Thanks to Elissa Silverman’s investigative article (“Bombs Away,” 5/28) on the oversized and ever-expanding role of Lockheed (“Stealth Bomber”) Martin in the District’s affairs, those of us who believe that state and local governments have been actively engaged in a “war on the people” now have some concrete evidence that this is so. Apparently, the military-industrial complex—and its anti-personal technology—has for some time now been deployed in our own neighborhoods. Soon enough, it would seem, they’ll be inviting themselves over for dinner, likely under the pretext of dissuading you from an after-dinner smoke.

Now this same Lockheed (No. 1 in Pentagon money, we are reminded) is busy putting our poorest residents into low-paying filing jobs with no future, to satisfy a mandate to move individuals from the welfare rolls. And now it is looking to distend into surveillance camera ticketing by mail. Obviously this is one hungry behemoth. My only question is, What did we do this time to deserve such service?

Sure, the drug scourge has been used to scare most people into blithely accepting just about anything, civil liberties notwithstanding. OK, so nobody votes, and fewer get involved. Never mind. Are the rest of us going to accept cameras in the trees, tickets in our mailboxes? All courtesy of a faceless Bethesda conglomeration that employs a $300 per hour consultant who cannot make himself available to respond to a reporter’s simple phone inquiries (Frederick Cooke Jr.—whoever you are). Is this the same one-stop service center identified last year by the Washington Post (though not by name) for repeatedly billing individuals ticketed for parking infractions, who are still waiting for their enthusiastically promised refunds? But then since when has accountability been part of the defense contractor’s credo?

Mount Pleasant

via the Internet