Security Theatre

I notice signs popping up everywhere saying that "photography is prohibited". I find that outrageous. The theory is that such "information" could be used by a terrorist. But if a terrorist is doing surveillance, they would take the photography discreetly and they would take it of real "targets". I'm outraged because my local library has a sign saying photography is prohibited in the building. What? Is Al Qaeda planning to bomb book shelves? Nutty!

Here, unfortunately, is a NY Times article about a guy that got dragooned by a non-existent "law" against photography in the subways of New York.

In the map of New York’s most forsaken places, it would be hard to top the Freeman Street stop on the No. 2 line in the Bronx, late on a February afternoon. Around 4:30 last Thursday, Robert Taylor stood on the station’s elevated platform, taking a picture of a train. 

“A few buildings in place,” he noted. “Nice little cloud cover overhead. I usually use them as wallpaper on my computer.”

Finished with his camera, Mr. Taylor, 30, was about to board the train when a police officer called to him. He stepped back from the train.

“The cop wanted my ID, and I showed it to him,” Mr. Taylor said. “He told me I couldn’t take the pictures. I told him that’s not true, that the rules permitted it. He said I was wrong. I said, ‘I’m willing to bet your paycheck.’ ” 

Mr. Taylor was right. The officer was enforcing a nonexistent rule. And if recent experience is any guide, one paycheck won’t come close to covering what a wrongful arrest in this kind of case could cost the taxpayers.

Somehow, law enforcement has gotten the idea that pretending to protect people is their job. So putting up signs forbidding picture taking and harrassing ordinary people taking ordinary pictures becomes the ridiculous substitute for intelligent security laws and intelligent policing.

Read the whole article to get all the gory details plus some other cases of misguided "policing".