More security for broadway audiences? — Page 4

If they were going to do a proper job of checking bags they would have to open up the theatres earlier. Don't some theatres (maybe Lincoln Center) make you check large bags... or was I imagining that?

Late news on CNN reported tighter security in Times Square, at bars and restaurants (I think) and Madison Square Garden.

Vintage- Lincoln center does not check bags

I never gave it much thought til last summer when I went to a concert at a small venue here (CT) and they checked my purse. I immediately thought, they never do this in NY. I go to the theatre much more often than I see concerts. Sometimes I'll wake up in the summer and decide to hop on a train and go to a matinee by myself. I wouldn't mind it one bit if people were checking bags. I'm in the minority, but I actually think it's a good idea.

A lot of theaters check my backpack, but I always sail right through that check because it is empty... despite the front pocket containing two Honest Teas. Shhh....

dramamama611 said: "Some theatres do check...but not every patron. I usually carry a back back with me and I'd say some one peeks about a third of the time.

"

I must look nonthreatening. I need to work on being more badass. Maybe I need to cultivate my resting bitch face.

I usually carry a small bag with me (when I visit) that contains my camera and a few small items. Some theaters check, many don't. I have even asked "do you want to look in my bag?" They don't. I hope it wasn't because I asked. I could be a "polite nutcase".

Updated On: 11/14/15 at 01:07 PM

Glittergrrl said: "dramamama611 said: "Some theatres do check...but not every patron. I usually carry a back back with me and I'd say some one peeks about a third of the time.

"

I must look nonthreatening. I need to work on being more badass. Maybe I need to cultivate my resting bitch face.

"

By the way.....BOTH theaters I went o on Saturday looked inside my bag.

Can't they just make a specific show paranoid-accessible, add $100 to each ticket, and let the audience queue up two hours early to go through metal detectors? And the rest of us will be fine doing our normal thing at every other performance?

Updated On: 11/16/15 at 12:33 PM

Felt so bad for the people watching ragtime. So devastating.

I leave security matters to people with knowledge, not fear. If actors/theaters are getting threats and concerns, they will assess those threats and act on them. If you only protect yourself from the threats you can imagine, you are limited by your imagination in a way someone with darker intent is not.

To decide safety looks like that TSA clown college at airports is pure folly, as study after study has shown they are window dressing to make people THINK they are safer. Look at their record, every new security measure like everyone taking their shoes off happens AFTER someone does something to get around their system successfully.

You can't terror-proof the world, and inventing threats where they may not regularly exist isn't helpful. But if you want a broken system where you can pay more for tickets, and have to go through metal detectors to feel safer when you still aren't, that is certainly a very American response to things.

The fact that someone can do something horrible in a theater doesn't mean they can't also do it in a water park, a restaurant, a sex club, or anywhere else. And if they screen everyone going in, then how hard will it be for someone with devious intent to become an usher, a bartender, a janitor... like I said, your vision is limited by how you would act as a terrorist: "I could buy a theater ticket and walk in..." that has no relation to someone who will not be as thwarted by a metal detector, and just see that as a mere obstacle.

Which is still to say that there is no credible reason to believe this is a major issue in the first place.

Updated On: 11/16/15 at 02:20 PM

Originally this was just about anti-semitic violence at Fiddler, tho.