This may be more me telling stories that (hopefully) you may find interesting, but I've been wanting to comment on some of my experiences with the Secret Service since what happened during the Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
I was the San Antonio Police Department Special Operations/SWAT commander during the 2008 Presidential election cycle and was in the middle of George W's visit to San Antonio to see the several thousand Hurricane Ike evacuees from Houston/east Texas SA was housing at Kelly USA in 2008. I'm no expert on the Secret Service, but can give you a local law enforcement perspective from working with them.
I realize that the official investigation is not complete, but there is really nothing that can be said to defend or excuse what happened in Pennsylvania as far as the sniper is concerned. Total failure of communication, assignments, responsibilities, tactics, etc. Embarassingly awful and shameful for everyone involved, and in my opinion, in addition to the SS director resigning, whoever was in charge on the ground there should (at the very least) be severely disciplined, suspended, and/or demoted, and transferred out of the protection section of the SS.
Besides the actual shooting, some of you may have noticed some of the actions of the agents afterwards, though most on and around the stage seemed to know what they were doing. In particular, there was the one short/dark haired female who, in my opinion, went pretty damned near "code black" and was unable to properly function. She was obviously unprepared, confused, she repeatedly lasered her fellow SS members with her weapon, could not decide whether to holster or keep her weapon at the ready, and couldn't holster her weapon when she eventually tried. The Secret Service and their agents assigned to executive protection are supposed to be ELITE. The ones I have worked with definitely were. What we all saw on TV was concerning.
I was the San Antonio Police Department Special Operations/SWAT commander during the 2008 Presidential election cycle and was in the middle of George W's visit to San Antonio to see the several thousand Hurricane Ike evacuees from Houston/east Texas SA was housing at Kelly USA in 2008. I'm no expert on the Secret Service, but can give you a local law enforcement perspective from working with them.
I realize that the official investigation is not complete, but there is really nothing that can be said to defend or excuse what happened in Pennsylvania as far as the sniper is concerned. Total failure of communication, assignments, responsibilities, tactics, etc. Embarassingly awful and shameful for everyone involved, and in my opinion, in addition to the SS director resigning, whoever was in charge on the ground there should (at the very least) be severely disciplined, suspended, and/or demoted, and transferred out of the protection section of the SS.
Besides the actual shooting, some of you may have noticed some of the actions of the agents afterwards, though most on and around the stage seemed to know what they were doing. In particular, there was the one short/dark haired female who, in my opinion, went pretty damned near "code black" and was unable to properly function. She was obviously unprepared, confused, she repeatedly lasered her fellow SS members with her weapon, could not decide whether to holster or keep her weapon at the ready, and couldn't holster her weapon when she eventually tried. The Secret Service and their agents assigned to executive protection are supposed to be ELITE. The ones I have worked with definitely were. What we all saw on TV was concerning.
