I cannot imagine that anyone contemplating anything that could do significant damage to just be carrying somethign around int heir backpack, y’know? Yeah, the cameras/searches could catch someone careless, but they simply provide another hurdle for those willing to plan around them…

It’s a very good thing they were able to get ahold of medical folks who could verify what the material was and that what I told them I was up to was actually true.

I do think that people of colour, especially anyone from the Middle East, can have it harder, but it’s not like being white gives you an all access pass.

So yeah, beyond that – how has it affected me? Eh, the increase in cameras downtown bothers me a bit; I once counted them for a class project, and came up with something like over 200 from Alaskan to 5th between Lenora and Madison, or somesuch. I subscribe to Brin’s free information philosophy, and think that if those cameras are there, I should have the ability to see what’s on them (a la the traffic cams and such). As a student, I carry multiple bags and backpacks, and typically a computer – going into any government facility now guarantees a search of the bags and a request to prove that the digital camera, film camera, computer, iPod, etc, are all real working electronics. …don’t even get me started on SeaTac.

So yeah, life has become more inconvenient in certain areas, and it’s irritating. Especially since it’s largely empty gestures, and not actually things that will seriously deter anyone from maliciousness. (Take, for example, our trash cans everywhere. They’re perfect targets for bombs. Toss one in disguised as trash, walk away, and two minutes later a large explosion can take out a lot of people. There’s a reason London did away with public trash recepticals years ago…)

I wouldn’t mind security if it actually did something, and it was shared information, but what we have right now is an attempt to have security through publicity, which works about as well as security through obscurity; not very at all.