Security

I’ve mentioned the high level of security in the city before. For some pictures of the thousands of police officers, security guards, and 100,000 antiterrorism soldiers (and a missile defense system around the National Stadium!), check out the Boston Globe's Big Picture blog.

There are security guards in many public places and especially at the entrances to schools, apartments, and other large buildings. Because of their ubiquity, I’ve gotten used to seeing security guards everywhere and I guess I didn’t notice the steady rise in their numbers lately. I know see teams of security gathered for a talk or marching in straight lines. There aren’t too many armed officers in this area, but they are pretty common in the city center and around the Olympic venues.

This morning on my way to class I counted the number of security guards. It’s not a very long distance - about a 15 minute walk or maybe three minutes on a bike.
I saw 57 security guards, way more than I expected. That’s at least five for every block! Granted, they tend to stand (or sit) around in groups and I did see about a dozen at once who were marching down the street. Only on the last block of the campus, while approaching my classroom building, did I not see a single security guard for a whole block, which made me wonder if I should start to worry about being in an unsafe area. I also saw 24 Olympic and Beijing Language University volunteers during my commute.

It's already feeling like a police state. Will it be any different during the Olympics?