Thnking about Security
Coming back from lunch today at about 1:00 Amber and I spotted several firetrucks down the road from where I work. When Amber left I walked down there, toward the federal building. Part of Oglethorpe was blocked off, as was part of Whitaker, a large truck with Bomb Disposal emblazoned sitting there with lots of cops and firemen milling about.
At about 2:30 I went to the post office. In the square behind my office stood fifty of so people who worked in the federal building — they still had not been allowed back in. I don’t know how long they stood out there.
Here’s what I thought. If I wanted to do nasty things, I would call in a bomb threat but actually put explosives wherever the people would evacuate. Pipe-bombs wrapped in chains in trashcans, whatever. Telfair Square would be perfect for this, people standing in a nice open area with plenty of trashcans and benches to hide things. This would do two things, as I see it: Cause the normal disruption of something like this, and also create more confusion next time a threat is called: people wouldn’t want to just stand around.
If something like this is gonna take hours, wouldn’t it be better to send people away for two hours or so? That way they’re not standing around in one spot.
Not a happy thought, but just kinda curious how things like that are handled and if I’m the only one who has ever thought about it.
January 12th, 2005 at 11:38 am
Eric Rudolph used that very strategy against bystanders a few years ago…
All Things Considered, January 16, 1997 · An Atlanta office building housing an abortion clinic was the site of two explosions this morning. The first explosion was inside the building, on the first floor where the clinic is housed. The second was in a trash container near the building after law enforcement and fire personnel were on the scene. There were several injuries, but no deaths.
January 12th, 2005 at 12:53 pm
hm, didn’t think about that. A little different, but the principle is the same: going for crowds.
[reads some more] actually no, it’s about the same thing, isn’t it? Conversations with other people have pointed out that this has been happening in other countries for years, and that the US usually is more reactionary than forward-thinking with security.