Why is a known terrorist target a more likely place to find a terrorist than an unknown terrorist target?
Why is a person who's wearing something that looks like it might be a bomb more likely to be wearing a bomb than someone who isn't wearing anything that looks like it might be a bomb?
Stopping someone for wearing a PCB in the place where a terrorist attack happened once before is security theatre: anyone who thinks it's a good way to track down terrorists is deeply deluded; the only purpose is to make the public think you're tracking down terrorists.
That's just lazy.
They charged her with possessing a hoax device. Given that it seems plain her intention was not for anyone to think she had a bomb, and she didn't have a bomb, and no competent security professional would have thought she had a bomb, that doesn't seem to be reasonable grounds for arrest.
If that's an error on the part of individual officers, all well and good; if the system encourages (as I fear it does) the arresting of people without good evidence they've committed a crime, that's heading towards totalitarianism.
(Having said all that, the woman was silly to do what she did while Dubya was still in office.)
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Date: 2007-09-24 05:52 pm (UTC)Why is a person who's wearing something that looks like it might be a bomb more likely to be wearing a bomb than someone who isn't wearing anything that looks like it might be a bomb?
Stopping someone for wearing a PCB in the place where a terrorist attack happened once before is security theatre: anyone who thinks it's a good way to track down terrorists is deeply deluded; the only purpose is to make the public think you're tracking down terrorists.
That's just lazy.
They charged her with possessing a hoax device. Given that it seems plain her intention was not for anyone to think she had a bomb, and she didn't have a bomb, and no competent security professional would have thought she had a bomb, that doesn't seem to be reasonable grounds for arrest.
If that's an error on the part of individual officers, all well and good; if the system encourages (as I fear it does) the arresting of people without good evidence they've committed a crime, that's heading towards totalitarianism.
(Having said all that, the woman was silly to do what she did while Dubya was still in office.)