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Originally posted by embers:
because the culture/society has become unbelievably paranoid....
when I was in Spain back in the 1970's (when they still have a very consverative government) you had machine gun totting soldiers in every small town...

when I moved to Washington, DC in 1982 you could walk into the Capitol building by any of a dozen doors without even being screened...
now you can't approach the building by bus or car or on foot...they have built up the security walls so that it looks completely like an armed camp

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As I recall (and I could be waaaaaaay wrong on this, so correct me if I miss), Spain in the 70's was having a big problem with Bath seperatists blowing stuff up.
The US Capital was open and easy to access until a few Islamists who wanted to protest US Imperialism (or whatever they chose to call it) made it obvious that security needed to be stepped up.

Either way, the presence of large cadres of armed and armored Feds indicates that there is (or is at least percieved to be) an ongoing threat from rebels/separatists/terrorists.
Most of the Fed presence appears to be Security Theatre vs Security however. On at least two occasions our BDH's waltzed through Alliance security (Train Job & Ariel), and if Jayne hadn't been, well, Jayne, Ariel would have gone without a hitch. Even Trash would have worked if YoSafBridge hadn't been visually ID'd by the only person able to do so (Why not take at least a few precautions there but...). Security Theatre is all show, no real security, but generally infringed rights/privacy.

Real security would be:

Damn near impossible to forge credentials (problem: Credentials are issued by civil servant clerks who are not generally paid well, and are not respected by much of anyone. Bribing/blackmailing such persons is always a possibility).

DNA verification, retinal scans, voice print analysis, movement recognition (every person walks/moves a bit differently. Ask any prior military how they can ID a friend in a crowd of people wearing the exact same outfit as everyone else at a range of 50+ yards) at checkpoints (ala Gattica (if you haven't seen it, SEE IT). Will it work everywhere? Nope. But at hospitals, banks, spaceports, any other high value target; it had better. Can it be spoofed? Maybe.

Meds being secured in a vault accessible only to a very short list of personnel (or even robotic systems similar to ones coming into use now). Doc orders the drugs, drugs are dispensed. Noone gets to walk into a storeroom and clean the shelves. Mass casualties requiring unusually large doses be dispensed alerts the entire staff immediately.

Profiling people by appropriate metrics: Planet of origin (race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation), credit history vs stated purpose (Mal's never had much money (near as I can tell), so him turning up on an expensive core world saying he's on vacation doesn't sound right...), tax records, criminal history, war records (general amnesty is great, and I'm not saying deny folks services, but I don't think keeping an eye on 'em would be amiss), employment history, etc., etc. Whatever metrics can be determined to be predictable determinants of probably criminal behaiviour. Paying cash for something? There's a big flag. Even in America today people are starting to look at you odd when you want to pay cash and not give your name & phone number.
Who is it? VISA? Has the commercial of the bustling shop, everyone paying with creds until the one guy brings it to a crashing halt by using cashy money.


Anyway, yeah, there's definitely a Percieved threat.

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