End of the year (as we know it)

[avram]

Other stuff from yesterday:

I’m down to one last lead in the pack of ten non-photo-blue 0.5mm mechanical pencil leads I bought in September. (That’s not including the current one and replacement sitting in my mechanical pencil.) I’ve been going through ’em pretty quick recently. I stopped off at Kinokuniya Books to stock up, and they only had one pack left! Aiieeee! I’m sure they’re ordering more, but will they get in by the time I need them (which should be, um, March or April) They had another kind, but they were 0.7mm.

bugsybanana and I had to walk about eight blocks out of our way to get around the huge cordoned-off area north of Times Square. We could have walked through if we’d been willing to wait on line and show ID. I had no intention of starting off my new year by acting like a citizen of the Soviet Union and showing fucking identification papers to the cops just to walk the public streets of my own city. Sorry, I’m just one of those cranky old guys who remembers living in a free country.

Comments

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time thinking of "showing ID to enter a giant terrorist target on one night a year" as "acting like a citizen of the Soviet Union". In the Soviet Union, they would have asked for papers and then made you walk the eight blocks out of the way, for no reason at all except that you're a cosmopolitan. I'm a little surprised to see such a Keith-Lynchian response from you.

[avram]

It’s one of a handful of things Keith and I agree on. I shouldn’t need to carry ID to walk the streets of my own city. It’s one of the things a free people should not need to do. And screening large numbers of people for ID does nothing whatsoever to improve anybody’s safety.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Actually, you don't need ID to walk the streets of your city. You were easily able to re-route around the small cordoned-off area.

And while I agree with you that ID-screening large numbers of people has limited security value, it doesn't have zero security value. It doesn't form an airtight seal of perfect security around the cordoned-off area, but it gives the police a chance to identify people who are using forged IDs, or who act really, really suspiciously around the police, both of which are of at least some use in reducing crime.

I would say that the usefulness of ID checks around areas that are obvious targets for criminal activity is probably not smaller than comparing such checks to Soviet-style repression.