As it turns out, concrete planters, Jersey barriers, and other security-related eyesores, are essentially useless in stopping terrorist attack. (TimesSelect only).
Just last May, one of two explosive devices that went off outside an East Side building was hidden in a concrete planter. So much for planters, which become garbage cans anyway. What about the Jersey barriers, the concrete traffic medians so named because the design used in New Jersey is the most popular? They've bloomed all over the city since Sept. 11.[...]
But they are not. Security experts say they, too, are ineffective. One test showed that a Ford Festiva easily hurled itself right over one. "Jersey barriers, pinned or not, are useless in the long run as an terror- interdicting device," Chief Colgan said. "They are an urban blight."
The article goes on to discuss the placebo effect that these devices provide, which I think is wiped out by the creation of fear where none may have existed before. For those of you who have lived in Washington or New York, you've probably passed a nondescript or unimportant building "protected" by haphazardly-placed concrete and wondered why it needed protection. Does that make you feel safer?
I think it would be hard for people of most political persuasions to argue that the most effective way to stop terrorism is to shut down terrorist networks, stop terrorist funding and capture terrorist leaders. Lessening the damage from a truck bomb isn't success since it doesn't thwart the goal of the enemy - to create terror.
But they do serve a purpose - they show us that someone is doing something. It's pure CYA.
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