FishbowlNY spotted a story about Salman Rushdie‘s recent lecture at Widener University, located in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester. Apparently the local police thought the author, who’s still the object of death threats from fundamentalist factions of the Muslim faith, posed a major security risk. So while Rushdie roams Manhattan freely, Chester sent an armed escort and guard dogs to meet him at the Amtrak station, then flooded the campus with tactical teams, just in case. “When you’re in a cage for so long and you’ve managed to get out of the cage, the last thing you want is to have it upset,” Rushdie told the Philadelphia Daily News, describing himself as “absolutely horrified” by the reception.