Beijing airport deploys armed guards – Beijing Olympics News – NBCSports.com
Reporting often fails to put information into perspective.
“Guards with machine guns began patrolling the Beijing airport. . .” (emphasis added)
First, the story tries to scare you by using the term “machine guns.” An M-16 is a machine gun. In other words, all of the National Guard troops patrolling American airports since 9/11 are carrying machine guns. In Israel, machine guns are everywhere: airports, grocery stores, outside the temples, in the temples, praying in the temples, roadblocks, everywhere. Second, China just “began” this policy. In fact, most places in China have relatively few visibly armed guards, even in places like Tian’anmen Square.
“The measures reflect the fears of Chinese leaders, who worry the Olympics might be tarnished by security threats.” (emphasis added)
If the Chinese did not provide world-class security at the Olympics, how would the world react? Could it be that the Chinese are prudently increasing security instead of fearfully increasing security? When the US government bounced us back and forth between Yellow alert and Orange alert and security increased, did we call it “fear”?
“Chinese police usually are unarmed, while some airport guards carry pistols.” “I think they look cool, and you rarely get to see such big guns.” (emphasis added)
These sentences do help to put things in perspective. Yes, China is often heavy handed–I personally saw a trial where a man received three years of hard labor because he was storing and selling a dangerous rat poison. Nevertheless, most police in China are unarmed and they rarely use force or the threat of force.
