualitative difference between what happened on the 6th and your “run-of-the-mill” demonstration? They broke into the Capitol building during a session of Congress. That’s a first. I’m not surprised it’s rattled the DC establishment. I’m willing to give this the benefit of the doubt.
I just want to be crystal clear that Steven is comparing the current government of the US, which as of today is still a representative democracy, to a Communist dictatorship.
Trump demanded loyalty from his subjects which he never gave in return, cf. Mike Pence.
Has anyone really proven yet that Trump turned on any “subject” before they turned on him?
I’ve heard that asserted, several times, but so far it doesn’t actually seem to be true.
While rioters were in the Capitol building calling for Pence’s head, Trump tweeted “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution…”
Facts? This is an emergency! There is no time for facts.
It is? Well, in a way you’re right. It represents the ruling class reasonably well.
Trump owes his VP a public apology for that, preferably after the hysteria dies down rather than in response to the howling mob. In the meantime I wish President Trump many more impeachments in the future. If he’s not being impeached, he isn’t doing it right.