Some terrible reactions are possible.
Politicians worry me because they do not plan past the next election, and are so focused on winning it that they cannot concentrate on anything else.
The following are possible, if not likely.- I doubt that our leaders could tolerate not punishing somebody in the next month or two: They would consider the PR to be too harmful. If they cannot find good evidence pointing at the responsible parties, they might manufacture evidence against a likely culprit. There have been many documented cases of police, prosecutors, and other officials manufacturing evidence against innocent people. J. Edgar Hoover did some outrageous things for PR purposes. In a city near me, the police and prosecutors have framed various people, including a 60 year old grandmother. The city was successfully sued for a few million by an individual who unjustly spent several years on death row.
- They might install draconian measures for short term effect. Such measures are likely to last only a few weeks or a few months, after which we are as vulnerable as ever. They might institute extreme searching procedures. They might not allow anything to be carried onto an airplane, including pocket books, brief cases, medicine containers, et cetera.
- They might put into place draconian measures which last forever and provide law enforcement people a tool to harass innocent people. They might allow police to arrest anybody not carrying photo ID, based on mere suspicion. This would allow all sorts of abuses, including throwing away the ID and claiming that the person did not have it in the first place. We now have forfeiture laws which have been abused, and will undoubtedly be abused more often in the future.
Whatever is done for preventive purposes must be procedures we can live with for the next ten or twenty years.- Perhaps armed marshals on every flight.
- Perhaps the checking of all carry on items with the flight attendants.
- Perhaps pilots behind really secure steel doors with no communication from the passenger areas. For emergencies, flight attendants would have to communicate with airport personnel, who would radio the pilot describing the situation. In a suspected hijack situation, the pilots would not be informed and ground personnel would negotiate with the terrorists.
As for punishing the perpetrators: Guilty beyond reasonable doubt is not necessary, but there should be convincing evidence. Once identified, nothing we do should be considered too extreme, including punishing any government, individual, or organization that aids, finances, shelters, or sympathizes with the ba**rds. Perhaps we should not try to get everybody remotely connected to the perpetrators, but it should be an option to get even those only remotely involved.
