{"id":87,"date":"2005-07-07T11:00:51","date_gmt":"2005-07-07T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/?p=87"},"modified":"2005-07-07T11:01:49","modified_gmt":"2005-07-07T18:01:49","slug":"london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/2005\/07\/london\/","title":{"rendered":"London"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bombs in Lon\u00addon have proven again that Lon\u00addon\u00aders are resi\u00adli\u00adent, that they have learnt from the WWII<\/span> blitz and the years of IRA<\/span> attacks, how to cope with ter\u00adror that would bring oth\u00ader cit\u00adies to a screech\u00ading halt. And yet, I can\u00ad\u2019t help but worry what the reac\u00adtions will be. Will the gov\u00adern\u00adments of the world now insist that every\u00adone get\u00adting on a bus or train go through met\u00adal detect\u00adors, or worse, be scanned by the incred\u00adibly pri\u00advacy-invad\u00ading backs\u00adcat\u00adter X\u2011ray scan\u00adners<\/a>? (See Bruce Schnei\u00ader\u00ad\u2019s blog<\/a> for more dis\u00adcus\u00adsion on this). I don\u2019t care what any\u00adone says, I don\u2019t believe that mak\u00ading people go through X\u2011ray machines is healthy, even if the amount is low \u2014 hav\u00ading trained as an exper\u00adi\u00adment\u00adal nuc\u00adle\u00adar phys\u00adi\u00adcist, I\u2019ve learned that even low dosages are cumulative. <\/p>\n

Screen\u00ading pub\u00adlic trans\u00adit pas\u00adsen\u00adgers would slow down pub\u00adlic trans\u00adport and force more people into their cars; it\u2019s just not prac\u00adtic\u00adal in Lon\u00addon rush-hour traffic to com\u00adpletely screen every per\u00adson get\u00adting on to every train or bus at every stop and sta\u00adtion without bring\u00ading the sys\u00adtem to a com\u00adplete halt. And the traffic con\u00adges\u00adtion in Lon\u00addon is so bad already that encour\u00adaging people to drive won\u2019t solve any prob\u00adlems either!<\/p>\n

Tony Blair insists that the ter\u00adror\u00adists won\u2019t win<\/a> \u2014 but then why is the Brit\u00adish gov\u00adern\u00adment try\u00ading to push through legis\u00adla\u00adtion<\/a> on ID<\/span> cards that has sig\u00adni\u00adfic\u00adant pri\u00advacy and cost implic\u00ada\u00adtions<\/a> (thanks to Robin Wilton<\/a> for the link) ? The attacks on Septem\u00adber 11, 2001, proved that sui\u00adcide ter\u00adror\u00adists will go to extreme lengths to ensure that their iden\u00adtity papers look right, and that they have built up a reas\u00adon\u00adable his\u00adtory (the hijack\u00aders had val\u00adid ID<\/span> and were fre\u00adquent fly\u00aders, in part in order to plan the attacks metic\u00adu\u00adlously). Mak\u00ading people carry iden\u00adtity cards will just make life dif\u00adfi\u00adcult for ordin\u00adary people, not for the ter\u00adror\u00adists who will be pre\u00adpared with all the iden\u00adti\u00adfic\u00ada\u00adtion (fake or real) that they need.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what can be done to solve the ter\u00adror\u00adist prob\u00adlem but mak\u00ading life more dif\u00adfi\u00adcult for ordin\u00adary people try\u00ading to go about their lives without a def\u00adin\u00adite bene\u00adfit (for example, the x\u2011ray machines men\u00adtioned above can\u00ad\u2019t search in body cav\u00adit\u00adies so it\u2019s also of lim\u00adited use) really seems to me to be let\u00adting them win. Yes, there are def\u00adin\u00adite things people can do \u2014 the clas\u00adsic advice to not leave lug\u00adgage unat\u00adten\u00added and to avoid sus\u00adpi\u00adcious pack\u00adages, for example. And some amount of secur\u00adity check\u00ading when you board air\u00adcraft is reas\u00adon\u00adable \u2014 I would\u00adn\u2019t want someone with a gun on board or a long knife, even if they\u2019re not ter\u00adror\u00adists, in case of acci\u00addents. But the more dra\u00adconi\u00adan parts of the vari\u00adous Acts that many gov\u00adern\u00adments rushed to pass after 2001 are not neces\u00adsary. There\u2019s an old say\u00ading that the police gen\u00ader\u00adally tend to treat all people as crim\u00adin\u00adals who haven\u2019t been caught yet (and giv\u00aden that they usu\u00adally deal with crim\u00adin\u00adals all day, one can for\u00adgive their per\u00adcep\u00adtion as to the rel\u00adat\u00adive pro\u00adpor\u00adtions of crim\u00adin\u00adals and hon\u00adest people in the pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion). We need to ensure that we\u2019re not all treated as ter\u00adror\u00adists-in-wait\u00ading, while bal\u00adan\u00adcing the secur\u00adity needed to catch the real terrorists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bombs in Lon\u00addon have proven again that Lon\u00addon\u00aders are resi\u00adli\u00adent, that they have learnt from the WWII<\/span> blitz and the years of IRA<\/span> attacks, how to cope with ter\u00adror that would bring oth\u00ader cit\u00adies to a screech\u00ading halt. And yet, I can\u00ad\u2019t help but worry what the reac\u00adtions will be. Will the gov\u00adern\u00adments of \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cLon\u00addon\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}