Comments Elsewhere

To-day in Security Theater, the AU Alert system is activated and blasts a message to us through every available multimedia channel (including full-screen blinking !!! WARNING !!! messages literally popping up over my lab computer’s screen) to tell me that a “Suspicious person” had been reported at the Lowder business building wearing dark clothing, that the police were swarming the scene and that I should avoid the area. Shortly thereafter, the same system blasts a notice that everything’s all clear. What was so suspicious? Welp. “Auburn University students were briefly evacuated from Lowder business building on Auburn University’s campus Tuesday afternoon as police swept the building looking for a suspicious person who turned out to be wearing a medical brace.”