Perspective

"Security beefed up at Cedar Rapids Public Library" was a memorable piece from The Onion — memorable because coming less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, it offered a healthy dose of perspective while much of the "real" news media was still in hysterical-panic mode.

But while the Cedar Rapids Public Library probably isn't terribly high on the list of likely terrorist targets, it's higher on the list than the town of Ocean View, Del., population 1,135. But just in case, the Department of Homeland Security has been pouring money into Ocean View and other off-the-main-road towns in Delaware.

Lee Williams and Mike Chalmers of The (Del.) News Journal tell the story of "Delaware's Homeland Security Spending Spree":

As terrorist targets go, the small town of Ocean View has neither a large population nor an industry that’s a potentially catastrophic target, such as a nuclear plant or chemical factory.

But no other jurisdiction in Delaware has worked the complex federal Homeland Security system for grants and gear as successfully as Ocean View. And according to Police Chief Kenneth McLaughlin, no town is better prepared for what he believes is the inevitable terrorist attack.

“Our little elementary school is more of a target than the White House,” says McLaughlin, an animated man who wears a white uniform shirt equipped with the kind of stars given to military generals. “We saw it in the Soviet Union. The Chechens took one. We can’t let our guard down.”

To “eliminate or isolate the threat,” the chief says, Ocean View pursued $111,632 in tactical gear and other equipment from U.S. Homeland Security Department defense grants, about $100 per resident for a quiet town separated from Bethany Beach by the lazy water in Assawoman Canal.

Most of the gear, most of the time, collects dust.

Since the 9/11 attacks, a stream of federal Homeland Security money has flowed into Delaware to buy SWAT gear, high-tech gadgets, expensive vehicles and other equipment, often for small-town police departments that face more threats from speeders and shoplifters than terrorists.

Police in the tiny Sussex County town of Milton, less than 2,000 residents, got $25,000 to buy heavy-duty body armor, helmets and an $8,500 door-lock system that reads entrants’ fingerprints. The even-smaller town of Ocean View, population 1,100, bought a $2,355 night-vision monocular. Clayton and Harrington got large SUVs for their chiefs to drive, a likely violation of Homeland Security guidelines.

Until recently, U.S. forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan were typically issued less-protective body armor than the Level IV body armor and ballistic helmets, capable of stopping high-power rifle rounds, ordered by virtually violent-crime-free towns such as Ocean View. With his Homeland Security money, McLaughlin purchased eight bulletproof vests, with accessories, at $1,210 each, eight SWAT-type radio microphones, at nearly $600 each, and a 130-kilowatt generator, which cost taxpayers nationwide nearly $22,000.

To get to Ocean View from where I'm sitting, I would need to drive down I-95. Starting just this side of the Pennsylvania state line, that would mean passing a nearly uninterrupted string of refineries and chemical plants along the Delaware River, from the Sun refinery in Marcus Hook, Pa., to the Valero refinery in Delaware City, Del. I would also pass by the Port of Wilmington, where 5 million tons of cargo are handled each year, largely uninspected. And a bit further south, just across the river, I would pass the cooling towers of the Salem/Hope Creek nuclear power plant.

In the more than five years since 9/11, little has been done to increase or improve security at those facilities. I'm sure that the Department of Homeland Security wishes it could do more but, you know, money doesn't grow on trees so they've had to do the best that they can with limited resources.