I think that we in Minneapolis are following the path feared by the likes of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams as we increase our reliance on surveillance and firearms in daily life.
Franklin: "There is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other."
And John Adams: (the United States) "goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy...she might become dictatress of the world. She would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit."
As uncomfortable as it is to articulate, I see us becoming increasingly corrupt and fascist here in Minneapolis even as our nation colonizes the planet. Surveillance is needed by a society so corrupted and fearful that totalitarian measures served up by corporations are accepted gladly, even though these measures may more easily be abused to monitor and quell dissent.
It is no secret that "free speech zones" are kept away from presidential motorcades now. Banners declaring uncritical support are allowed along the motorcade route, but banners expressing any form of dissent are secluded out of sight in so-called "free speech" zones.
As dissent becomes viewed by our corporate-government elite as more threatening it will be tolerated less as unpatriotic, anti-American, and supportive of "America's enemies." As such dissent is outlawed, surveillance systems such as the one planned for downtown will be provide an important tool to monitor, track, record, and apprehend those who dare to protest or express dissent downtown.
Fascism -- rule by a corporate-government elite -- requires totalitarian laws and police tools, which are always provided under the pretext of protecting the people.
As Minneapolis is one of the bigger cities in the heartland of "the homeland" we see here at home mirror image of empire abroad. Our increasing fear and conformity, increased daily reliance on guns and surveillance.
We also see an increasing reliance on the handouts of huge corporations to shape our city, even as our city government starves and so is made even more vulnerable to the power of large corporations.
I believe the City Council and Mayor should revisit this issue and reject the "gift" of surveillance equipment for downtown Minneapolis. In today's political climate, such equipment will primarily be used to enforce de facto (and soon legislated?) criminalization of dissent.
To paraphrase an old lyric:
We are so afraid of disorder we have turned it into a god
whom we can only placate with guns and state security laws....
and whose church consists of secret courts
and wiretaps and shocks.
whose priests hold smoking guns, and whose sign
is the double cross
(adapted from Bruce Cockburn's "The Gospel of Bondage")
Gary Hoover, King Field
