dc's very own gulags!

Remember when I compared DC's gnarliest architecture to that of the former Soviet Union? Well, that was then. This is now:

DC police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that DC officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence.

That sentence (from a June 4 Examiner article, which I found via Beyond DC) blows my previous comparison out of the proverbial water vodka. DC really is f*cking soviet! Now, in a rare full disclosure moment, I'll reveal that I'm not too keen on U.S. history, but I am aware of a little document called THE CONSTITUTION. And not to go all Ron Paul on you, but doesn't it seem a tad UNCONSTITUTIONAL to cordon off selected neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and control who comes in and out of public space?

"I’m not worried about the constitutionality of it," said DC's interim Attorney General Peter Nickles. "This is a very targeted program that has been used in other cities."

Yeah. Other cities like Leningrad, Stalingrad and East Berlin. And while DC city officials have clearly lost their minds, some area citizens, such as Shelley Broderick, president of the DC-area American Civil Liberties Union and dean of the University of the District of Columbia's law school, are with me on my sensible analogy:

"I think they tried this in Russia and it failed," said Broderick.

Yeah. It did. Miserably. Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, shame on you. Or is it, live in a police state once, shame on me; live in a police state twice, shame on DC?