Have we gone overboard in providing protection for society’s notables? Washington Post columnist David Ignatius suggests we have.
By David Ignatius
Washington Post Columnist
WASHINGTON — It was an unsettling image: Arrayed in front of the neighborhood barbershop last week were four burly men with the characteristic earpieces and bulky suits that marked them as security officers.
Inside, gracing the barber’s chair, was the well-trimmed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller.
Perhaps in today’s Washington, the FBI director truly needs a security detail to protect him when he gets a haircut.
But I wonder. From my vantage, the blatant obviousness of his bodyguards only called attention to him. At the grocery store across the street, he was the talk of the checkout line. “Who’s over at the barbershop?” “The FBI guy, what’s-his-name.” “No way!” People were coming out just to look.
Protecting our public servants is important, to be sure. But we have gotten so cranked up about security in the United States that senior officials travel in cocoons, as if they are under constant threat.
