It’s comforting to think that professionals and experts have a firm handle on the things we entrust them with. We want doctors who cure sickness, politicians who understand the issues and make informed decisions on our behalf and car companies that make safe cars for example. But, as one gets older, it doesn’t take very long to come to the conclusion that the experts in any field are struggling to get it right just like the rest of us. Medical malpractice, corrupt politicians and automotive safety recalls are all regular facts of life.
Sadly, most people apparently haven’t figured this out about public safety and emergency management agencies. Those of us who “back the blue” might even think they’re bordering on infallible, while many criminals think all police officers are expert marksman in peak physical condition. Experience at the range watching police shoot and the emergence of body cam videos on the internet have shown us all that some local cops are pretty far below average, but there’s still a myth out there that the U.S. Secret Service is a much more high-end agency that doesn’t make those kinds of rookie mistakes.
Hollywood has helped to perpetuate that myth. When we see the agency and its job portrayed on screens big and small, it appears that the Secret Service has all of the high points covered out to hundreds if not over a thousand yards away from the people they protect, especially when it’s the president or a presidential candidate. To beat them and get a bullet anywhere near POTUS, you’d have to be even better than Bob Lee Swagger, right?
But, recently a kid who wasn’t an expert of any kind shattered that myth. At a distance of only around 125 or 200 yards (the larger number coming from the former head of the Secret Service), he got past all of the security with a rifle and managed to almost kill a former president and current presidential candidate for a major party. Had he been a little less distracted or a slightly better shot, we would be facing a funeral for President Trump at a minimum and civil conflict the likes of which have not been seen in some time.
Naturally, even Rep. AOC knows that this doesn’t match what any of us thought about the Secret Service. Instead of being solidly protected for hundreds of yards, the safety perimeter for this event was much smaller, leaving significant gaps in security that the shooter was able to exploit.
As the former head of the Secret Service says in the video above, the availability of personnel and funding is a factor when agencies determine where to set the perimeter. With unlimited funding, a giant Not-So-Secret Service could send hundreds of agents out to secure every high spot within a mile of the president and major party candidates and then pay endless overtime to state and local law enforcement to flood the zone with every cop wanting a few extra bucks willing to drive in. Heck, with unlimited money, the agency could pay double over time or even triple overtime to make sure every cop within 500 miles wants to go and cash in.
But, we don’t live in that world. Even the money printer has its limits. While every life is priceless in the eyes of the divine and even a sparrow’s death gets noticed, the federal government of the United States has to set a price on the life of everyone from park rangers to astronauts to the president and then make informed risk management decisions. It may sound cold-blooded, but it’s an unavoidable fact of life in a world that doesn’t provide the unlimited resources that would be needed for absolute safety.
With the illusion of absolute presidential security shattered and the security theater failing to protect beyond the real perimeter, there’s blood in the water. You can bet that there are unhinged sharks out there who smell this blood and think that maybe they, too, could shoot them a president or vice president. For a sick enough freak, it’s the ultimate big game tag.
With the truth out that the Secret Service is just winging it on a limited budget like the rest of us, it makes a lot of sense to move political rallies and other campaign events for all candidates indoors, or at least to a stadium with a raised rim on all sides. The agency is taking a lot of crap for recommending that, but it’s really the only way that the perimeter can truly be secured from rifle fire in the real world.
Of course the “alternative lifestyle” dirty little scribbler/key-pecker/screen-tapper wants Trump to end his energetic, electrifying, massive outdoor rallies which permit crowds of 50k+.
We know why you want Trump to end his practice of holding outdoor rallies ie. to tamp down enthusiasm among his followers and make it harder for the curious to attend. Pull down your skirt your Democratic Party slip is showing.
Trump gets less security than POTUS. Clinton and Obama probably have even less. This seems so blatantly obvious it’s hardly worth commenting on. How many SS agents do people think there are anyway?
You are committing the same deadly mistake as the bean-counters and the former Director made.
Security MUST be provided according to risk profile, NOT a title or a label.
If they lock POTUS in a vault with only one key, you only need one person to guard him.
If you allow the lowest person on the “protection totem pole” out to do a public meet and greet in a crime-ridden neighborhood, they need LOTS of agents.
You and your common sense… :0)
They locked Epstein up for his own protection (most importantly as a witness who could ‘spill the beans’).
“Had he been a little less distracted…”
I’ve heard analysis that it was the local cop who stuck his head over the edge of the roof (and then quickly withdrew) that likely saved the President’s life. Once the would-be-assassin realized he was busted, he had to rush his shots, which took place almost immediately after that sighting.
More of the finger pointing sloped roof run around. There were flashing neon lights that indicated the shot dead perp was not there to support electing DJT. It was no man power budget BS it was gross incompetence.
TRUMP/VANCE 2024.
I love that movie. 🙂
You mean Anna Nicole didn’t marry for love?
This whole article is a fucking joke! Screw you for giving any of these agencies cover!
Lack of manpower or funding does not even begin to explain what happened at Butler. Full stop.
I won’t comment on the relative safety of indoor vs outdoor facilities going forward, in part because riflefire is only one risk of many.
Everything I read agrees – there were cops in the building, and around the building. Only the shooter was on the building. He was known to be there before Trump took the stage, and only opened up after Trump had been onstage ten minutes.
Was the shooter was dead by the time Trump was swarmed by agents? Looks that way.
???
Please put away the lipstick, it just annoys the pig.
It is simple: Plenty of people saw the BG, yet only the select few ‘tried’ to confront him. We are in a free and open society, and spending a huge amount of money protecting anyone is a waste 99% of the time. The ‘elites’ should bear their cost. Venu changes, 100k officers, might lower the odds, but they do not prevent someone with half a brain from getting close enough. SS has the perfect game to print money, let a BG get close, and your director gets fired, but the budget will skyrocket. Lein units tend to be elite, fat ones not so much. The real problem is that the job falls to SS or LEOs. If there is a high risk, the SS should be the nearest field, and the local DOD units and NG should be the rest; they are already paid and have a duty.
It isn’t impossible or even that difficult to secure an outdoor event. All that is necessary is to erect visual barriers (such as the grandstands) in locations that will preclude direct, aimed fire at the podium from effective range. The SS does this very regularly for people that they are actually protecting rather than leading into the slaughter house. Sports stadiums are particularly easy to secure unless there are taller structures nearby.
The SS should have recognized the roofs of nearby buildings as well as the water tower as prime locations for snipers. Aside from arranging the grandstands in a manner that obstructed direct fire from the most obvious sniper positions, they should have had their own snipers in those positions. In fact the local LEOs had been assigned to post snipers on that roof. However; it was to hot so they went inside from where they could peek out the windows. It appears that someone actually was on top of the water tower when the shooting started.
This was at best a cluster fuark if not a criminal conspiracy to enable an assassination.
Y’all know what’s gonna happen now, right? Every politician from the small town mayor to the self proclaimed VIP’s in Congress and various Departments and agencies is going to be screaming for their own private platoon of security forces at tax payer expense. And they will demand that normal citizens surrender anything more lethal than a Daisy BB gun.
This is the Secret Service acknowledging how incompetent they are.
Just do your jobs.
“he got past all of the security …”
After being spotted by Secret Service, commented on, for at least 30 minutes before the first shot and before he even got on the roof. Then, after being seen climbing onto the roof and then after a dozen or more rally attendees pointed him out to police and Secret Service before the first shots
…. then and only then did he get “past all of the security”
a master of the stealth approach he was not, he was very obvious. In fact, this kid received more attention from Secret Service than any one else at the rally and he still got “past all of the security”