It was offensive from the outset when Rumsfeld’s Defense Department created the “America Supports You Freedom Walk” to exploit 9/11. It added insult to injury when those who wished to participate in the government-sponsored “Freedom Walk” on public property were told they had to endure Pentagon “screening.”
On a fundamental level, it doesn’t make sense that in order to participate in a government-sponsored “Freedom Walk” on public streets past public monuments, from one outdoor public landmark to another, you have to give your name address, phone number, and email address to the Pentagon. I mean, what could they do to stop you from just walking on public property along with those who did register?
Apparently, quite a bit.
Organizers of the Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial Freedom Walk on Sunday are taking extraordinary measures to control participation in the march and concert, with the route fenced off and lined with police and the event closed to anyone who does not register online by 4:30 p.m. today.
The march, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the Pentagon to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and “sterile,” said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.
The U.S. Park Police will have its entire Washington force of several hundred on duty and along the route, on foot, horseback and motorcycles and monitoring from above by helicopter. Officers are prepared to arrest anyone who joins the march or concert without a credential and refuses to leave, said Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford.
This is a national embarrassment. Those who wish to honor 9/11 on the anniversary of the attacks will walk along public streets, lined with fences, with those outside the fences facing arrest. Oh, and there’s this:
One restricted group will be the media, whose members will not be allowed to walk along the march route. Reporters and cameras are restricted to three enclosed areas along the route but are not permitted to walk alongside participants walking from the Pentagon, across the Memorial Bridge to the Mall.
To borrow a phrase, these are the marks of repressive government, which mixes inefficiency with authoritarianism.