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Silly Security Overkill Is Hurting Public Officials

Are our precautions doing more harm than good?

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 30, 2009 7:37 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Sure, our public officials need protection—but things are getting out of hand, writes David Ignatius in the Washington Post. Since 9/11, “we have gotten so cranked up about security in the United States that senior officials travel in cocoons, as if they are under constant threat.” And of what, exactly? “Al-Qaeda? Crazy people? Or is it something more ephemeral—a nameless, pervasive sense of danger?”

“The hyper-security has added as much to public fear (and annoyance) as to public safety.” Should we really be hassling little kids and old ladies at the airport? When the FBI director got a haircut at a neighborhood barber shop, accompanied by a security detail of four, “the blatant obviousness of his bodyguards only called attention to him.” It seems that “we have reached the point of diminishing returns with the fortress mentality. The truth is, we all must live with vulnerability. It's a part of modern life.”

n this Wednesday, April 29, 2009 picture, Secret Service agents polish vehicles in the presidential motorcade in St. Louis.
n this Wednesday, April 29, 2009 picture, Secret Service agents polish vehicles in the presidential motorcade in St. Louis.   (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)
A Secret Service officer patrols the White House, in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2009, as a heavy snow storm moved up the East Coast.
A Secret Service officer patrols the White House, in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2009, as a heavy snow storm moved up the East Coast.   (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
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We need to take reasonable precautions, yes. But it would be good for our public officials to step out of the bubble occasionally and smell the roses—unfiltered by the security detail. - David Ignatius

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
NxBigmouthery
Jul 30, 2009 12:52 PM CDT
I don't think that there are too many people that need huge amounts of security. But the President, especially this President, does. And they had better bloody well give it to him too.
RobN
Jul 30, 2009 4:46 AM CDT
Yes, it's only right wingers. Cause the guy who shot Reagan was clearly a right winger, the nutcase who went after Ford was clearly a young Republican. This issue has nothing to do with politics; it has to do with protecting our elected officials. Leave the political rants out of it.
Fondue
Jul 30, 2009 2:39 AM CDT
Not only that, they recently extended his secret service detail.

 
security • Secret Service • bodyguard • David Ignatius • public office

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