I work at a large, unnamed petroleum company. I noticed yesterday that there was a security guard standing at the top of the escalator in the lobby that leads down to the cafeteria. It's a nice cafeteria, and other downtown workers come there to eat lunch on occasion.
That afternoon, a site-wide email was sent saying that a Greenpeace van was spotted in the parking lot across the street the previous day. For that reason, security was tightened and no one who does not work for the company will be allowed to go downstairs to the cafeteria.
This sounded ridiculous to me when I first read it. Nothing indicated that a direct (or indirect) threat was received or that the van's proximity to the building was anything other than coincidence. So all of a sudden we're in a "heightened security state"? But as I thought about it, I realized that the company has been a target of Greenpeace's activism in the past. Although I still think it's overreacting a little bit, I can understand their desire to be cautious.
I wonder how long of a "heightened security level" one van sighting warrants? Maybe they were here doing some reconnaissance to plan some future activism event. The company should probably proactively shutdown the group, by any means necessary, regardless of support of other companies or agencies. Then the company executives can state over and over about how the group is directly linked to terrorist organizations. Eventually, if they say it enough times, the shareholders will believe it and re-elect the board members for another four-year term.
Oops - I think I mixed up my story lines there. Sorry about that. I'm going to go have lunch in the secured cafeteria.
Posted by Rob Reid at September 9, 2004 11:13 AM