|
1/1/2000 Report From Giuliani’s Police State
By Robert Lederman
Now that the confetti has settled and hordes of imaginary terrorists have been
prevented from carrying out their non-existent plans we can breath a collective
sigh of relief on the doorstep of the new millennium. The end of the world didn’t
happen as predicted. Or did it?
Contrary to the Giuliani administration’s hype, what we witnessed in Times
Square was nothing new and certainly not good news. The Roman and Chinese emperors,
the Czars, European monarchs, the Catholic Church, Hitler and Stalin among others
all had similarly efficient, gigantic and repressive police state celebrations.
Under those systems public order and security were preserved against real and
far more dangerous foes than were faced by Mayor Disneyani and the Times Square
Business Improvement District.
To celebrate a new millennium, two million cheering tourists were subjected
to martial law and forcible conformity. Ironically, the corporate interests
sponsoring this bogus celebration of international diversity are among the very
culprits destroying rainforests, poisoning the environment and eliminating indigenous
cultures throughout the world.
The U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights was created as an antidote to systems
of repressive state order. Arbitrary searches, restrictions on freedom of movement
and speech, arrests based on nothing more than the suspicion of being an associate
of a potential enemy of the state, imprisonment without charges being filed;
these features of Giuliani’s millennium party aptly code-named Project Archangel
are the very excesses that necessitated the American Revolution.
Under the guise of public safety and quality of life Giuliani and his corporate
bosses are successfully retrogressing society to a dark age of repression and
fear. Their accomplishment is both a real and a perceptual one. Using advertising
and propaganda techniques perfected by Hitler and other 20th century despots
and masterfully exploiting and manipulating the media he pretends to despise,
Giuliani is convincing the freest people in the history of the world to voluntarily
give up their liberty while cheering him on as their savior.
Of course, it’s easy to make the counter argument that the massive security
precautions in Times Square were necessary. As part of their legitimate duties
the Mayor and the police are required to protect the public and keep order.
No one can deny that a party with two million guests necessitates extraordinary
precautions. Viewed in isolation, Project Archangel might seem no more drastic
than necessary. Unfortunately, these were not merely security precautions for
an extraordinary one-time event but the continuation of policies the Mayor has
promoted every day of his entire time in public office and eventually hopes
to spread throughout the United States and the world.
If the slightest unconfirmed threat of terrorism is all that’s needed to suspend
our guaranteed freedoms then those freedoms no longer exist. The Mayor, Police
Commissioner Safir and Office of Emergency Management Director, Jerome Hauer
repeatedly admitted there was no credible threat of terrorists. The FBI said
exactly the same thing. If all that’s needed to justify towing cars, indiscriminately
searching and interrogating people and forcing two million pedestrians to submit
to virtual police custody inside steel pens, what can we expect if there’s ever
a real threat of terrorism or civil disorder?
Perhaps the tourists Mayor Giuliani admitted made up the adoring throngs at
his party didn’t mind the inconvenience of being unable to freely move about,
leave their police pens for 24 hours at a time or of being forced to urinate
in their New Year’s party hats and Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets. Perhaps they
didn’t mind submitting to body searches, surveillance cameras and metal detectors
on a public street.
However, these are not the residents, voters or citizens of New York City.
What they like or are willing to submit to should have no bearing on the public
policy decisions of our elected and appointed officials, who are our employees.
This is a city in America not a Disney theme park on private property where
visitors must submit to arbitrary and often bizarre corporate rules. A democratically
elected City Council not the Times Square Business Improvement District still
makes the laws of this City.
Many people believe that what they do on New Year’s Eve and who they share
the experience with sets the tone for the year ahead. If there’s anything to
that idea we can expect a year of frozen zones and being held in police custody
while we are searched, interrogated and sprayed with insecticides.
But don’t worry, Mayor Giuliani and his corporate bosses intend to keep us
entertained throughout the ordeal. We’ll see lots of exciting ads while held
in our pens and some of us will even receive prizes, balloons and promotional
give-aways.
You’ve got to hand it to Mayor Giuliani. He’s made himself the Puff Daddy of
the New World Order Police State.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Lederman is an artist, a regular columnist for both the
Grenwich Village Gazette [See: http://www.gvny.com/
] and
Street News, and is the author of hundreds of published essays
concerning Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. His essays and letters have
appeared in the NY Times, NY Post, Daily News, Newsday,
Brooklyn Bridge, Park Slope Courier, The Daily Challenge,
Amsterdam News, Sandbox, Penthouse, Our Town, NY Press
and are available on hundreds of websites around the world.
Lederman has been falsely arrested 40 times to date for his
anti-Giuliani activities and has never been convicted of any of the
charges. He is best known for creating hundreds of paintings of
Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator.
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics)
ARTISTpres@aol.com (718) 743-3722
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Also see: http://www.levymultimedia.com/news.htm
for Lederman’s essays on Malathion and the spraying of
insecticides on NYC [scroll down the menu to the items
highlighted in blue].
|
