Former Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge Defends Color-Coded Alert System.
Yellow alert forever?
A Personal Blog
by Michael Froomkin
Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law
My Publications | e-mail
All opinions on this blog are those of the author(s) and not their employer(s) unelss otherwise specified.
Who Reads Discourse.net?
Readers describe themselves.
Please join in.Reader Map
Recent Comments
- Brooks Fudenberg on I Voted
- Jermaine Chad Ingram on Some Thoughts about the Downballot (Voters’ Guide Part II: Judicial Retention Elections)
- C.E. Petit on I Voted
- Jane Moscowitz on I Voted
- Ally Figueroa on Some Thoughts about the Downballot (Voters’ Guide Part II: Judicial Retention Elections)
Subscribe to Blog via Email
Join 52 other subscribers
Of course, USA Today reports:
The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-10-ridge-alerts_x.htm
When this color coded alert system came out, I assumed that it was Homeland Security’s entry in the dumb sweepstakes. Not only did they win, they retired the cup.
Consider:
The level can never go to blue or green (lowest) because in truth there are bad people who wish to do us harm by smuggling in bombs or anthrax or just by giving us the evil eye, but…
..taking the level to red would result in instant panic and lead to huge numbers of deaths due to people trying to flee cities and being shot by suddenly beleaguered rural residents exercising their second amendment rights, so…
..the level always has to be yellow with occasional forays into orange.
Since the color level will always fluctuate between yellow and orange, no real information is conveyed and the whole thing is merely irritating. Where I worked, if the level was yellow I could turn left into the road leading to my parking lot after entering the facility. If the level was orange, the road was blocked off and I had to go one road further down to make the turn into the parking lot. Can’t say I felt measurably safer.
ej
Today when that plane entered restricted airspace in Washington DC we saw what the *Yellow* Alert REALLY means – THE FEDS HAVE NO EVACUATION PLAN AND ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING CONTINENCE!