CHARISMATIC MEGAFAUNA |
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By Quiconque |
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2004-09-02Life in a Police StateI wanted to write about my first day teaching, but this entry, like so many of my friends� recent entries, is about anger. Look at the picture on the left of this page. I am an angry person in general, but recent events have me fuming, and I don�t have the luxury of a large bamboo stick. For those of you who don�t know, my city has been invaded by a certain political party for which I have no affection or esteem. This angers me. As New Yorkers, we are very used to local interests and needs taking a backseat to those of dignitaries, celebrities, and corporations. Disney and MTV routinely take over our public parks; midtown traffic is rerouted when UN events spill outside its compound; press conferences, celebrity restaurant openings, movie premieres, and product launchings all serve to cordon off the city into zones of privilege. Common people, local people, are blocked from easy access to work, home, and leisure by this imaginary velvet rope. This is the price we pay for living in a Global City. Would that it were a velvet rope! Most of the time it�s a blue police barricade and the police are as thuggish as bouncers. I never feel safe when I see a bunch of police. It�s like when I�m in a neighborhood with an American flag on every porch. I feel uneasy, uncomfortable. Police don�t mean security to me; they mean danger. This morning my boss saw a group of about 5 policemen jump on a cameraman outside of Grand Central Station. It was in the midst of a small, organized protest. One officer yelled, �Take him down!� and suddenly it was cop-pile on the cameraman. They beat him to the ground. A few days ago, the Ignorant News Network ran a puff piece about the convention. They interviewed a bunch of frosted haired biddies, walking through the deserted (cordoned-off) streets in the west side shopping district. Cookie-cutter conservatives in matching pastel tweed suits, the women declared toothily, "We LOVE New York City!" With a sly smile one of them added, "The more security the merrier!" I hate these women. I hate that I cannot go to my favorite movie theater so that they can shop without the inconvenience of having to see a dirty local on the street. I hate their teeth and their sly smiles and I really wish I could do some kind of violence through the TV to shut them up for good. But it�s not safe to hate in these troubled times. Or rather, it�s not safe to
voice one�s hatred. You can get
arrested for getting within 10 feet of the VP. And now that The Simian Overlord is on town today,
even a whisper of hostility can get you a jackboot on your neck in seconds. I
will have to be content with blasting some Rage Against the Machine and riding
out this anger until election day. |
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