WES PRUDEN: HOMELAND SECURITY? A TITLE RIGHT OUT OF ORWELL
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The sour wind from the left
Bearded terrorists can be terrifying, but there’s nothing more terrifying than a politician, particularly a clean-shaven member of Congress in full hysteria mode. Once a congressional — or gubernatorial — mouth starts flapping, you never know how much wind it can expel.
Rep. Peter King of New York is a Republican member of the House Homeland Security Committee (a title right out of George Orwell’s literary fancy) and the House Intelligence Committee (“intelligence” in the House? Who knew?). He wants everybody put under suspicion, if not arrest. He prescribes more cameras, more dogs, more surveillance, more neighbor-to-neighbor snooping to deal with the terrorists. Even if you don’t see something, say something. Call the cops.
“For instance,” he told MSNBC in the wake of the Boston massacre, “merchants, if they’re selling any components that can be used for a bomb, everywhere from ball bearings to beauty products, they can all make bombs. They should notify police.”
Eyeliner alert!
Merchants and even other shoppers must be on the scout to help police nab anyone buying mascara, lipstick, cold cream, face powder, rouge, body lotion, eau de cologne and perfume. Helena Rubenstein, Max Factor and Cover Girl must be added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List at once.
Mr. King thinks the Boston massacre should lead to the installation of more and more cameras. “Privacy,” he says, “involves being in a private location. Being out in the street, there’s not an expectation of privacy. Anyone can look at you, can see you, can watch what you’re doing. A camera just makes it more sophisticated.”
Good citizenship requires good citizens to keep their window blinds open, to enable the camera to get a good view. When you get up in the middle of the night to visit the facilities, turn on the lights. The camera must get a good look.
Mr. King wants the cops to have “jammers” to disable cell phones, preventing terrorists from detonating “improvised explosive devices” by remote control: “I feel strongly that local police should have access to jammers. I believe they should have more co-operation with the military –- right now there are legal issues, as far as military being involved in this.” Ah, yes. Those pesky “legal issues” always get in the way of hysteria. But the great thing about hysteria is that it blows away impediments like a Constitution.
This is the theory of law enforcement lifted from a comic strip. Fearless Fosdick was the crack detective from Al Capp’s “Li’l Abner” who was assigned to find a can of poisoned pork and beans planted by evil-doers somewhere in the city, and he was dispatched to prevent an innocent shopper from buying the lethal beans. Fearless ranged through the supermarkets of the city, tipping his hat to anyone about to buy a can of beans, and drilling them through the heart with the assurance that “it’s nothing personal, ma’am.” Dozens died, but none by bean poisoning. If the federal cops get enough cameras, dogs, jammers and enough neighbors snooping on their neighbors, no one has to worry about poisoned beans or pressure cookers, ball bearings, nails, jars of mascara or cold cream.
Government by hysteria -– and insult -– is the order of the day. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York says the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass “a watered-down, minimal gun safety bill is simply unacceptable.” Unacceptable? What could that mean? Like the rest of us, he has to accept decisions by Congress, unless he has something sinister in mind. Vice President Joe Biden was moved to tears, whether by emotion or regret that he was not packing his shotgun, it is hard to say. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City says “the only silver lining is that we now know who refuses to stand with [us]. . . .” Sen. Dianne Feinstein demands that senators “show some guts” and vote the way she wants them to vote. “If anybody cares, vote at least to prospectively ban the manufacture, the sale, the importation of military-style assault weapons.” It does not occur to her that some of the senators, especially the Democrats who joined the Republicans, have indeed been showing “some guts,” and voted as their constituents want them to vote. Not everybody subscribes to “San Francisco values.”
President Obama, who talks a lot about civility, has the responsibility for calming his mob. Hysteria is no way to confront a crisis. People who disagree with the likes of Messrs Cuomo, Biden, Bloomberg, Mrs. Feinstein and their ilk may be just as intelligent, just as reasonable and just as honorable as they are. Maybe even more so.
Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times
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