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So best I can tell security at the recent dinner was somehow even worse than at the campaign event that nearly cost Trump his life. This sounds incredibly stupid but mainstream media reports of the security indicate it is so. And this is in a...storied location no less.
This is also not a situation where things have been calm for a while, we are at war and several attempts have been made, and people have died (ex: Kirk).
Some of this is probably due to security theater elements - security was never good, so it remains not good. You'd think we could make a bit of a change though?
Are all of our institutions really so rotten?
And perhaps more importantly - how many times can we get lucky and how will our civic norms survive when that luck runs out?
I guess it does prove the need for a White House event room, because there is no way for the President to hold events in a public space to the level of security you are expecting. You couldn't have preveted the JFK assassaination with more security. The only robust solution is to not drive around Downtown Dallas in a convertable.
I got stuck behind the presidential motorcade in traffic once. The security presense was immense. They blocked-off every freeway entrance on the route for what felt like 15 minutes before the bulk of the motorcade passed by. I had about a half-second of direct line of sight at 60-80 feet on Cadillac One, and that was by pure chance with no advance planning at all.
Every rooftop and every window is a sightline. Every organization that has people in the hot zone is a potential infiltration route.
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Our civic norms under a diadochic presidency... will the mos maiorum actually deteriorate? The 60's were bad, but, I mean, we, you know, survived.
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How exactly was it worse? Did the moron ever have a chance of getting line of sight on the President?
I don’t understand what institutions you think are analogous to the Secret Service.
From what I can tell the Hotel was essentially allowed to go about its business and the security cordon was in the building close to the event. You could get very close to the event itself with a generic hotel keyboard. Minimal access control. Someone could easily have preplanted a surprise or walked close with one and rendered the primary security buffer irrelevant, and then had others follow.
People who have been to similar events before said that the security was rather lacking in comparison to other events.
I certainly have been to places that have been more aggressive in searching my bag or person multiple times further out.
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My understanding is a) the Secret Service rot far predates Trump's first term, and b) the shooter was already inside the hotel, as a guest, and that was a bit of a blind spot. Obvious in hindsight, but still.
Making sure the guests at a 1000 person hotel aren't armed or smuggling in materials is obvious in foresight, not hindsight.
...at least I hope so.
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