Security Theater
I wanted to write about an experience we had recently with "Security Theater," i.e., the needless application of illogical policies designed to present the illusion of heightened security while not actually making anything safer.
A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to get free tickets to the National Figure Skating Championships, courtesy of the Girl Scouts. The event was held at the TD Garden in Boston, formerly called the Boston Garden, which is where the Bruins and Celtics play their games. I had never been to the Garden before, but have been to Fenway Park for Red Sox games many times, so I assumed that it would be a similar drill in terms of security. To wit, although the tickets and signage talked about this and that not being allowed in, I figured it was actually more loose than that, especially if you're a mom with kids along, which has been my experience at Fenway.
So, we met up with a group of Ruthie's Girl Scout troop members and their parents and the troop leader, and then everyone headed up to the seats except us. We stayed back because I needed to buy an extra ticket for Isaac (not surprisingly the Girl Scouts don't provide free tickets for brothers) and get the kids something to eat. So we got Isaac's ticket and went to the Dunkin Donuts counter for bagels, and then went over to the escalator leading up to the stadium, and I asked a security guy whether we would be allowed in with our bagels in hand, and he said no, laughing (in a friendly way), and said they were pretty strict about allowing food in, freely acknowledging that this is because they want you to buy their overpriced food. He even counseled me on how to hide Ruthie's bottle of chocolate milk in her coat pocket, such that her Girl Scout vest covered it up.
So, feeling quite positive about the helpfulness of TD Garden security personnel (foreshadowing much?), I quickly scarfed half of my bagel, pushed the remainder to the bottom of my backpack, and took the kids up the escalator.
As we approached the ticket-taking station, a small group of security officers called me over to the side and said that I couldn't go in with my backpack. I was pretty surprised and, to be honest, argued/debated with them more than I usually do -- usually I try to take the position that there's no point arguing with the "little guy" since it's not his job to make the policy, just enforce it; but again, given my many experiences at Fenway, I was kind of expecting it to be looser and thought that at any moment one of them would say "well, we'll let you in this once, but next time don't forget." But that didn't happen. They were insisting that my backpack was not allowed. The one guy was like "we don't have any lockers, but you could try one of the hotels or restaurants in the area." Oh yeah, I'm sure the local hotels would just LOVE to have dozens of random strangers coming in like "hey could you watch my backpack for a couple hours?" Right.
Meanwhile I kept seeing people go by with large bags over their shoulders, and they didn't get stopped, so I said to one of the security guys, "how come they can go in?" and he said "those are bags, not backpacks." I said, "so if I had all the same stuff, just in a bag instead of a backpack, then I could go in? How does that make sense?" Of course, the guy could not provide a logical explanation for the policy. I kept asking him why and he was all, "ma'am the policy is right there on the sign on the wall" and I said "I didn't ask you where I can read the policy, I asked why backpacks are treated differently from bags" and he looked stymied and punted me over to his supervisor, whose response was "ma'am we've had this policy in place for ten years" to which I said, again, "I'm not asking how long the policy has been in place, I'm asking why backpacks are different from bags," and he was all "ma'am, ten years ago we had a terrorist attack, last year we had a terrorist attack," and I think I laughed incredulously and said something like "really, you're going to invoke 9/11 and the Marathon to cover up the fact that this policy has no logic behind it?"
At which point it was clear that the security folks had had enough of me, and vice versa. ;) So I took the kids and we went back down the escalator, with Ruthie moaning sadly over and over that "we came ALL THIS WAY and now I'll never get to see the show!" and me saying "no no, you are going to see the show, don't worry."
So I went back over to the Dunkin Donuts and asked the woman for a large plastic bag, and she either remembered me from having bought three bagels a few minutes ago, or maybe she gets that request all the time, or maybe she just didn't give a crap; in any case, she gave me a bag, and I transferred everything from my backpack to the bag. Mind you, this is the same backpack that I carry to and from work every day, as well as on outings with the kids, so I had a LOT of random stupid crap in there: teabags, cough drops, tampons, extra socks, an extra sweater, ibuprofen, bandaids, three packs of gum for some reason, wet-naps, kleenex, blah blah blah. A LOT of random stuff. I managed to cram it all into the bag, and I had thought that I would roll up the backpack and stuff it in there too, but it was clear that wouldn't work. So I took off my coat and put the empty backpack on my back and then my coat over it. Since it was empty, it didn't bulge at all.
I took the plastic bag full of my stuff, and the kids and I went back up the escalator again, moving quickly past the group of security people we had just encountered (not sure they even noticed me), and we proceeded to the ticket-taking station. Where they had another security guy, who gave the bag a completely desultory poke and waved us through (exactly like they do at Fenway, and which I had expected all along).
