Scary checkpoint - why?!?

We’ve been told check points exist for our own safety and I’ve so far accepted that without a second thought. When my car was stopped in the past, they asked for my ID and then I was sent on my way. I don’t know if this has changed because the other day the process was longer and, moreover, scary.

I was on the way home along Galle Road and a bit past Barefoot I was stopped at a checkpoint. I was asked to park the car and walk up to the sheltered box-like structure under which an army guy and 2 police officers stood. I handed over my ID and was asked for the license as well. One police officer came out of the boxlike structure and stood closely beside me while the other officer proceeded to write down my name, address and what not in some sort of ledger. The officer beside me studied the license closely commenting on the license photo as compared to how I look now. After this thorough examination of the ID and license I was asked to sign beside my name in that ledger.

I thought it was quite strange that we’re now asked to sign ledgers and thereby have to get out of the vehicle. My dad said, sometimes they search the car (including under the driver’s seat) and hence asks the driver to get out…but in my case, the car was glanced at once (to write down the license plate number) and that was it.

The issue I have is the fact that I, a girl (a very tiny one at that), needed to leave the relative safety of my car to walk to a box like structure manned by 3 men. Unfortunately, when you've been forced to see the ugly animal-istic side of the male species, even a man who stands too close to me in the supermarket queue quite honestly makes me call upon all my will power to stay standing while every cell in my brain screams to run fast in the other direction. Therefore, that day at that checkpoint, I was so scared, when I signed that ledger I couldn’t remember for the life of me what my signature looked like and ended up printing my name in a very child-like scrawl. And on the way home as soon as the checkpoint disappeared from my rear-view mirror, I needed to pull up and calm myself down.

While I admit my own reaction at the time may have not been normal altogether, isn’t there still something inherently unsafe about one girl having to approach three men standing in a alcove-like place? The idea is that they are there for my security, for my safety, but at the end of the day, while they are members of security forces, they are also men. And they are people almost twice my size. And I, unfortunately, cannot live in a bubble-like make believe world where people ideally never hurt each other. They do. People known to you, that you trust for whatever whacky reasons, can turn around and in one second leave the rest of your life nightmare-riddled. And that day, I felt extremely vulnerable standing before these three men while they looked me up and down and studied my ID.

Maybe I don't know enough about security matters and counter-terrorism measures, but is there really no better way to provide us with security without heightening our sense of personal insecurity?