For the average American, the amount of armed police officers you see walking around everyday would seem a bit strange. Yes, there are a lot of people here - about 20 million in İstanbul to be approximate - so it does seem fitting that there are so many police. Conspicuous police, I mean. There are just as many plain clothes as there are uniformed. If you want to get a good idea about this, go to the mosque on Fridays and watch the men who go to pray and you will see how many of them are packing heat under their leather jackets. Of course, this is for a residential district. In places where there are more people, like shopping districts and tourist areas, the guns get bigger and the army usually hangs around just to make sure there is no nonsense about the national treasures.
Private security for buildings, museums, car parks, mosques, shops, and the public transportation system is a veritable small army in itself that indeed rivals the police in numbers. There are two guards on every tram/train station and at least one on every tram/bus/train/boat in the city. It isn't uncommon to have your bag searched randomly when you go through the turnstile at the train station, although it doesn't happen often. And a few weeks ago when I went to a shopping center with my friends, we had to allow security to search the car before we could park in the garage, and then we had to go through a metal detector to go inside.
The police keep tight on the public order. For every public rally or demonstraiton in a square or street with 50 people or more, a large armored bus will come and a regiment of riot police in full gear will pour out and leer at the crowd from close by, ready for anything. Some of my liberal friends are probably *tsk*-ing in disgust right now, but actually, I don't mind; I kind of enjoy it. Sometimes the security can become an inconvenience, but I think it helps more than it hurts. I feel quite safe and I don't have to worry so much about some nutjob doing something stupid and killing people, or any thieves making off with my stuff. I don't mind submitting to a search if it helps keep things safe - I've got nothing to hide so I needn't worry. I don't like to talk about politics too much, but I think our fine country should take a lesson - we might all be a little safer back home if we made small sacrifices like this and ratcheted up the security a little.
However, you can't call this a police state. Despite Code 301 (by which one can be jailed for insulting the nation, the flag, or Atatürk) and the police raids you see on the evening news every night, there is a lot of freedom. Sometimes the police will bully people, but this doesn't happen so much anymore. A few years ago this was common, but not so much nowadays. Why? Because the government has to make nice and look civil for their bid to join the European Union. Hopefully they will never be accepted, because it would be a financial and demograpic disaster for this country and Europe, but despite the outcome the efforts have had a good effect I think. Even though corruption is still rampant and blatant, the police behave (allegedly) more civil and still maintain the public order,
And that's all I will ever say about politics in this blog.