So here's the thing. I absolutely could have had a gun in that backpack and bag, or a big bag of heroin, or just about anything else illegal. Never in any of my interactions with any of the security people would it have been detected. I could have transferred the gun from the backpack to the plastic bag, wrapped perhaps in my spare sweater or whatever, and the guy who "checked" the bag at the ticket station wouldn't have noticed it. So this is security theater at its worst: completely illogically targeting one particular type of bag and trying to pretend that this somehow makes anything safer...because 9/11! Because the Marathon bombing! Because, in the same way that we all have to take off our shoes every time we fly because one guy rigged explosives in his shoes ONE time, similarly all backpacks must now be outlawed from the TD Garden because one pair of guys planted explosives in a backpack at a different sporting event ONE time. Because no one would ever plant a bomb in a duffel bag or a tote bag, don'tcha know!
Look, I understand that this stuff is complicated. Every week it seems like there's another high-profile incident, and a sporting event seems like a likely target. You can't strip-search every customer and thoroughly examine all the contents of every bag; you can't ban all bags altogether; and discrimination laws forbid you from profiling (e.g., exclude backpacks only if they're on the backs of black men, or whatever). But nowadays you can't have zero security at a big place like a sports stadium either. In between those extremes, there's so much grey area it probably gives real security experts nightmares. And I'm not claiming to have the answers, obviously. I just don't think they should be banning backpacks and just blithely ignoring all other bags, which in practical terms is what seems to be happening here.
And yes, in case you were wondering, I do feel a small amount of guilt about exposing my kids to that level of, I don't know what you'd call it, civil disobedience? Mind you, I was not raised in a "follow the rules even when they're stupid" sort of climate -- VERY much the opposite, in fact -- so I don't feel too many qualms. I talked to the kids, in the moment and also afterward, about the reasoning (such as it is) behind rules like the no-backpack rule, and why I felt it was okay to work around the rule the way I did, especially since it is so arbitrary. I can't say how much of that sank in, or whether they just took it as "it's okay to break the rules when they are dumb" or possibly just "mom is confusing and inconsistent." I hope that the sum total of my parenting up until now and beyond will eventually help them to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the need for structure in society and the responsibility of citizens to actively resist tyranny...heh.
Oh, but just to close out the story: we did get in and found the rest of the Girl Scouts, and we watched the opening ceremonies, to which Ruthie was absolutely riveted. Rarely have I seen her so enthralled by anything like that! Then we watched about an hour of the figure-skating competition (it was Ladies Short Form) and then the kids were all getting antsy and it was past their bedtimes, so we left. We rode the subway back with a bunch of the other Girl Scouts from the troop, during which time one girl got curious about the large plastic bag I was carrying with all my stuff in it, and she poked into it and pulled out a tampon saying "what's this?" and I quickly grabbed it back and said something like "you don't need to worry about that till you're older." LOL. But anyway, overall the kids had a great experience and really enjoyed seeing the skating, as did I, of course. So all's well that ends well I suppose.
A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to get free tickets to the National Figure Skating Championships, courtesy of the Girl Scouts. The event was held at the TD Garden in Boston, formerly called the Boston Garden, which is where the Bruins and Celtics play their games. I had never been to the Garden before, but have been to Fenway Park for Red Sox games many times, so I assumed that it would be a similar drill in terms of security. To wit, although the tickets and signage talked about this and that not being allowed in, I figured it was actually more loose than that, especially if you're a mom with kids along, which has been my experience at Fenway.
So, we met up with a group of Ruthie's Girl Scout troop members and their parents and the troop leader, and then everyone headed up to the seats except us. We stayed back because I needed to buy an extra ticket for Isaac (not surprisingly the Girl Scouts don't provide free tickets for brothers) and get the kids something to eat. So we got Isaac's ticket and went to the Dunkin Donuts counter for bagels, and then went over to the escalator leading up to the stadium, and I asked a security guy whether we would be allowed in with our bagels in hand, and he said no, laughing (in a friendly way), and said they were pretty strict about allowing food in, freely acknowledging that this is because they want you to buy their overpriced food. He even counseled me on how to hide Ruthie's bottle of chocolate milk in her coat pocket, such that her Girl Scout vest covered it up.
So, feeling quite positive about the helpfulness of TD Garden security personnel (foreshadowing much?), I quickly scarfed half of my bagel, pushed the remainder to the bottom of my backpack, and took the kids up the escalator.
As we approached the ticket-taking station, a small group of security officers called me over to the side and said that I couldn't go in with my backpack. I was pretty surprised and, to be honest, argued/debated with them more than I usually do -- usually I try to take the position that there's no point arguing with the "little guy" since it's not his job to make the policy, just enforce it; but again, given my many experiences at Fenway, I was kind of expecting it to be looser and thought that at any moment one of them would say "well, we'll let you in this once, but next time don't forget." But that didn't happen. They were insisting that my backpack was not allowed. The one guy was like "we don't have any lockers, but you could try one of the hotels or restaurants in the area." Oh yeah, I'm sure the local hotels would just LOVE to have dozens of random strangers coming in like "hey could you watch my backpack for a couple hours?" Right.
