Earlier today, I got a parking ticket at 3rd and North Street while enjoying a tasty breakfast at Roxy’s. I normally have a roll of quarters in my car for the meters, but ran out the other day and only had one quarter left after buying a paper. Rolling the dice, I opted to take my chances with ten minutes on the meter.

Thirty-or-so minutes later, I returned to my car to find a bright green envelope stuffed under my windshield wiper.

——-

Last week, Roxbury tweeted that City Hall was now requiring residents show their identification before entering the building for any reason. He accompanied the Tweet with a photo of a uniformed Harrisburg police officer at the greeters booth (formerly used as a place for publications, flyers and community newspapers). So I was prepared to face the greeter when I entered the building.

As expected, there she was. A uniformed Harrisburg police officer sitting at the entrance booth to City Hall, stopping everyone who entered and asking each of them to “please sign in”.

I stopped. But only to question the new policy. “But I’ve been paying at least one parking ticket here per week for the last ten years, I’ve never had to sign in before”, I protested.

“Sorry, new rules. You need to sign in if you want to enter the building.”

Politely, I retorted “And what if I refuse to sign in? Does that mean I can’t enter the building?”

“There’s a payment drop box out back that you can use.”

“So I can’t come in?”

“No.”

Coupled with the recent raging against the Thompson Machine that’s been happening in the city, this seemed like the icing on the proverbial cake of the apparent paranoia displayed by our newly elected Mayor. Why would a resident need to show identification or sign a log to pay a water bill or parking ticket or get a permit for a block party?

Seems odd.

For a person to enter our State Capitol, Federal Courthouse or virtually any other government building, one must empty one’s pockets of all metallic items and pass through a metal detector in an effort to keep out guns and weapons. Guns and weapons can kill someone. This, I understand. Many known criminals enter courthouses en route to a trial date or to pay a fine. Likewise, our State Capitol houses important government employees and offices which could potentially attract an element that would wish harm on certain individuals.

I get it.

And if this is the concern at Harrisburg City Hall, then maybe it’s time to install metal detectors and a conveyor belt/x-ray system similar to those used in the state and county government buildings.

A quick Ebay search shows the cost of a walk through metal detector at about thirty eight hundred bucks. And finding an exact match on the conveyor x-ray machines used in airports and other secure locations was difficult, but I was hard pressed to find ANY x-ray machine for under fifty grand.

Add to that, a minimum of two security personnel at any given time, you’ve got a pretty hefty investment to secure a building in a bankrupt city.

—————

So is this latest scheme a poor-mans security tactic by the Mayor? Or is it that Ms. Transparency herself wants to track each and every citizen who enters the building and learn where we are going and what we’re doing there?

The latter seems plausible.

Because without being required to show identification, I could have signed in as Mickey Mouse. Or Dirk Diggler. Or Chuck U. Farley. Or any name, for that matter. Further, I could have just signed in with this fictitious name, went to pay my parking ticket and went on with my day.

But this is a matter of principle, my friends. The principle of being asked my business when I walk into a public building is an intrusion of privacy. And I’m no lawyer, but it seems like a violation of my civil rights.

Don’t we have the right to enter our government headquarters without being forced to declare our reason for visiting? I was merely trying to give the city money, after all. Wouldn’t they have record of my being there once they processed payment of the fourteen dollars attached to license plate “STEADY” for the ticket issued at about 9:45 this morning? Why waste the manpower of the extra step?

And the worst part of this? The officer couldn’t even give me a straight reason for the new policy. “Just doing my job, sir.”

I asked. I asked why this is happening, whose order it was and how long this has been in place. The only answer I was given was that this began last Monday.

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety” Benjamin Franklin (1759)