Getting busted by Homeland Security
Yesterday I was walking with a friend through Quincy Market in Boston. We noticed a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk and almost immediately an oversized police SUV pulled up to arrest him.
Only it wasn’t the police: it was the feds. Stenciled on the SUV were the words “Department of Homeland Security.” Out stepped an enormous mesomorph––almost certainly on steroids––wearing a black uniform and sun-glasses. I watched him contemplate the homeless man as he slept, donning rubber gloves before waking him to arrest him.
On one level, this is a simple process of rationalization: Homeland Security has to protect “terrorist targets” and since the downtown Boston has historic value, it could conceivably be a terrorist target. (Just like all those roller rinks in the mid-west). But of course there are no terrorists and Homeland Security has to do something, so they begin acting as regular police. But it is still incredibly ironic that a stone’s throw from Paul Revere’s house there are federal officers patrolling the streets and arresting American citizens. My generation is the first in American history to see people being arrested by this so-called, “Department of Homeland Security.”
What would happen if this guy arrested me–say for jay-walking? Would I be put on some terror watch list? Maybe he would put my name in his computer and declare, “Oh, you’re anonymousrex. According to the MIAC report, you’re part of a terrorist hate-group.” Certainly if there were ever a real or imaginary crisis in Boston, this would be the guy making sure I evacuate my home to go to a FEMA camp.
Also near Quincy Market is a holocaust memorial with a famous quotation attributed to Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoller. To paraphrase that quotation, “First they came for the homeless guy and I didn’t speak up––because I wasn’t a homeless guy. . . . Then they came for me.”
