> Le Monde - January 10, 2004
>
> No to Bio-Political Tattooing
> By Giorgio Agamben Le Monde
>
> The newspapers leave no doubt: from now on whoever wants to go to the
> United States with a visa will be put on file and will have to leave
> their fingerprints when they enter the country.
Those on this list who've never been fingerprinted may find it hard to believe, but the process *is* humiliating. Every potential high school teacher in the state of California is fingerprinted and ID'd at a police station; one set goes to the Department of (In)Justice, another to the FBI. When I got my prints taken, the staffer wore these plastic white gloves, you roll each finger over the plastic plate, and the machine automatically scans for accuracy. And no, the $500 billion Terror War doesn't pay a dime for this -- you have to make out a money order to the state commission for the privilege of having your own Stasi file.
Ever since, I've had this totally visceral antagonism to the sight of the police. Before, they were just part of the landscape; now they genuinely creep me out. Admittedly, this is a realization that every African American and person of color in the US comes to, pretty early in life. Bananamerica becomes more like Mordor every day.
-- DRR