I’ve written a few blog posts over the years about my occasional trips to Saint Paul City Hall. There, before you go into the building, you go through, not so much a metal-detector, but an insatiable electronic would-be petty deity. You could walk in there buck naked, and it’d beep, and the surly, cranky security guard would have you stand with your arms out and wand you. I’ve literally made a game of it over time; I’ve tried to remove every possible bit of metal from my person. The accursed machine has beeped, literally, over the metal in my shoes’ shoelace eyelets.
And I’ve joked that maybe Saint Paul’s government would be more responsive, and responsible, if the machine and the sheriff’s deputies weren’t there; if the city government had to concern itself with irate citizens the way the rest of us do.
And I was surprised – or, put another way, “not surprised in the least” – to see that there’s precedent for this.
I say take away the metal detectors, and let government at all levels deal with its own security.
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