Security Theatre

Posted by Flib on April 16th, 2009 filed in Global Events, Personal

Over the last few years many of the governments across the western world have used terrorism as an excuse to erode our civil liberties.

If you rank cause of death over the last few years then terrorism comes way down the list.

If it was significant, then there would be some blip in the figures for deaths caused by injury for a year with a terrorist attack.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_health/Dh2_32/DH2_No32_2005.pdf – table A doesn’t show this, in fact the figures (52 (56 if you include the bombers) from the July bombings in 2005) are tiny in proportion. Bombings are fairly infrequent, and if you average the deaths across the years the risk becomes negligible.

You stand more chance of being struck by lightning or winning the lottery than being killed by a terrorist in the UK at the present time so why all the precautions?

I believe it mostly stems from the fear of politicians to be seen not doing anything. They have to be seen doing *something* and while their ‘precautions’ are ineffective, most of the fit the criteria of ‘doing something’.

I for one would be far happier if they did absolutely nothing, rather than take away some of the freedoms we have enjoyed. Its not as if they have any real effect on the situation.

Take for example, barriers at stations. They now have barriers at most major stations. These force you to put a ticket into the barrier to allow it to open. There are also random searches at these same barriers, although I personally have never seen anyone stopped while I was commuting to Sheffield for months.

I can understand why they did it, but are they effective? Do these measures stop a bomber getting onto a train to travel elsewhere or blow up a train? The answer is easily ‘No’!

If someone was determined to get onto a train they could board at a non major station (which generally don’t have barriers and random searches) and also get off at a similar station even if they passed through a major station. Since once you are through the barriers you are generally clear to move between platforms.

What about the blowing up of trains? Is this still possible? Do barriers and searches at major stations stop this risk? The answer again is ‘No’!

There are thousands of miles of track in the UK, most of it unprotected or protected by only a small wire fence. It would be trivial for a determined person to bypass this protection and gain access to the line itself. Once that is accomplished, then its fairly easy to at the very least derail a train if you are determined enough and have explosives. The same goes for infrastructure like bridges and level crossings. These are exposed and can’t be protected since there are so many of them.

I don’t agree with the terrorists, but I agree even less with the current ideas of the government about how they are going about ‘protecting’ us from the terrorists. The amount of money that has been wasted for no real gain in security is immense and is one of the reasonsthe country has no real reserves to draw upon now we have hit a downturn in the economy.

I know its harsh, but I just wish that the government would understanding that protecting life at *any* cost is not worth it. That some people can be sacrificed if the cost both in reduction in freedoms and lifestyle is too high. I don’t think this government has the balls to put this concept forward nor the vast majority of sheeple to accept it, but its something that needs to be done if we are to have any rights left for our children.