Protected?

Since last Thursday, Bracknell station has had the addition of a couple of policemen standing on the platform all day. I assume this is supposed to be some kind of deterrent to terrorists carrying bombs, or somesuch.

Quite honestly, it’s effing useless. The plods aren’t armed, and seem to be about as alert as a very inert caterpillar. I’ve seen them change platforms once, but other than that they just stand around doing nowt, and not even paying attention to the people waiting for a train.

If one uses the current stereotype of a terrorist suicide bomber (i.e. a man of Asian descent, carrying a big rucksack loaded with ‘stuff’), there’s always at least three or four “potential terrorists” waiting for a train into London in the morning. No-one gets stopped, or asked what’s in their bag. Mine looked dodgy as shite yesterday, as I was carrying a video camera (left by last weekend’s house guests, and which needed to be posted back) in it as well as my normal daily stuff. But no, no questions, not even a look of interest. Then again, I don’t fit the other half of the blueprint for “typical terrorist”, if there is such a thing.

Does this kind of presence make people feel safer? Possibly. Does it actually do anything to prevent another bombing attack? No, most probably not. The entire thing of terrorism is that you don’t know who’s going to do it, or when. OK, if someone’s visibly nervous, and fulfils all the cliched requirements (or has something dumb, like ‘visible wires’) then they might get stopped. But any terrorist worth their salt isn’t going to do that – they’ll walk onto the train calmly, knowing that their vision of heaven awaits.

And just because so far all the bombers have fitted a certain set of criteria doesn’t mean they always will. In fact, because of the way people are now more aware of that set of criteria, it’s pretty dumb to use the same sorts again. For instance, in Russia the Chechnyans have seen the power of using female bombers. While rucksacks have become the “weapon of choice”, what’s to stop it being a woman with a large handbag/ holdall? Nothing. Even within the current set of criteria, what’s to stop it from being an Asian person, suited and booted, “going to work in the city” – laptop bag, briefcase, whatever?