Mostly just general observation, but partly inspired by this article (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=lime-street-station-to-face-airport-style-security%26method=full%26objectid=20110268%26siteid=50061-name_page.html) reporting that the UK government plans to spend vast sums of money (reportedly in the billions of pounds Sterling) to install security barriers and vehicle exclusion zones and erect blast-resistant buildings at airports, ports and "up to 250 of the UK's busiest stations", and subject rail passengers at those busiest stations to airport-style security screening and bag checks. Yeah, that's going to do wonders for British business, considering how many of Britain's busiest rail stations are Britain's busiest rail stations because hundreds of thousands of workers in the cities use them to commute to work every day. They're really going to appreciate having to stand in a security screening line for two hours to get on the train to go to work, then do the same to come home. And as Bruce Schneier observes, the net effect will be to make them (and any terrorists) drive five minutes down the road to a [currently] less busy station.
given how many things they are making illegal there. like knives. forget defending yourself should a terrorist be standing there with his little zip gun.
soon they'll make carrying anything weighing more than a few kilos and longer than 2/3 meter (i'm thinking a pipe or a hammer) illegal.
breathing will soon be monitored.
can you imagine all the people running those cameras?
one of the largest DBs of POIs you can download for a GPS is a list of all those cameras and speed traps. with proximity alerts on GPS units these days, you could probably plan a route that excludes being seen (esp on foot), you wanted.
soon they'll make carrying anything weighing more than a few kilos and longer than 2/3 meter (i'm thinking a pipe or a hammer) illegal.
A few years before I left England, there was an armed robbery/assault in battery case in Stevenage, the town in which I lived. An enterprising ne'er-do-well had observed that at a particular time every business day, one particular store in Stevenage town center that took in a fair bit of money would courier the day's takings to the night depository at Lloyds' Bank, about a five-minute walk away, in a canvas money bag, always carried by the same shop girl, at the same time, by the same route, unescorted. So this mountebank procured a hammer and laid in wait for her one day (several witnesses later reported having noticed that he had a scarf "draped strangely over his hands" but thought nothing of it), waited for her to round the corner, smacked her in the head with the hammer, dropped the hammer, grabbed the bag and ran.
The police didn't get any prints off the hammer, because he'd thought to wear gloves, but they got several good descriptions from witnesses and picked him up within the week. The girl, although taken to hospital unconscious with a depressed skull fracture, made a full recovery.
You probably won't be too surprised that in the aftermath of the incident, there was some amount of public outcry from the brainless-ninny set, saying that hammers should be banned except for licensed contractors. In that day and age, though, the vast majority simply told them to shut up, stop whining, and go away.
...because that's worked so well Boston, no doubt.
I hear they're having elephant checkpoints on the MBTA. Must work, because we've had zero successful boardings of MBTA subway trains by elephants.
Then again the UK seems to be doing very very well at becoming Surveillance Nation. Unfortunately as "progressives" in this country look to Europe for "innovation", we can look forward to this crap making inroads here soon...they're already most of the way there in NYC, unfortunately.
So, they're going to stuff a whole bunch of people into a huge wad, on the principle that that somehow won't be a wonderful target of opportunity to someone wearing a semtex waistcoat? What are they going to do, pre-screen people for the screening queue? Make everyone strip outside in the cold first?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
soon they'll make carrying anything weighing more than a few kilos and longer than 2/3 meter (i'm thinking a pipe or a hammer) illegal.
breathing will soon be monitored.
can you imagine all the people running those cameras?
one of the largest DBs of POIs you can download for a GPS is a list of all those cameras and speed traps. with proximity alerts on GPS units these days, you could probably plan a route that excludes being seen (esp on foot), you wanted.
#
no subject
The police didn't get any prints off the hammer, because he'd thought to wear gloves, but they got several good descriptions from witnesses and picked him up within the week. The girl, although taken to hospital unconscious with a depressed skull fracture, made a full recovery.
You probably won't be too surprised that in the aftermath of the incident, there was some amount of public outcry from the brainless-ninny set, saying that hammers should be banned except for licensed contractors. In that day and age, though, the vast majority simply told them to shut up, stop whining, and go away.
no subject
I hear they're having elephant checkpoints on the MBTA. Must work, because we've had zero successful boardings of MBTA subway trains by elephants.
Then again the UK seems to be doing very very well at becoming Surveillance Nation. Unfortunately as "progressives" in this country look to Europe for "innovation", we can look forward to this crap making inroads here soon...they're already most of the way there in NYC, unfortunately.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject