Security by Obscurity Leads to Safety Risk

Jimmy Breslin writes in Newsday about the diachotomy of security in New York City in preparation for the Republican Convention. While hoards of police check people for hidden finger nail clippers, they cause a real and serious safety risk, which could result in death, by practicing "security by obscurity". Next, I guess, will be to emulate cold-war Moscow where published city maps were just plain wrong so as to confuse invading armies. Golly gee.

"At 75th Street yesterday, behind an empty park bench, were two posts that always held the sign that had been there for years and which stated: "Warning. Do Not Anchor or Dredge, Gas Pipelines Crossing, Continental Gas Pipeline Corp." As an act of homeland security, the sign has been taken down. This meant that nobody would know anymore that the pipeline was right under their feet. The sign at the 175th Street site also has been removed. This is bureaucratic voodoo: You take something everybody knows and say it is a secret."