Security Theater Looks The Same Every Time

Blocks of frozen zones established by NYPD barricades. Roaming cops and security forces corralling people onto the sidewalk or standing around like an unspoken threat. Leaders' allusions to potential danger so they can justify the militarized spectacle they have set up on the street. The husk of the community that was building up where the police now stand. Game 3 of the NBA Finals really took me back to my college days. What I hope remains the lowest point of my life came the morning after the raid on Hind's Hall at Columbia University. On April 30, 2024, I ran from the SRG officers that had stormed onto my college campus to unleash brutal force on students both inside and outside the gates. Afterwards, I waited until the early morning on the sidewalk of 1 Police Plaza for my friends to be released, and I sat with fellow students trying to make sense of what we had experienced. When I emerged from the subway at 116th that morning, I was greeted by the same barricades, the same police officers, the same lines of cop cars down my block as the night before. As if the previous night never happened. What started as an extravagant use of force became a normal part of student life. I had to swipe an ID to get into the gates of campus, leave for class earlier so as not to get stuck in security lines, sign in out-of-town guests just so we could sit on the steps, and keep lists of ways to sneak onto campus if I didn’t want to be tracked by ID swipes and security cameras. I couldn't walk across Columbia's brick paths without the eerie, disturbing awareness that I was being watched.