BEg2 ch30 paragraph 6

[Mark Kohut]

Some fine, fine observing by that Pynchon guy....I like his seeing how the
Mobile Police Command stuff
become a "permanent part of the cityscape" , a local example of the way the
militarization of America took hold
way beyond the national security need, I would argue.

On Wed, Jun 1, 2022 at 3:02 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> “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.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>