This is my pocket knife

[katster]

Went to run a few items to the post office. Now, the post office in Sacramento is in the federal building, mere feet from the security guards manning the metal detector.

They wouldn’t let me take the knife in. I guess I could use it to go postal on the postal employees, but why?  Hell, my keys (which I am allowed to take in the federal building) would probably do more damage.

So I had to put it outside.  Also, their metal detector is sensitive enough to detect glasses.  Meh.

Security theatre sucks, as does paranoia.

Mirrored from retstak.org.

Comments

security theatre

[(Anonymous)]

same with me, I've carried this exact same knife, but in red.

tried to walk into an olympic venue last year, was turned away if I wanted to keep it. I had to hide my knife outside in the bushes, while people with hockey sticks were allowed in.

so angry, I wanted to puke.

PS, I got in the next time by putting it in my wallet.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that size of knife is even permitted on airplanes these days, so not letting you take it into the Post Orifice is really absurd. Krikey.

[inflection.livejournal.com]

I have lost some sentimentally-valuable Boy Scout pocketknives at airports from forgetting about that. I always feel really dumb -- felt dumber the second time it happened, though.

Also, knives can be surprisingly dangerous, and people with them can move unexpectedly fast. A police officer making a judgment call about whether to use lethal force on an aggressive subject is taught to make their decision when an apparently unarmed subject is at 7 feet; a knife-wielding suspect may be shot at 25 (give or take, depending on the training program and their situation).

Which is all to say that, no, I don't really think a knife that size ought to be considered a security threat -- but I don't really blame them, either. I don't work in a job where a random nutcase might *want* to take me out.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Anyone who is capable of lethal force with a 1" folding blade that DOESN'T EVEN LOCK is capable of lethal force without it. A ballpoint pen, available at the counter, would be as much of a threat. Security theater is the right term for this particular ban.

[archangelbeth]

That's my knife, too! Is your scissors-spring broken, too? O:D

[katster.livejournal.com]

Not yet, which is a good thing, because I love the scissors.

(Mine's yellow on the back side. My friend has the opposite one.)

[archangelbeth]

Mine's black on both sides. I can still use the scissors. I just have to put my thumb on the lever in such a way as to be able to drive it up and down, both. (Or pinch it lightly between thumb and forefinger.