Meanwhile I kept seeing people go by with large bags over their shoulders, and they didn't get stopped, so I said to one of the security guys, "how come they can go in?" and he said "those are bags, not backpacks." I said, "so if I had all the same stuff, just in a bag instead of a backpack, then I could go in? How does that make sense?" Of course, the guy could not provide a logical explanation for the policy. I kept asking him why and he was all, "ma'am the policy is right there on the sign on the wall" and I said "I didn't ask you where I can read the policy, I asked why backpacks are treated differently from bags" and he looked stymied and punted me over to his supervisor, whose response was "ma'am we've had this policy in place for ten years" to which I said, again, "I'm not asking how long the policy has been in place, I'm asking why backpacks are different from bags," and he was all "ma'am, ten years ago we had a terrorist attack, last year we had a terrorist attack," and I think I laughed incredulously and said something like "really, you're going to invoke 9/11 and the Marathon to cover up the fact that this policy has no logic behind it?"
At which point it was clear that the security folks had had enough of me, and vice versa. ;) So I took the kids and we went back down the escalator, with Ruthie moaning sadly over and over that "we came ALL THIS WAY and now I'll never get to see the show!" and me saying "no no, you are going to see the show, don't worry."
So I went back over to the Dunkin Donuts and asked the woman for a large plastic bag, and she either remembered me from having bought three bagels a few minutes ago, or maybe she gets that request all the time, or maybe she just didn't give a crap; in any case, she gave me a bag, and I transferred everything from my backpack to the bag. Mind you, this is the same backpack that I carry to and from work every day, as well as on outings with the kids, so I had a LOT of random stupid crap in there: teabags, cough drops, tampons, extra socks, an extra sweater, ibuprofen, bandaids, three packs of gum for some reason, wet-naps, kleenex, blah blah blah. A LOT of random stuff. I managed to cram it all into the bag, and I had thought that I would roll up the backpack and stuff it in there too, but it was clear that wouldn't work. So I took off my coat and put the empty backpack on my back and then my coat over it. Since it was empty, it didn't bulge at all.
I took the plastic bag full of my stuff, and the kids and I went back up the escalator again, moving quickly past the group of security people we had just encountered (not sure they even noticed me), and we proceeded to the ticket-taking station. Where they had another security guy, who gave the bag a completely desultory poke and waved us through (exactly like they do at Fenway, and which I had expected all along).
So here's the thing. I absolutely could have had a gun in that backpack and bag, or a big bag of heroin, or just about anything else illegal. Never in any of my interactions with any of the security people would it have been detected. I could have transferred the gun from the backpack to the plastic bag, wrapped perhaps in my spare sweater or whatever, and the guy who "checked" the bag at the ticket station wouldn't have noticed it. So this is security theater at its worst: completely illogically targeting one particular type of bag and trying to pretend that this somehow makes anything safer...because 9/11! Because the Marathon bombing! Because, in the same way that we all have to take off our shoes every time we fly because one guy rigged explosives in his shoes ONE time, similarly all backpacks must now be outlawed from the TD Garden because one pair of guys planted explosives in a backpack at a different sporting event ONE time. Because no one would ever plant a bomb in a duffel bag or a tote bag, don'tcha know!
Look, I understand that this stuff is complicated. Every week it seems like there's another high-profile incident, and a sporting event seems like a likely target. You can't strip-search every customer and thoroughly examine all the contents of every bag; you can't ban all bags altogether; and discrimination laws forbid you from profiling (e.g., exclude backpacks only if they're on the backs of black men, or whatever). But nowadays you can't have zero security at a big place like a sports stadium either. In between those extremes, there's so much grey area it probably gives real security experts nightmares. And I'm not claiming to have the answers, obviously. I just don't think they should be banning backpacks and just blithely ignoring all other bags, which in practical terms is what seems to be happening here.
And yes, in case you were wondering, I do feel a small amount of guilt about exposing my kids to that level of, I don't know what you'd call it, civil disobedience? Mind you, I was not raised in a "follow the rules even when they're stupid" sort of climate -- VERY much the opposite, in fact -- so I don't feel too many qualms. I talked to the kids, in the moment and also afterward, about the reasoning (such as it is) behind rules like the no-backpack rule, and why I felt it was okay to work around the rule the way I did, especially since it is so arbitrary. I can't say how much of that sank in, or whether they just took it as "it's okay to break the rules when they are dumb" or possibly just "mom is confusing and inconsistent." I hope that the sum total of my parenting up until now and beyond will eventually help them to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the need for structure in society and the responsibility of citizens to actively resist tyranny...heh.
Oh, but just to close out the story: we did get in and found the rest of the Girl Scouts, and we watched the opening ceremonies, to which Ruthie was absolutely riveted. Rarely have I seen her so enthralled by anything like that! Then we watched about an hour of the figure-skating competition (it was Ladies Short Form) and then the kids were all getting antsy and it was past their bedtimes, so we left. We rode the subway back with a bunch of the other Girl Scouts from the troop, during which time one girl got curious about the large plastic bag I was carrying with all my stuff in it, and she poked into it and pulled out a tampon saying "what's this?" and I quickly grabbed it back and said something like "you don't need to worry about that till you're older." LOL. But anyway, overall the kids had a great experience and really enjoyed seeing the skating, as did I, of course. So all's well that ends well I suppose.