Live ammo
Although this picture doesn't do them justice, these cops outside the Metro are armed to the teeth.
Standing with pistols strapped to their legs they appear to be carrying H&K sub-machine guns. These weapons are traditionally used by special forces units and paramilitary SWAT teams in urban combat environments.
These police officers stand there in an apparent effort to ensure security and are used only as tour guides. The crowd swirls past going down into the subway and the cops stand chatting to each other answering the questions of passersby.
When I see this display of power, men dressed like soldiers guarding my coming and going, I cannot help but question the effectiveness of this approach. After the latest terror threat, the pictures in the paper and the images on television highlighted the arsenal of our police forces.
Standing in public with big machine guns might make some people feel better but it reminds me of how misguided many of our attempts to grapple with the threat of terror still seem to be. We fail to ensure the security of containers coming into our ports and relax the security requirements at out airports. Instead we have these men stand outside my metro station and have other men walk large dogs through the station that bark at commuters waiting for their trains.
Do they make me safer? Do they lower the risk of an attack? D.C. commuters hear the message announced over the loudspeaker warning us not to forget our bags to "prevent what happened in Madrid from happening here." I see how not leaving a bag behind accomplishes this task but do not see how these men help that mission. Are they there to deter something from happening?
As I watch them standing there, I notice that their sub-machine guns are in fact loaded. These guys mean business. Is there some threat that they know about and we don't? I think of myself as a fairly rational guy and yet I am scared seeing these men. I am scared of what they are trying to prevent.
I also find myself scared of what they represent. They remind me of photographs from Israeli newspapers of police in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Is that what this has come to for us?
Or is this instead a mere flexing of muscle to make me feel at once secure and afraid of what I am being secured from.
I see them there. I see their guns and I wonder if they really make things better for my safety. It reminds me of the situation where a gun in someone's home is put to bad use. The criminal who uses a gun against its owner. Do guns in crowd situations pose similar risks? Could some crazy person come along and try to grab one of the many guns carried by these policemen and harm me?
If this is supposed to make me feel safer then it isn't working! I feel more at risk than ever.
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Who is this guy?
Sam, Sam, Sam. You took a photo of a major public facility in the nation's captial and pointed out security precautions at said facility. You then -- gasp! -- posted that photo online alongside comments about a possible attack.
I'd like to remind you that John Ashcroft frowns on this kind of behavior and that I'd be happy to try and get you out of Gitmo. I'm sure they'll let you contact the outside world...eventually.
And DC should contact whoever trains the dogs they use in the L stations. They seem rather docile, and I've never heard one bark yet. Two of them were even laying down on the platform yesterday evening. It might have something to do with the muzzles they use, though.
Hi there sam - rob ferguson referred me to your site, and I like the commentary. I'm also scared by heavily armed men in public for a couple of reasons. First, there are bound to be a number of people in our nation intellectually and emotionally qualified to carry weapons domestically in defense of the public. However, when I see random security guards in the mall carrying guns, I'm forced to recognize that the number of people we have armed must far exceed that elite group of qualified individuals. Just by the numbers, we're certain to be arming morons.
After 911, it was strange enough to see uniformed national guard troops with rifles (not a very practical airport weapon) - I felt like I had landed in italy or eastern europe, but it was only a temporary military presence. Police are a permanent part of society - arming them with automatic weapons is a much more dangerous precedent.
It seems to me that, as you indicated, the purpose of the armaments is identical to the "terror alert" levels - they give the public an illusion of safety and government protection, while simultaneously makine the fear of terrorism far more immediate, and thus encouraging silence and acceptance in the face of gov't actions removing civil liberties. I've never understood the purpose of making people afraid of terrorists (beyond the political advantages), when the goal of the terrorists is simply to frighten us.
Are we creating domestic armed forces? Could such a force be an effective deterrent against terrorism? If we go down this road, will we save the united states at the expense of america?