Cedar Point new security checkpoint

Here's hoping this goes away sooner rather than later.

Any intelligent terrorist should know that the Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day holidays are a LOUSY time for an effective attack. On the one hand you have large numbers of people concentrated in relatively soft targets. On the other hand, NOBODY is home watching television, so if you take out a soft target it might be three days before anybody else finds out about it. Remember the first goal of terrorism is to scare people fuvgyrff. Generating a large number of casualties is a secondary aim to generating a "That's HORRIBLE! And it could have been ME!" response. Those holidays are, on the other hand, an EXCELLECT time for making threats and convincing people to take scary precautions and voluntarily mess up their own plans.

Of course a third aim is for the Bad Guys to convince The Authorities that they are unstoppable. Convincing The Authorities to concentrate a large number of people into an unsecured space (such as a security checkpoint) that will maximize the effect of, say, a small explosion is a brilliant tactic.

I'm sure there must have been a fairly credible threat, and my guess is that what appears to be a knee-jerk response is probably really a measure prescribed by outside law enforcement. I would not be surprised to learn that the checkpoint is at least being supervised, if not operated, by outside law enforcement personnel.

Personally, I'm not at the park today, and I'm not planning to be there tomorrow. Maybe on Sunday. I wonder if this will still be going on then...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

e x i t english said:
Again, it's one of those things that, if there's some kind of rumor of a threat, and they do nothing - then something does happen - they would have to answer as to why they didn't take precautions. It's better to look safe than sorry.

And this is the Safety and Security Problem.

If something bad happens, obviously you didn't do enough, or you didn't do the right thing.

If you take special precautions and something bad happens, then you obviously did not do enough.

If you take special precautions and nothing happens, you cannot prove that the special precautions are not the reason that nothing happened. You can always be dinged for doing too little but there is really no way to know when you have done too much.

I suppose when the precautions start to cause problems ("Wait until the exit platform is clear before locking the lap bars") you can get some kind of feedback. But in general there is no feedback mechanism to tell you that you wasted your time and resources on an unnecessary or ineffective precaution.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

My friend forwarded me a text this morning mentioning a possible attack. I thought it was a joke but now the joke seems to be holding some water.

Kings Dominion has scanners at their entrance permanently, I support it for safety reasons.

If the threat is genuinely believed to be higher right now I don't have a problem with the security measures for the time around the holiday but I would really rather not have getting in the park become like a trip to the airport on a permanent basis.

Hopefully temporary. I'm not allowing some stranger to look through my car regardless of the situation.

shamrockcb said:

Kings Dominion has scanners at their entrance permanently,

I suspect Kings Dominion's metal detectors will vanish like they did at Carowinds. The wanding, while still incredibly annoying, is faster and just as effective.

Of course, any security checkpoint will only have a chance of stopping a threat that passes through the checkpoint.

Yeah, someone that knows what they're doing with a wand is considerably faster and arguably more effective without the infrastructure of permanent or temporary metal detector frames. I bet this is just for this weekend and perhaps other heavy crowd times.

If anything, adding a checkpoint also helps to serve as a bit of a crowd control on crazy days too, in a sense, by slowing the influx of people into the park.

Going through many airport security checkpoints during my life, I've always wondered if this day would come at Cedar Point. I've never seen this in my 40 years of going to the park but looking at the pic that Walt posted late this morning, I have to believe that the Metal Detector sign was made a while back and this was probably planned months ago (specifically for the 4th of July holiday) and not just a last minute decision. It took us 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot (after the fireworks) last year on the 4th ( hence our not going this year). We'll probably go in a few weeks since we have season passes.

There are HUGE crowds (especially late arrivers after 5pm) on both July 4th and Columbus Day and this is probably just an extra precaution to keep everyone safe. I do believe that there must have been a credible threat unfortunately. Hope everyone has a happy 4th but most of all a safe one. Have fun and enjoy those fireworks, one of my favorites in Ohio!

Sometimes a threat isn't needed. Other parks and areas enact these measures for practice, training, or to stay vigilant and one step up..

See military bases. Sometimes security randomly increases the protection level to keep prying eyes and would be threats at bay.

This reaction is probably like most in response to the recent terrorist threats/sleeper cell dilemma. It's better to be safe and make sure all things are checked and accounted for than have a disaster and no security or plan in place to thwart or deter any threats.

We've been in and back out in the last few hours. There was a security presence but no scanning at the marina gate. My husband said perhaps I shouldn't be posting that in case one of you is a terrorist. Lol. Chris

To all my friends here at PointBuzz: Have a safe and happy 4th whether you choose to spend it at the park or elsewhere.

ilikemotorcycles said:
Hopefully temporary. I'm not allowing some stranger to look through my car regardless of the situation.

I've never understood this stance... If you have nothing to hide, then what is the problem with a guy looking through the cars when it could potentially prevent something terrible happening from a real threat? I mean I know it wastes a minute or two of your invaluable time, but still, I wouldn't mind at all if its for safety reasons.

I don't agree with "regardless of the situation" becasue right now it may be warranted but I don't feel having people looking through my car any time I want to go somewhere on a permanent basis is cool. When the threat is high react to it, when nothing is out of the ordinary there's no reason to be paranoid as standard protocol.

It doesn't look too crowded there today. At least on the webcam showing the queues for MF and Rougarou. But I think on July 4th, the big crowd usually doesn't arrive until mid-afternoon. I hope the extra security didn't scare everyone away.

I'm guessing the majority of people planning to go today don't even know there is extra security in place. I wasn't planning to go anyway because of the crowds. I have friends planning to go sometime this weekend I think I doubt it will stop them.

If you're at the back of the line, it could take hours to even get in the park. Especially because of the Fourth.

TTD6262 said:

I've never understood this stance... If you have nothing to hide,

If you've got nothing to hide, the why even have a 4th Amendment? If a police officer knocked on your door and asked, "Can I look through your car, just to make sure you're not doing anything wrong," would you let him?

This "nothing to hide" defense of security overreach has been debunked so many times, I'm amazed when people still use it.

That's simply a ridiculous viewpoint, although I guess an opinion is never "wrong." He said "regardless of the situation" it's never ok. There's a HUGE difference between looking through a car because of a terrorist threat and a cop randomly coming to your house and your property with no logical reasoning and doing a search. That's a Faulty analogy, I'm sorry to say.

Are you saying that absolute enforcement of the 4th amendment is more important than stopping terrorist threats? That's sure what it seems like. I'm not saying it's always okay, but for you and him to say even under circumstances where it could potentially save lives that you STILL think it's an invasion of privacy, I think that's just not right.

There's also a difference between Cedar Point searching cars coming on to their property when there is a threat like there apparently is now and them deciding to do it to do it to be on the safe side permanently. Being private property they do have the right to do it either way but in general when there is not a specific threat to be concerned about there is no point to it. If I were going to the park this weekend knowing there is a potential issue I would have no problem with the security and a search of the car maybe if it comes to that but I expect that 2 weeks from now when the threat is back to the usual I should not have to prove that I have nothing to hide just to go to the amusement park. I think too when you switch from backpacks and purses to your car it feels like a bigger invasion to your privacy. I It's also a much bigger space and takes that much longer. To me the circumstances make the difference. Temporary precaution because of a threat I'm fine with. Permanent way of daily life no thank you.