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CounterPunch
October
15, 2002
Safe and Sorry:
Notes on DC Snipers
by ANTHONY GANCARSKI
I-95 through the DC area is a route with attendant
delays even on the best of afternoons. Yet on the afternoon of
Friday, October 11, the culmination of a week of what are being
called sniper attacks at gas stations and other repositories
of the public trust, I-95 was a route on which the travelers
are beset by more than the sclerosis of afternoon traffic. These
travelers were beset by state terror in one of the purer senses
of the term, as "pro-active" law enforcement search
"every white van within 100 miles", as reported by
Cliff Van Zandt on MSNBC. Adding to the uncertainty was [and
to hear certain newscasters, is] the prospect of a roadway full
of folks in stalled-out cars, idled beyond the limits of their
gas tanks. After all, who would risk pumping gas when a fill-up
earns you a bullet to the head in addition to the free carwash?
Chris Jansing reported with approval
that "the schools are under lockdown" because of this
national menace, this extra bullet or two a day. Her broadcast
colleague in the Guardian Angel getup told us that we're "better
off safe than sorry" even as he expressed concern over how
the recent spike in the DC area's murder rate might affect turnout
at the Christian Coalition event Saturday. All these serious
news people, talking with such concern about this spate of murders
in DC of all places. As if they had never spent time in Southeast
DC, or had never seen two winos beating all hell out of each
other on a Metro train for no apparent reason, as neither of
them looked to have anything left worth protecting.
Better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure
that's what Tom Daschle, who imagines that he'll be appointed
President one day, was thinking when he predictably capitulated
and lent his support to our Hessians cakewalking through Baghdad
to serve and protect the interests of the world's oil companies.
"Both parties should speak with one voice" on critical
issues like this war on Iraq, apparently somehow still in doubt
even as US forces bomb the Basra airport more often than I water
my plants.
"The threat posed to us could be
tantamount to an attack," Daschle said in an interview with
Pat Buchanan and Bill Press, and who are we to doubt the Senate
Majority Leader? After all, the polls are with the Government's
official position, as has been so often the case since the 1991
ground attack on Iraq. The polls are with them, even as Ari Fleischer
teases us with visions of a nice, clean assassination attempt
on Saddam. And these visions have their allure, just as phrases
like "could be tantamount" have their utility for those
too craven to stand in the way of this next set of massacres.
If we in fact are involved in a "War
on Terror", the recent spate of shootings could be interpreted
as abject failure if it weren't so clear that the sniper attacks
are being used, like so many "high-profile crimes"
this summer, as grist for the propaganda mill. The case could
not be made directly for Amber Alerts or for surveillance technology
as part and parcel of the public square. Cases for tyranny and
the instruments thereof have to be made on the slant, as they
have been at least since the days of Lincoln; clearly, the Bush
people know that as well as anyone could, and are acting accordingly.
Anthony Gancarski, a Spokane, WA freelance writer, lived in Washington,
DC while studying and teaching at American University. He welcomes
comments at Anthony.Gancarski@attbi.com.
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October 9,
2002
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