In response to Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris (but not in response to Thursday’s terrorist attacks in Beirut, because those weren’t outside a stadium and besides, those people’s lives don’t matter as much), the NFL ramped up security for yesterday’s games. How did they respond to the news that suicide vests, which have been around since the 1940s, are a thing? With bomb-sniffing dogs, increased bag checks, and:
In St. Louis, event staff at the Edward Jones Dome wore red shirts and jackets with the word “SECURITY” in large yellow letters. Previously, their shirts had been a less visible shade of yellow with black lettering.
I don’t want to belittle the desire to show fans that they’re doing something, anything, to enhance stadium safety, really I don’t. But given that the suicide bomber who tried to enter the Stade de France was caught not by dogs or walkthrough detectors but by a simple low-tech patdown — from what I can tell from online research, most explosive vests won’t be caught by metal detectors — that terror groups have shown the ability to learn from the past and choose new targets and techniques to pick the easiest target, and perhaps most important, the bomber still managed to kill people outside the stadium, it definitely feels like this is somewhere between security theater for show and fighting the last war. If the NFL succeeds in ensuring that any future terror attacks take place not inside stadiums but in stadium parking lots or public parks or rock clubs, is that a victory?
Anyway, no one was killed at any NFL stadium yesterday, so hooray for giraffe repellent!
It’s like smoking. Do you think the government really cares if you smoke or not? I say no, since that same government will strap you to a chair, and then gas or electrocute you to death. They tell a little lie: smoking is really, really bad for you, and then give you the big lie: the government cares about you.
Do you think the government cares if your kid is bullied? If they did, they would encourage you to take him to a karate class, not to tell them about the perpetrator. The bullying nonsense is just about preparing people to rat on their neighbors to big brother.
Then they do their “military people are heroes” bit before every game. These people are not heroes. Volunteering to travel thousands of miles, to kill hundreds of thousands of some other country’s enemies, is not heroic to me. These military morons are the ones who will be kicking in your door, and smashing your balls with a boot, in the very near future.
(Smashing your balls with a boot not available to all readers.)
I think it is natural and harmless to make security more visible after a recent incident. Probably driving is still more statiscally dangerous than going to a game, or flying on an airline, or going to a concert. Doesn’t mean the demented morons who did this and the organization behind them shouldn’t be pursued and punished to the fullest extent.
I went to a game this weekend partly out of defiance to people who would like to shut down music, cover up women, ban alchohol, pray five times a day, and only read one book over and over again. The proverbial middle finger to them.
Not an NFL game by the way, a college football game.
There was increased security at Sleep Train Arena last night, but it wasn’t much. Two armed deputies standing near the entrance that hadn’t been there in the past.
But sporting events in this country have always seemed pretty soft to me. That was one guy inside that music venue. Just one guy.
I do see the double-standard, though. It seems like suicide bombs in Baghdad are a weekly occurrence, but how much do we hear about them? And do they lead to increased security at movie theaters, concert venues and sporting events throughout Europe and North and South America? Follow the news closely about suicide bombs in Middle Eastern cities, and you’ll see how frequently this happens.
Mike,
Glad you got the chance to voice your opinion.
It’s security theater for the lawyers. Like the netting at hockey arenas, the tethers on NASCAR car hoods, and the ban on beer sales after the fifth inning, after an unfortunate incident, sports leagues have to protect themselves against claims of willful negligence in any future case, so to prevent a big payout they have to show that they are DOING SOMETHING.
Who pays for this increased security at NFL games?
Seriously, TimC.
NASCAR forcing tethers on car hoods is a good thing. The 1997 Daytona 500 saw a backstretch accident where a driver’s hood flew into the stands and injured a few people. Regardless, I am glad we are spending money on security. After all the security prevents terrorism just like the Springfield Bear Patrol prevents bear attacks and the flu vaccine prevents the flu.
My family actually conducted an unintentional controlled experiment on the flu vaccine one year: My wife got vaccinated first, I got vaccinated next, and our son got vaccinated last. We all got sick around the same time, and wife was only slightly sick, I was out of commission for a day or two, and our son was out of school for a week.
Small sample size, sure, but I’d still say it’s more worthwhile than the Bear Patrol.
Mike: Recent news reports have shown that (some) sports leagues actually charge the military for putting on military appreciation nights and the like. It’s more of a sponsorship deal than a true “giving thanks”.
Kinda puts the icing on the cake for this sham promotional alignment between on-field “warriors” and actual soldiers, doesn’t it?
The lesson sports leagues should take from the tragic events in Paris (and the others that occur in countries we are “helping” to realize their full democratic potential with every bit as much success as we had in Guatemala, Chile and so many other nations…) is that their security measures worked: the suicide bombers were kept outside the stadium.
It’s true that some people were killed in those blasts. While that is a tragedy, there is really not much anyone can do (even in the kind of police state certain elements seem to want our nations to devolve into) to protect themselves from someone dressed in dynamite.
Living in a free society is not, as the man said, free.
Also…. I guess we aren’t counting the players in the “no-one got killed at an NFL stadium yesterday” tally.
I guess that’s fair. None of them did get killed yesterday. But if you believe the CTE studies, several probably were moved a significant distance along that path…