There’s no federal courthouse in Lancaster at this time, although we’ve been promised one for a long, long,time.
How about using the Convention Center as a federal courthouse until the real one is built?
New York finds it inconvenient to hold the trial of an accused terrorist there, but if the trial were held at the LCC, there would be hundreds or thousands of newsmen, security people coming to Lancaster for the trial. People who lost friends or family in the fall of the towers might also want to attend the trial in order to stare him in the face, and Lancaster is close enough for them to drive or to take the train or a bus. .
That wouldn’t help just the Marriott and the Brunswick operate at full capacity, but it’d help fill the rest of the motels and inns in the county, and fill an awful lot of restaurant tables at mealtimes as well.
And I’d like to stare the terrorists right in the face and tell them these colors don’t run. You can’t get the folks of Lancaster Pennsylvania to cower in the corner, nor force us to tiptoe, barefooted through airports. Give us your best; it’s only terrorism if you frighten us, and you’ll find that we can’t be cowed, so you might as well give up.
And if they decide to crash an airplane into my house, and I die as a result, so be it. Live free or die!
One catch: the downtown Lancaster convention center would be almost impossible to make secure. There are so many outside entrances and interior hallways (including quite a few hidden from the public) that the suspects could not possibly be made safe from an angry mob.