"In a land where the Bobby has had the authority and power for years to shout "Halt, or I shall yell 'Halt!' again!", perhaps you do need a little education on dealing with terrorism."
Sorry, that's how we do things, and, guess what? We don't seem to get shot (by criminals or by the police shooting at criminals) anywhere near as often over here. Unless you are a Brazilian electrician.
I left Belfast in 1988 to go to university in England. My childhood memories are of bombs going off regularly, guns being pointed at me, checkpoints and searches. That was a fairly middle class experience, It was much worse for many others.
Over 30 years of troubles government measures to restrict freedom were opposed. We did not carry identity cards, and would have resisted all efforts to have this imposed. We got on with our lives, with far less of the current hysteria. As did many people in the mainland. The threat to life was much greater, the terrorists much more intelligent and organised. Over 3000 deaths from a population of 1.25 million in NI =750,000 deaths in the USA pro rata if you do the maths. Don't say 9/11 was more effective.
Call me paranoid but a lot of this fear is created and persisted by government as a means of power over the general populace. The Bush administration know this, and play to it openly. The US has a great history of this, from McCarthyism to today. It is no way to run a country. We are at risk of becoming as bad.
Keep realistic measures going on in the background of course, but please do not jump on the bandwagon of unfounded fears or the terrorists truly will have won.