The report of the imminent terrorist WMD attack on U.S. soil by 2013 recommends stationing at least 15,000 trained military troops, prepared for quick response, inside the country by 2011 [1], in addition to the National Guard and local law enforcement. The imminent, of course, gives rise to the inevitable: legitimate questions and concerns about violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which precludes the federal government from using the military for domestic purposes.
But I’d be much more inclined to get in a tizzy about the potential suspension of the Posse Comitatus if this story didn’t come on the heels of Black Friday, during which those of us who holed up at home, still grooving on the turkey, were treated to the news of a deadly gunfight at a Toys ‘R’ Us in California [2] and an equally deadly stampede at a Wal-Mart on Long Island [3] that ripped the doors off their hinges and trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker untrained in crowd control and unprepared for quick response. (I’ll leave the Mumbai situation out of this, since it’s not a U.S. soil issue.)
If this is how people behave when low-priced goods are at stake, what are the chances they will behave in an orderly fashion and cooperate with the authorities — whose competence in these matters is justifiably suspect — to contain and control the damages when the imminent and inevitable panic strikes?
Somehow, while the memories of the Wal-Mart pileup are still fresh, the long-term dangers of potential abuse of the Posse Comitatus loom less threatening than they should.
Just sayin’…
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Latest posts by Olga Gardner Galvin (Posts [7])
- Global warming and other histrionics of the season [8] - December 24, 2009
- Roman Polanski: The curious case of a too-short blanket [9] - October 2, 2009
- The frilly little iron curtains: isolationism is cute when it’s local [10] - August 7, 2009
- Proposition Zero-sum [11] - May 29, 2009
- Life imitates The Alphabet Challenge [12] - April 1, 2009