2 ms·
> a foreign national kidding around about a trip in which he or she will 'destroy America' shouldn't be surprised to be questioned about that by law enforcement
by pnathan 15y ago
> a foreign national kidding around about a trip in which he or she will 'destroy America' shouldn't be surprised to be questioned about that by law enforcement officers.
I don't see why saying something that has a threatening meaning shouldn't attract interest by law enforcement officials.
Take the other fork of possibility: If Foreign National (FN) had joked about it, been ignored, then blew something up, there would be an unbelievable outcry. It would - in my honest opinion - have been a terrible lapse in judgment by the officer not to have followed up on such a joke, and the office would not have fared well in the ensuing hue and cry.
- liber8 15y agoWhich is exactly, of course, why we get such overreaction. Like referees, those in charge of security are only noticed when they do a poor job. Except, unlike referees, there is absolutely no penalty for false positives. They will always err on the side of safety, no matter how remote the probability of harm, because they can never punished for the unseen. Even when they get it wrong, even when what they initially thought might be a threat turned out to be no threat at all, there is no incentive to admit fault. So this aggressive attitude amplifies, until at some point, it deafens.