BEg2 ch30 paragraph 6

[Michael Bailey]

“Beliefs like this take hold of the civic imagination. Corner newsagents
are raided and Islamic-looking suspects hauled away by the busload. Sizable
Mobile Police Command Centers appear at various flashpoints, especially
over on the East Side, wherever, for example, a high-income synagogue and
some Arab embassy happen to occupy the same block, and eventually these
installations grow not so mobile, becoming with time a permanent part of
the cityscape, all but welded to the pavement. Likewise, ships with no
visible flags, pretending to be cargo vessels, though with more antennas on
them than booms, appear out in the Hudson, drop the hook, and become,
effectively, private islands belonging to unnamed security agencies and
surrounded by stay-away zones. Roadblocks keep appearing and disappearing
along the avenues leading to and away from the major bridges and tunnels.
Young Guardsfolk in clean new camo fatigues and carrying weapons and
ammunition clips are patrolling Penn Station and Grand Central and the Port
of Authority. Public holidays and anniversaries become occasions for
anxiety.”


Some militarization occurring, and while the tone isn’t evincing or
recommending a “thrilled about it” attitude, it doesn’t seem to me to be
either surprised or greatly disapproving - except of the bus loads of
racially profiled arrestees, and I’m reading that into it mostly, based on
the previous paragraph and the reference to “civic imagination.”

A Mobile Command Center near a tense locality doesn’t seem like a terrible
idea, does it?

The last sentence refers back to that “civic imagination” vividly.