Welcome to 21st century America, a reality that helps private companies reap the financial rewards while acting in the “national interest”. Stephen Salisbury in TomDispatch on the latest example of disaster capitalism on crack:
All told, the federal government… has appropriated… about $635 billion, accounting for inflation, for homeland security-related activities and equipment since the 9/11 attacks. To conclude, though, that “the police” have become increasingly militarized casts too narrow a net.… The truth is that virtually the entire apparatus of government has been mobilized and militarized right down to the university campus.
Perhaps the pepper spray… used… on Occupy demonstrators last November at University of California-Davis wasn’t directly paid for by the federal government. But those who used it work closely with Homeland Security and the FBI “in developing prevention strategies that threaten campus life, property, and environments,” as UC Davis’s Comprehensive Emergency and Continuity Management Plan puts it.
Government budgets at every level now include allocations aimed at fighting an ephemeral “War on Terror” in the United States. A vast surveillance and military buildup has taken place nationwide to conduct a pseudo-war against what can be imagined, not what we actually face. The costs of this effort, started by the Bush administration and promoted faithfully by the Obama administration, have been, and continue to be, virtually incalculable. In the process, public service and the public imagination have been weaponized.
Farewell to Peaceful Private Life
We’re not just talking money eagerly squandered.… That may prove the least of it. More importantly, the fundamental values of American democracy — particularly the right to lead an autonomous private life — have been compromised with grim efficiency. The weaponry and tactics now routinely employed by police are visible evidence of this.…
Yes, it’s true that Montgomery County, Texas, has… purchased… a weapons-capable drone.… (They say they’ll only arm it with tasers, if necessary.) Yes, it’s true that the Tampa police have… beefed the force up… with an eight-ton armored personnel carrier, augmenting two older tanks the department already owns. Yes, the Fargo police are ready with… bomb detection robots, and Chicagoboasts a network… of at least 15,000 interlinked surveillance cameras.…
New York City’s 34,000-member police force is now the ground zero of agrowing outcry… over rampant secret spying on Muslim students and communities up and down the East coast.… It has been a big beneficiary of federal security largess.… Between 2003 and 2010, the city… received… more than $1.1 billion through Homeland Security’s Urban Areas Security Initiative grant program. And that’s only one of the grant programs funneling such money to New York.
The Obama White House itself has… directly funded… part of the New York Police Department’s anti-Muslim surveillance program. Top officials of New York’s finest have, however, repeatedly… refused to disclose… just how much anti-terrorism money it has been spending, citing, of course, security.