Drones over the Next Boston Marathon?
So says the Boston Police Chief . . .
WTF!?
Seriously Mr. Police Chief? In just what capacity would you have these ‘drones’?
Let me state unequivocally that is a BAD Idea. A drone would NOT have stopped the Tsarnaev brothers from doing what they did . . . unless you sent a targeted missile strike on them in the middle of the crowd . . . which would have created the same sort of carnage among the innocents that the brothers’ bombs did! Also you’d be violating people’s civil rights, contrary to even how the Federal Government has decided certain, possible ‘tools’ should be used on American Soil as part of the NDAA. Lastly ,what will you do with the hours and hours of footage of innocent Americans once you’re through? Can we trust you to permanently erase it all? I’m sorry but such a trove may prove too tempting for some within the law enforcement community. What’s to stop some clandestine agency we don’t have a name for getting their hands on it?
No sir. A very BAD Idea.
Now, there will be standard law enforcement procedures in place, I’m sure, but I’m going to outline some points where I think there are huge holes from the layman's’ perspective. Any Law Enforcement person who knows better is free to leave a comment and correct me.
Here is what I would do for ANY Marathon or any other such public event:
Your ‘Tech’ should ‘fit in’
Example #1: Get a ‘Beats by Dre’ headset, augment it and turn it into a headset and microphone plugged into a radio that looks like an IPhone, IPod or Android device. Or have it be blue toothed.
Example#2: Communicate with flesh colored, wireless earwigs (that look like an 'invisible' hearing aid that fits right into the well of the ear). The ones with the coiled clear plastic are a dead giveaway. If you have to use an earpiece, mimic or augment a ‘Jawbone’ Bluetooth headset and use that.
. . . and any such other efforts.
Make sure any necessarily-visible ‘electronics’ mimics the surrounding citizenry.
Movement Discipline, Body Language, & ‘Accompanying Habits’
Come up with secret hand gestures to identify yourselves with each other. Use your cell phones to communicate as well, but ‘act like the crowd does’. Use the location services on Foursquare or FB to broadcast your position to your 'buddies', set up secret groups on FB with the cooperation of other law enforcement like the FBI etc, months in advance . . . use those tools, . . . let folks 'see you' being on FB via a 'glance' so you LOOK like a normal bystander – Everyone live-tweets and posts from where they are especially a public event. Let folks ‘see’ you being on Twitter or so doing that. BUT . . . have your partner covering for you in terms of being vigilant, scanning the surrounding populace as you do your ‘public social networking’.
Look like you ‘Belong’.
I mention this last but it’s probably the most important part, and to be sure, some of the previous two elements could be considered ‘subsets’ of this ‘philosophy’.
The standard division of the route and site by quadrants and have these plainclothes cops constantly patrolling should still apply all along the route or the site, dressed like the crowd, moving ‘casually’ through the crowd. However, get cops that look like ALL the ethnic demographics that will be present, and make sure these cops are 'comfortable' wearing the age-appropriate, culture-appropriate, casual dress. So if we’re at Beyonce concert and there’s a credible threat I’d like to know that there are cops and law enforcement around that could pass for ?uestlove! If we’re at a Taylor Swift show my ‘badge’ better be able to pass for her teen fan base. I’m serious. This is VERY important as folks or potential perpetrators will ‘sniff’ you out a mile away if you don’t. You need to be patronizing with the crowd. Go cheer the runners or performers on! Eat food from the vendors! Engage in small talk with the revelers, or bystanders! ‘Belong’!
Here’s why I stress this: In post 9/11 ‘Agents’ were sent all over the place to start sussing out ‘terrorists’ and ‘Potentials’. They basically blanketed all what I like to call ‘free speech havens’ like poetry cafe’s and open mic spots in NYC and other places. They didn’t ‘look’ like they ‘belonged’ at the spot, they didn’t eat or drink ANYTHING . . . they just ‘watched’ all the performers and occasionally they were ‘caught’ eavesdropping on people’s conversations. Within the first half-hour, all of the regulars and the types that would come there KNEW ‘who they were’. I was one of these ‘regulars’. People deliberately changed a piece or performance so these ‘visitors’ wouldn’t ‘focus’ on them . . . as did I. Eventually, certain people, including myself, made our trips to these venues less and less infrequent . . . so much so certain avenues closed because business was not as good anymore. However that is for another discussion; I mention it to show how unimaginative ‘police work’ can actually hamper what you describe as serving the public good. If you really want to catch folks that want to do harm you need to ‘belong’.
I can’t stress this enough: The Present ‘Big City’ practice of using stuffy, suburban-dwelling cops/law enforcement, who have no fashion sense need to be abandoned for this 'beat'. Like I said earlier none of the obvious get-ups that scream 'I'm a cop in plainclothes garb!', with the out-of-style, generic jeans and horrible looking sneakers, that we have come to recognize going and coming. You stick out like a sore thumb.
Conclusion
These are just a few points I feel need to be aired out. THAT is how you keep folks safe . . . NOT this political, "I have future political plans so I'm going to show you how 'strong' I am on Security."-nonsense about DRONES over a marathon! Yeah it will cost a lot in overtime and extra man hours . . . but it's worth it!! I’m sure folks will ‘wail’ about budget concerns . . . but I’m sure the potential victims won’t want to hear that. Just DO IT already . . . this is a no-brainer. We can do it without violating the civil rights of the greater public.
For those worried about the NDAA that I mentioned earlier you should be. This present administration chooses to keep the status quo in effect, operationally, but a future GOP administration may not. Sentiments like those expressed by the Boston police chief may become the norm all over this country. How many of you remember the threat color levels that were so prominent during the Bush II era? They seemed to always be on ‘Orange’ or ‘Red’ and under those conditions the Patriot Act was pushed through with Public ‘Fear Support’ in my opinion. Folks were so freaked out that they went with anything that seemed to overtly offer them safety. Case in Point:
WHY after the towers fell at Ground Zero, have we spent so much money and resources ‘exuberantly’ protecting the site? The horrible deed has been done. The Terrorists ‘won’ that ‘encounter’ and will not go after what’s left. Now . . . AFTER completion of the Freedom Tower I can see the need . . . but the ‘Fort Knox’-Type of security atmosphere down there for more than a decade after that horrible day, I found was quite unnecessary. But that’s just me . . .
Frankly, all these ‘fulminations of Fear’ produced no real, tangible or practical means of terrorism prevention in this country domestically because of the huge ‘holes’ I mentioned above during this prose. Everything was all very visible in order to be exploited politically by the administration and the political parties.
But ‘You’ can change and prevent all of that . . . by your political action. Simply put: Vote always and everytime without fail. Get involved, stay informed, keep contact and pressure on your member of congress. Make sure they KNOW what you want of them where the NDAA is concerned so that they will vote to make the reality that this Chief is flirting with that much harder to attempt, and even further away from being an acceptable ‘price’ to be paid for our ‘Freedom’.
“Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”-Benjamin Franklin
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