Originally Posted by
law dawg
No, if he's wrong it's not that he loses his job, if he's wrong people die.
A subtle but nevertheless important distinction.
But is that a reason to throw logic, risk assessment and good sense out the window?
I guess it's easier to harass some people just in case so people don't die, right?
As long as we all sleep well at night and everyone's safer.
And his belief that people "always" come forward to report the genuinely suspicious? Oh vey. This is nonsense. Most people ignore things because they don't want to get involved. If they report it then it is their problem. Ignore it and go about your life and it's not.
Come on now. This world is full of "do gooders" who feel the need to tell on every little thing. Especially in this culture of fear and reporting, people want to look like the "good citizen" and hopefully be famous for saving people from a big disaster. Did you click on any of the links in the article he posted of how stupid some of this "tell us" mentality is?
Schneier is dead on in this. It's all about CYA for the bureaucrats and ignorance and prejudice of everyday people. Has anyone ever thought that this would be a perfect smoke screen for a REAL event? Distract enough resources with someting stupid like a blinking sign and strike when everyone is worried about CYA. How can they cover them then?
You can only overreact so much. If people don't report it, it's because they've seen the hassle that reporting it would cause and it's just easier to accept the risk rather than going thru the BS of yet another false alarm.
With politics of fear, no one is safe.