Frog in the pot of hot water, security edition

That these events will not stop is, from a global perspective, true. I think, however, that as more time passes since the Marathon bombing, some of these local measures will subside.

Your point about reaction (or lack thereof) to terrorist events elsewhere is taken, but those events don't influence local opinion and local reaction the way local events do. You and I might look at ourselves and our public transit system in the same light as those that have been attacked in Paris, Tokyo and Moscow, but for most people around here, those places are "over there". Hell, many people around here were willing to chalk up the WTC '93 bombing and other incidents in NYC to, well, "that's New York City - of course its a target. Boston is different."

Also, with respect to the Oklahoma City bombing, there was lots of reaction - it was just focused on federal buildings and properties (That's what lead to the installation of bollards, etc. around all the federal buildings).

It's when bombing/terrorism came to "regular people" that this recent uptick in security measures came to pass (re the WTC '93 bombing, I would say the same thing - I never had a trunk checked on my way into a parking garage before that, but it became somewhat commonplace afterward - particularly for garages under large buildings).

Go back even further - I seem to remember reading a fair bit about regular people being hassled during the anarchist uptick in the early 1900s.

These things ebb and flow according to the temporal and geographical proximity of events. I realize that it's not necessarily a good thing, but again, that's the way it is and has been for a long time.

When I say that to people, many get upset and exclaim something like, "but our rights shouldn't ebb and flow according to the times - the were enshrined in our Constitution!" I often reply that this is a legitimate argument and there are lots of people who feel that way, and some of them are very important and learned people - such as Justice Antonin Scalia.

(No, i am not for police state but its clear that private security didn't do their jobs on 9/11)

Really? How did they fail to do their jobs correctly? Was it the private security workers who told the government that the policy for dealing with hijackers should be complying with their demands instead of resisting?

Any number of common, allowed items can be fashioned into razor-sharp blades in the right hands (aluminum soda can, CD, glass from a camera lens). So I fail to see how the workers did not do their jobs.

Keeping its citizens safe from what?

(Am I wrong for feeding the troll?)

I bet you think stop and frisk is fine, too. After all, the city is merely feeling us up out of its dedication towards keeping us safe.

Very dangerous mentality you have there.

switch to decaf Saul..

And they might need to change them putting the issue of cost/freedom into perspective for future plans.

The issue here is that too few people have the spine to say, "enough is enough". Other than the India Day organizers, no Hatch Shell event organizer has had the spine to say, "We will not hold our events and our spectators hostage to your demands." Few football fans seem to have the spine to say, "I've had it with being like a criminal to see my team, and I'm staying away." Few T riders seem to have the spine to tell the Transit Police that they will not submit to a warrantless search, and will walk to the next stop, or enter at another entrance.

Maybe this should tell you something. Maybe it isn't the issue, maybe it is your issue.

You're right. Saul is the only one with a spine and the courageous Patriotic courage. We should all strive to be like him and forego fun activities because of minor inconveniences in the name of taking a political stand and spend that time instead posting on the internet telling other people to do the same with rhetorical questions and blunt statements that say nothing at all other than that we should be afraid of fear.

-Cities and towns can use the detail rate during negotiations to benefit the majority of tax payers in those towns. The City will say “We will agree to raise your detail rate $4 an hour, if you agree to pay 30% instead of 20% of your health insurance”. The City also gets 10% of every detail hour paid, so they win out on that end as well. And the Bostonians gas or electric bill is not going to be more than the New Yorker’s gas or electric bill because the gas company pays a cop here instead of a flagger.

-Other cities and towns across the country have police details, and if they don’t, they have a separate budget for traffic officers/flaggers. This separate budget or beuarcracy can cost more than your Massachusetts officer at the same rate because of the other factors involved (training, workers comp, health insurance, supervisors, etc). The Mass cop is already insured and has an incentive to not get injured (they lose detail pay if they are out injured)

-Detail cops in urban areas are involved in the criminal justice process every day and have been involved in more critical arrests than you can imagine. This is the major reason why Chiefs and Mayors like having detail cops. It is an extra 300 cops a day on the street listening to the radio that the City doesn’t have to pay for. Even if they are sitting in their cars, or watching a hole, thousands of crimes are stopped each year because detail cops get involved. Some of these crimes are very serious.

-This is a union state, many of these construction crews you see can hire union flaggers, but they often times have to pay more, especially in Boston where the detail rate is always less than what these flaggers make.

- The City STILL CAN'T find enough quality people to become cops, so having the potential salary be as high as possible hopefully helps the hiring process.