waiving his arms, the security guard, while looking the opposite direction, summoned the car to enter the parking garage underneath the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Building on Wacker Drive.
As I approached the Merc building this morning, a BMW was pulling up and the driver flashed some sort of badge, which, I guess, gave him clearance to enter the garage.
I have watched this scene for years – ever since 9/11 - when security was “beefed” up around Chicago giving us all a laughable sense of security within our buildings.
High-tech, wicked security.
I am sure if any bad guys were scouting locations to sabotage – witnessing that tight security at the Merc would send them scurrying away.
Just why do buildings have these dumb checkpoints?
For example - right after 9/11 - I was visiting friends who worked in D.C. and security was on high alert everywhere, but especially around the Capital – no parking, no standing, no anything – but I needed to run into the National Air & Space Museum to purchase some souvenirs for my kids.
So, my girlfriend dropped her husband and me at the curb and we walked inside to head to the gift shop. Dale walked in first, wearing his heavy winter parka and was allowed to pass the security checkpoint, but I was stopped....my purse had to be searched.
They needed to make sure that I didn’t have anything that would breach security in my little purse – but Dale was allowed to walk past in his BIG, OVERSIZED, HUGE-POCKETED, DOWN winter coat.
That security was insanely, incredibly tight.
So, back to my question -
"Just why do buildings have these dumb checkpoints?"
My guess is that it gives hardworking, upper-level-IQ people gainful employment.
for our enjoyment
1 comment:
The answer to your question, of course, is best illustrated by the adage concerning a horse, a lock, and a barn door. Or perhaps illustrated by the man they buried as "the eternal optimist," because as he was falling from a great height he kept yelling, "All right, so far."
The main reason, coming down to earth, (no pun intended), is to have someone observing a critical or potentially critical area, to sound an alarm prior to an attack, potentially saving both minutes and lives. Having such a person in full view is exponentially better than invisible cameras. In theory, anyway.
One funny aside here: we laugh at such seemingly useless endeavors, but we say nothing, pay no attention, to the fact that each of us is paying nearly twenty cents on the dollar in our super-markets to cover shoplifting. Why aren't we raising hell about that? Wouldn't you rather be paying that much less for your food bill?
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