$170,000 Zodiac!

[beamie]

Working in the shipping industry I see allot of this "port security". Just recently all the commercail shipping companies had to write a new VSP..."vessel security plan"...

I do like the idea of spending money on Port Security but the unfortunate truth is this... It is just another word for someone covering thier a$$. A boat like the one pictured will not have M16's but something bigger in the 7.62mm cal or even a 50cal. But unless you have a prior good intell the says a 30' cigerette boat with red topsides is going to drive into a ship sometime between 9 and 10 in the morning......you have just about zero chance of stopping it. Your boat has to be in just the right spot right time and then the people onboard, not the most intelliegent, have to make a lightning fast decision weather they are going to destroy a terrorist or just a guy and his family that didn't know they shouldn't be there. A very tough call to make...this gives the bad guy a huge advantage. Like 99 to 1.

The security industry has really opened up the gateway for much waste fraud and abuse and will pass this along to the consumer. In my job I see the invioces of the security companies, It is very expensive even when they hire third world nationals that don't speak the language. Happens every day.

To put this in perspective here is an example. When renewing my CG Licence in Boston there is now a security guard in between the double doors before you go in. Why, because this looks good on paper that someone is there. In truth it was a little girl, Central American decent, that could hardly speak the language to tell me to sign the book, sitting on her butt with a toy gun. Maybe she didn't even have a gun...She was probably making 8-10 bucks an hour. But I can garantee the company that employs her is charging is Government 3 to 4 times that. This equals crap services for the money spent, but it looks good on paper. "we had security in place when this happened, I did my job ect." I see this all too often.