voodoo security

A year ago I griped to you about hassle at the Federal Building. I also wrote to the home office of US Marshals, as well as to the three relevant legislators:

Monday, as a favor for a friend, I went to the Federal Building in San Francisco to drop off a paper. I was denied admission, not having thought to bring along a “photo I D”. I hurried home, picked up my passports both internal and external (just for good measure), and hurried back — nine minutes too late for my errand, though the building was still open.

The Marshals at the metal-detector glanced at my document to verify that I had one, and that the face shown resembled mine, but did not make a note of my name nor check it against a list.

I write in the hope that one of you can tell me what this harassment is meant to accomplish. If I get no reply other than platitudes, I will assume that the purpose is not security but obedience, assuring that the cattle are duly tagged.

At long last, patience was rewarded, in a form not entirely surprising:

From: <senator@feinstein.senate.gov>
To: <bronto@pobox.com>
Subject: Senator Dianne Feinstein responding to your message
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2003 19:33:38 -0500

April 1, 2003

Mr. Anton Sherwood
41 Sutter Street #1143
San Francisco, California 94104

Dear Mr. Sherwood:

I am sending you a copy of my latest newsletter because you have written me recently about issues that concern you before the U.S. Senate. . . .

So I wrote back, pointing out that nothing in the newsletter relates in any way to the question that I had raised.

There must be a new broom in DiFi’s office, because it took less than fifteen hours to zip me another copy of the damn newsletter.

This entry was posted in me!me!me!, security theater. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *