| [Ben]: | Security Theatre Silliness | Discuss This [0 comments so far] View Comments | Today I had a meeting downtown at the State Government Center. It's been a few years since I've had to go to one of the State Government buildings, but when I went I don't recall having to go through a metal detector.
The security was entirely feelgood crap. I mean no personal offense to the guards and police working the checkpoint. They did a fine job of trying to ensure I didn't have any significant dangerous weapons on my person.
My issue with the security (postulating for the sake of argument that it is worthwhile to secure the state office building against weapons in the first place) is that it depended on people actually going through the single checkpoint. It's possible there are other checkpoints in other buildings, but it is the only one I saw where we were walking around. Since the building was not originally designed by paranoid politicians, there are a number of entrances. These entrances are now locked from the outside, but they are valid exits. That being the case, I could pretty easily enter the building with no weapons and exit the building at another location and let someone else armed to the teeth in.
Beyond that, there are a number of buildings connected via tunnels. I'm not sure if the tunnel systems have their own checkpoints, or if all the buildings attached to the tunnel system have checkpoints, but one would have to be true in order to provide any semblance of security.
Another amusing thing - employees don't have to go through the metal detector. Thankfully government employees never go postal, right?
Anyway, the whole checkpoint effort is nothing more than feelgood crap. It's a waste of money, a waste of resources and a waste of time. I'm not sure what threat the checkpoint is designed to deter, but I found it laughable, somewhat disturbing and a bit offensive. |
| 2008-12-30
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