- Joined
- Feb 24, 2001
- Messages
- 1,308
Here in West Palm Beach, lots of people look forward to Sunfest each year. It's a five day music/art/food festival held on the waterfront downtown. Really it is quite a good event -- they get major musical acts, and lots of them. This year, for example, we have The Beach Boys, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, and Bob Dylan -- and that's in addition to a few dozen other acts of lesser proportions. (There are three stages to accommodate all of them.)
The festival runs from Wednesday through Sunday, so last night was the first night, and I went to see The Beach Boys. I purchased a five-day ticket at the booth near one of the three entry gates. I proceeded to the entry turnstile where they have a table for getting bags "checked." This is as you would expect it: some low paid, low skilled morons stand there and do a cursory check into people's knapsacks and such, looking for contraband. Contraband includes everything from "weapons" to frisbees to liquor.
Don't for one second think that this B.S. "check" goes anywhere toward accomplishing a level of "safety" for festival-goers. Consider that: liquor is sold inside, promotional frisbees are given away inside... You get the picture. Under the guise of "safety," Sunfest is simply protecting its profits. Believe me, they HAUL in the money here.
Anyway, the woman who was checking my knapsack gave me a hard time. Why? Because I had a Nalgene bottle full of water; a Leatherman Wave; and a pair of discs for disc golf. I also had a small shoulder satchel containing ... er... something else that they would not have allowed in. The woman began groping that, and told me I had to open it. Let me say that I was NOT going to open THAT one, so I said, "You're already not letting me in for THIS stuff (gesturing at the Wave and discs); I'm not opening this bag too!" So after a short discussion in which I got impatient and called their check "bullsh*t," I turned around and walked back the way I had come in. I walked around the city block, put the Leatherman in my pocket, put the two golf discs into the front, smaller pocket of the bag, and tucked the water bottle down farther under my towel and folded-up rain poncho. I walked a block to one of the other entry gates and presented my bag to a male checker. He asked me to open it and I showed him the towel and poncho, he groped the bag a bit, and let me pass.
So I was in with the nasty Leatherman and frisbees, and a bottle of water which, had I been forced to empty at the gate, I could have filled for free from the bottled-water stand they have inside the festival. Oh, and did I mention the AFCK that had been in my back pocket the whole time?
"Security" measures like this are a goddamned JOKE. They attempt to stop people who are not a problem even IF they carry a 3.75" knife (or "worse"), and of course they fail to stop anyone with a half ounce of brains and the determination necessary to conceal an item imaginatively. They harass innocent people based on the tools they refuse to be forced to be without, and it is obvious that a real bad-guy who wished to enter with a weapon would not be stopped.
My satisfaction comes from the fact that I don't let them force me to be utterly vulnerable, despite their misguided efforts.
The festival runs from Wednesday through Sunday, so last night was the first night, and I went to see The Beach Boys. I purchased a five-day ticket at the booth near one of the three entry gates. I proceeded to the entry turnstile where they have a table for getting bags "checked." This is as you would expect it: some low paid, low skilled morons stand there and do a cursory check into people's knapsacks and such, looking for contraband. Contraband includes everything from "weapons" to frisbees to liquor.
Don't for one second think that this B.S. "check" goes anywhere toward accomplishing a level of "safety" for festival-goers. Consider that: liquor is sold inside, promotional frisbees are given away inside... You get the picture. Under the guise of "safety," Sunfest is simply protecting its profits. Believe me, they HAUL in the money here.
Anyway, the woman who was checking my knapsack gave me a hard time. Why? Because I had a Nalgene bottle full of water; a Leatherman Wave; and a pair of discs for disc golf. I also had a small shoulder satchel containing ... er... something else that they would not have allowed in. The woman began groping that, and told me I had to open it. Let me say that I was NOT going to open THAT one, so I said, "You're already not letting me in for THIS stuff (gesturing at the Wave and discs); I'm not opening this bag too!" So after a short discussion in which I got impatient and called their check "bullsh*t," I turned around and walked back the way I had come in. I walked around the city block, put the Leatherman in my pocket, put the two golf discs into the front, smaller pocket of the bag, and tucked the water bottle down farther under my towel and folded-up rain poncho. I walked a block to one of the other entry gates and presented my bag to a male checker. He asked me to open it and I showed him the towel and poncho, he groped the bag a bit, and let me pass.
So I was in with the nasty Leatherman and frisbees, and a bottle of water which, had I been forced to empty at the gate, I could have filled for free from the bottled-water stand they have inside the festival. Oh, and did I mention the AFCK that had been in my back pocket the whole time?
"Security" measures like this are a goddamned JOKE. They attempt to stop people who are not a problem even IF they carry a 3.75" knife (or "worse"), and of course they fail to stop anyone with a half ounce of brains and the determination necessary to conceal an item imaginatively. They harass innocent people based on the tools they refuse to be forced to be without, and it is obvious that a real bad-guy who wished to enter with a weapon would not be stopped.
My satisfaction comes from the fact that I don't let them force me to be utterly vulnerable, despite their misguided efforts.
Sheesh, those hip-hop/rap folks are always terrified that some rival gang member's gonna do 'em in.
Peace.