Ravens will have enhanced security outside stadium after mass shootings

[Poe the Raven]

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The Ravens host the Jaguars this week in the preseason opener, and security will be increased in the aftermath of Saturday’s mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.

Vernon Conaway of the Maryland Stadium Authority said earlier this week that an “additional, supplemental police presence” will be added outside M&T Bank Stadium (where the Ravens play) and Camden Yards (where baseball’s Orioles play).

Via Amanda Yeager of the Baltimore Business Journal, Conaway said that there are no precise threats against the stadiums or the teams.

“[W]e believe it’s the prudent thing to do and just reassure fans with the police presence that we are a safe environment,” Conaway said.

When it comes to securing a place where thousands gather, the biggest challenge becomes drawing the line where enhanced security measures begin and end. Well before entering the stadium, fans already begin to gather. Wherever the perimeter of enhanced security begins, the other side of that line will not entail extra security measures.

This doesn’t mean that enhanced security measures outside of a venue are pointless; they have real value when it comes to putting minds at ease, especially where the fans are most closely and tightly gathered. But for every hard target there are hundreds of soft targets, and any madman intent on wreaking havoc with a weapon of war will be able to find a place where there are plenty of potential victims, and little or no security,