The fence that was constructed following the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol (inset) was briefly reinstalled earlier than a Sept. 18 protest full with cops impersonating Star Wars Imperial Troopers -- a nasty search for the best democracy on this planet.
Courtesty of James Bovard; Getty Photos (inset)
Spooked by the specter of anti-Biden trucker convoys heading to Washington, excessive fences will reportedly return across the US Capitol within the coming days. When President Biden offers his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, he may have no fears of listening to any caterwauling from common Individuals who're being impoverished and injected because of his insurance policies. Tons of of Nationwide Guard troops will even be deployed on the streets of Washington, maybe lastly vanquishing the native epidemic of double-parking and jaywalking.
Any fence that's erected across the Capitol will probably be designed to guard sanctity, not security. After the conflict between protestors and police on Jan. 6 final yr, Joe Biden claimed the Capitol constructing was a “sacred place,” whereas Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to as it “the temple of democracy.” Members of Congress apparently really feel entitled to impunity from protests no matter what number of legal guidelines they move trampling the Structure.
The fence that went up after Jan. 6 was ultimately pared again and eliminated over the summer time, after which briefly restored for the “Justice for J6” rally on Sept. 18 earlier than being dismantled as soon as extra. It shouldn't be erected once more.
The Nationwide Guard deployment and fencing off the Capitol symbolizes the demonization of dissent that turned turbo-charged since early final yr, when the fence first went up and tens of hundreds of Nationwide Guard troops took over Washington. Some members of Congress championed maintaining the fence completely, turning Capitol Hill into the equal of a supermax jail. Speaker Pelosi mentioned every single day on Capitol Hill ought to be a “nationwide safety occasion” — thereby supposedly denying Individuals’ entry to Congress in perpetuity.
However there was pushback even from staunch Biden supporters. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), some of the liberal members of Congress, complained final yr that the fencing “makes america appear to be a totalitarian regime making an attempt to maintain its personal folks out.” Even the American Civil Liberties Union acknowledges that Congress hiding behind a fence initiatives “the type of message that heads of autocratic regimes ship by cloistering themselves away from their populaces in armored fortresses.”
These days, any menace of “home extremism” can apparently justify the preemptive destruction of freedom of speech. Final yr, on Inauguration Day, solely two mini-protests with 100 or fewer members every had been allowed at spots removed from the Capitol.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser justified the crackdown: “We've got a particular duty: that there's a peaceable transition of energy in our nation.” After 4 years of infinite howling that Trump was actually Hitler, Biden took energy with a stage of suppression of dissent and a show of navy power that resembled an old-time Kremlin Could Day Parade greater than a conventional American inauguration. As a substitute of a large throng of residents watching the swearing in, solely a smattering of Washington elites had been permitted on the ceremony. In lieu of a reside viewers, Biden spoke that day to 190,000 flags surrounded by daunting fences.
Final yr, Pelosi stored the fence and the Nationwide Guard lengthy after any viable menace existed to the Capitol. Maybe the menacing trappings had been designed to assist Biden show that he wanted a new home terrorism regulation to stop Trump supporters from conquering DC. Will a resurrected fence spur Biden to attraction to Congress for a brand new regulation repressing his political opposition?
If Congress can fence out the American folks any time there's a rumor of a pending protest, will faculty boards comply with swimsuit and erect barbed wire round buildings previous to conferences? That will burnish the Biden-FBI effort to deal with mother and father’ harsh complaints in opposition to faculty board members as terrorist threats.
Possibly members of Congress can get a detachment of Capitol Police with bayonets and a roll of barbed wire to escort them to their house districts and hold constituents at a secure distance throughout public conferences. The Capitol Police already introduced plans to arrange “department workplaces” in California and Florida, and their operations far from DC will probably be secret — because of their exemption from the Freedom of Info Act that applies to different federal regulation enforcement companies.
Tolerating the banishment of protestors from Capitol Hill is particularly unwise after the harrowing instance of Canada. After offended truckers converged on Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau determined that honking horns was the authorized equal of hijacking airplanes and declared martial regulation. The Washington Put up portrayed the next police crackdown as “largely restrained,” though police used pepper spray, stun grenades and “different anti-riot weapons” on peaceable protestors.
Movies from intrepid reporters confirmed police horses plowing into crowds and knocking folks down, police brutally beating and kneeing a downed protestor, and cops threatening to arrest a woman from Alberta who merely sought to get a cup of espresso. Trudeau’s lackeys have warned that the federal government will hound and financially cripple or destroy anybody concerned within the protest.
If it occurs in Canada, it may occur right here — particularly since a lot of the American media despises anti-Biden protestors. A ballot discovered that 65% of possible Democratic voters authorized of Trudeau’s brutal crushing of the trucker protest. This epitomizes how insurance policies that had been thought-about authoritarian previous to Biden’s election at the moment are welcomed by many citizens who feared that Trump was hiding below their mattress.
Members of Congress could also be comforted by a excessive fence that retains offended Individuals removed from their cherished turf. However they need to bear in mind what heavyweight champion Joe Louis mentioned earlier than preventing a fleet challenger: “He can run however he can’t disguise.” Congress can duck protests on Monday however loads of members will probably be knocked out on Nov. 8, the midterm Election Day.
James Bovard is the writer of 10 books and a member of the USA At present Board of Contributors.
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