Quick Comment: Occupied DC

The dispatching of federal agents to patrol the nightlife areas of Washington, DC is a clear sign of authoritarianism. This is not a response to a riot or an insurrection; it is a deliberate occupation of social space, an assertion of federal dominance over the social act of gathering for a drink.

The stated purpose is irrelevant, it is a blatant show of intimidation. It is a tool to chill public assembly and punish a city that remains a bastion of opposition. The economic impact of it is a feature of the strategy. A thriving, independent civil society is an implicit check on executive power, and so it must be brought to heel. This is how a high-trust society decays into a low-trust one, through the constant, visible threat of state force in spaces where it does not belong.