I enjoy reading security expert Bruce Schneier's blog. He often notes and explains the difference between effective security measures and the zero-tolerance, zero-intelligence overreactions so often made by authorities who would choose to use 9/11 as an excuse to abandon all civil liberties and common sense.
A number of concerning examples of this type of injudicious behavior have unfortunately come out of Boston, where local authorities seem to think there are boogiemen everywhere out to get everyone. Boston became famously mockable when it chose to wildly and wantonly misinterpret a Cartoon Network advertising campaign, which was at most citable as littering, as a terrorist threat. And that's just one of the more conspicuous examples of its authorities' regular efforts to whip everyone up into a "they're out to get us!" frenzy.
Although technically several jurisdictions are involved, Boston's airport authorities are also developing a similar reputation for an absence of judgment. And innocent people keep ending up paying the price: trumped-up criminal charges and unjustifiable excoriation by their communities. Salem's witchhunting influence is clearly affecting its neighboring city, as instead of questioning whether it's their own judgment that may be out of kilter, charging authorities instead mount a diversionary campaign to convince the public that it was these people's own fault that their otherwise innocent behavior were so willfully misinterpreted by their reactionary, and apparently bored, inquisitors. After all, with no real terrorists to catch obviously they need to do something. Even it's just ruining innocent people's lives.