September 2004

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I came home tonight to find security guards blocking the only entrance to the apartment complex. To enter the complex, anyone driving had to stop and deal with them (or I guess run over them, but that seemed extreme).

All the guard asked me was if I lived here and if so what my apartment number was, and then if I would print then sign my name on a form. I was not asked to provide proof of identity. It seemed stupid and pointless, yet harmless, so I complied. But it bothered me nonetheless.

I don't feel my privacy was invaded. He only asked for public information, much of which is in the phone book. But I don't like having my travels interrupted. It was the end of the workday, I was tired, and I really wasn't in the mood to deal with something unnecessary. Which this was.

This is not a gated community. I don't want to live in a gated community, or I'd make plans to do just that. Nor was there a complex-wide event going on, for which I would understand that they wanted to make sure non-residents didn't get to the party (that happened once a few years ago; it was a nuisance, but an announced one).

There was no announcement that this was going to happen. I wonder what the guards did with people who didn't live here. I wonder if visitors were allowed to come in. I wonder if carpool drivers were annoyed. I wonder what the hell the point was. And I wonder if they plan to keep this up.

I think I'm most annoyed because I believe this is some vapid attempt to justify last month's rent increase, by showing us that "security" has been beefed up (emphasis on beef: there were no women and all the men I saw looked like something central casting decided was "security guard type").

If so, thanks but no thanks. I don't feel unsafe, there has not been an upswing in crime, and I frankly think that someone armed only with a clipboard and a pen is less protection than pain in the ass.