Mayor Martin Walsh has decided not to increase security measures at his City Hall office, one month after a 300-pound man unsuccessfully tried to storm inside.
That's a decision that should be applauded, said homeland security expert and host of the "Security Mom" podcast Juliette Kayyem.
"These things happen, and you're not going to put a security apparatus over democracy, so to speak, because of an isolated incident," she said.
Walsh has said that he feels safe at City Hall, and did not want to impede access to the "people's office" because of one isolated incident.
“We’re not going to be putting up barricades and putting up checkpoints. We have a checkpoint coming into the building where people go through. We have police officers walking around the building. I feel perfectly safe," he told the Boston Herald.
Kayyem agreed, arguing that more restrictions would be a disproportionate response to the existing threat.
"You could have a very intense security apparatus almost anywhere to make it safer, but what kind of society what that be? That's the challenge of security," Kayyem said.
"The easy answer would have been to have an armed person at his door, but that's just not the way he or this city wants that office to work," she continued. "I think it should be applauded, because it's not easy to say that."
To hear more from Juliette Kayyem, tune in to Boston Public Radio above.
