Tight Pants
In accord with heightened security alerts (Orange!) on the subway system in NYC, there has been a larger and extremely more overt presence of armed guards at each subway station for the past several weeks. However, I have never seen them do anything except sit around, chatting, and occassionally swivelling their heads to check out a girl's butt in form-fitting pants. I've not once seen them attentive to a passing member of the same sex. Which leads one to wonder, what do the female police/national guardspeople do. I'm guessing they just sit around and chat. Male business fashion tends to leave suit jackets or coats that obscure the posterior.
More importantly, I think these people may be doing their jobs to the best of their ability. The threat of force, I'm guessing, means little to someone willing to blow themself up. You point a gun at them, they blow up a bomb on you. Is there presence simply supposed to deter people who are not steadfast in their desire to ignite their explosives?
Yes, this may be a little late, but I heard two cops chatting about attractive passerbys this morning at the Flatbush Avenue stop and was stunned that in the 5 minutes I was within earshot, I heard nothing but them picking girls out of the crowd. We should just put some construction workers down there.
Anyway, this entry was kind of an excuse to put up this article from Slate Magazine today about a recent change in the administration's stance on the War in Iraq. I thought it was pretty nifty.
More importantly, I think these people may be doing their jobs to the best of their ability. The threat of force, I'm guessing, means little to someone willing to blow themself up. You point a gun at them, they blow up a bomb on you. Is there presence simply supposed to deter people who are not steadfast in their desire to ignite their explosives?
Yes, this may be a little late, but I heard two cops chatting about attractive passerbys this morning at the Flatbush Avenue stop and was stunned that in the 5 minutes I was within earshot, I heard nothing but them picking girls out of the crowd. We should just put some construction workers down there.
Anyway, this entry was kind of an excuse to put up this article from Slate Magazine today about a recent change in the administration's stance on the War in Iraq. I thought it was pretty nifty.
posted by Jamson at 9:00 AM
2 Comments:
You make a complaint that one often hears about police, especially in the face of terrorist acts. Maybe it's true that construction workers would be better, or if the cops we more badass, it would be more effective.
But suicide bombers are usually not out just to kill themselves. They're out to kill as many people as possible. In fact, this is imperatvie, given the relatively few chances they get to do so. If you look at something like Sept. 11, it initially looks like it was easy, and that anyone could pull it off even today. Those attacks, however, took massive amounts of training and money to carry out. They were impeccably coordinated, timed, and "staffed" (?).
What I'm trying to say is that if there are cops at a station, regardless of what they are doing, they will deter a suicide bomber because there is an increase in the risk involved. They'd be better off turning around, walking 6 blocks and entering the system from an unpoliced station. This is similar to what the 9-11 hijackers did in terms of flying in to Boston from Maine.
Were a bomber to be discovered by the police, then they would have saved many lives over the bomber making it down to the platform or a busier stop. I will give you that it is mainly supposed to be a showy deterrant, and it's not a very good one at that. I worked several subway stations during the Bloomberg campaign with bag search tables set up, and observed precisely the same behavior among male officers.
Point well taken. If you've got one life to give to Allah, you are probably going to make sure that you don't mess up your whole sacrifice.
Man, is it slow at work today.
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