#746 Interdiction Priorities

So I was up at the courthouse the other day. I had to go up to take part in some county commissioner thing. And I noticed something odd. It’s not new, it’s just something I realized for the first time.
One of the three courthouse buildings houses the sheriff’s department, one building houses the courts and judges and one houses the administration. The one that holds the administration contains the offices of the county clerk, the county auditor, the county treasurer and the county assessor. It also has offices for all three county commissioners.
One building holds all the key upper county officials upon which depends the leadership of the county.
Then there’s the building that contains the courts and the judges. The judicial branch as opposed to the executive branch. Separation of powers physically as wells as constitutionally.
The judicial building has another feature the executive building doesn’t have. It has a security checkpoint. One of those screening things like in airports. Empty your keys and change in a tray, walk through an x-ray tunnel, have a magic wand waved over your bulges, you know. Terrorist protection.
So dumb guy that I am, I had one of those thoughts like I had when I was driving past the giant fence protecting Fort Lewis: Wait a minute. They’re the ones with guns. It’s us unarmed people that need a fence.
So it is with the courthouse buildings. Are they protecting the right people? I’ve got nothing against judges, but it seems to me if a terrorist was going to do something to cripple the county, interrupting its flow of traffic ticket processing would not have a serious effect.
So why would they want to bomb judges?
Someone’s protection priorities are skewed. The message here seems to be that the county executive officials are expendable. And the best way to keep the county going in the event of an attack is to keep our judges functioning.
We may not be able to process property taxes, but by golly, we can get a fine and community service out of a fender bender offender with a cellphone.
America, ya gotta love it.