The Frankfurter School

A massive military occupation is serious business. Checkpoints ensure that every pedestrian and motorist has state-issued ID proving he belongs there; free movement is severely restricted. Soldiers line the streets, each outfitted with a variety of guns and non-lethal weapons. Soldiers, clumped in groups of five or six are stationed on every corner and several times along each short city block. Massive caravans, buses and prisoner-transport vehicles park along each street, ready to detain and move insurgents at a moments notice. The constant noise of helicopters drown out conversations, three hovering still in formation, while a fourth circles the perimeter, all of them surveilling, watching for the slightest sign of trouble or conflict. Once your eyes are looking up, you might notice the snipers, peppered across the rooftops of nearby buildings, ready to take out anyone on command with a single shot. It’s scary to be on the streets, and although it was a religious holiday where families gathered at sundown and the weather was beautiful, many probably stayed indoors, fearing the mobs that occasionally gathered when the prominent cleric went by. The pliant citizens barely said a word as they followed instructions, standing where they were told, accepting the new labyrinth of gates in their path and allowing officers to enter their homes at all hours to use the toilets on their long shifts

This scene has been difficult for me to imagine when reading news about Iraq and other hot spots in the middle east that live daily with a life like this. But imagination was no longer necessary, as the description above was taken with down my own two eyes during the Pope’s visit to New York City this weekend. Unprecedented security measures were undertaken for this visit, marking a level of cooperation between federal and local security officers and a high-water mark for the NYPD in the “protection” of a single individual.

It is remarkable sensation to have your movement restricted by an armed authority near your home under any circumstances. In the days following 9/11 there were security checkpoints set up for the first time in downtown New York and I learned what it was like to have your movement restricted, though there were far fewer officers and we were in the midst of an emergency. During the 2004 Republican National Convention, New York City publicly demonstrated its brand-new military-trained police operation, closing down streets and detaining protesters (and innocents) with German efficiency. However, this weekend’s action marked a new threshold for using for this impressive security apparatus. There were no specific threats to the Pope, just a demonstration of the most efficient security forces in the Western Hemisphere. For whom this demonstration was put on is not entirely clear — but one lingering impression remains: many of your civil liberties in New York City are extended at the will of the government, and may be rescinded whenever deemed necessary, even in a non-emergency. Today, as suddenly as it was rescinded, freedom has returned the streets of New York, and no evidence remains of this weekend’s occupation. But these New York City streets are forever changed, since what used to be considered your rights on them have now become privileges.
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