This past Sunday was the annual
Israel in the Gardens fair in Yerba Buena Gardens here in San Francisco. This was before the attack at the DC Holocaust museum mind you, but I noticed a lot more security, both private and SFPD, this year than in previous years. It was all very discreet. SFPD wasn't wandering around the fair, but they were at the numerous entrances. The fair is wide open with no controlled entrances. Anyone of the public could wander through as some who had no idea what was going on did.
All this extra security could have been because of Israel's questionable Palestinian policies, but this isn't the first year of the fair, and not the first year I've attended. I wondered whether SFPD knew something the rest of us didn't.
As an aside, my mother, who is a Holocaust survivor from Germany, thinks the US will go Nazi at some point, and is very matter of fact about it. She doesn't see enough difference between German and American culture and attitudes for this to be unlikely.
I hope and pray she's wrong.