Promoted by Steven D.
Like all the other institutional failures being ascribed to cultures, such as the NY Fed, VA hospitals, etc? Or is the job/mission just too darn tough to expect zero failures? Does the fact that only two Presidents have been shot in the past hundred plus years indicate that the Secret Service does a fine job or has mostly been lucky? Lucky that Lynette Fromme waved a gun without firing and Sara Jane Moore fired and missed? It’s interesting to note that Moore came to the attention of the Secret Service before she shot at President Ford on September 22, 1975:
Moore had been evaluated by the Secret Service earlier in 1975, but agents decided that she posed no danger to the President. She had been picked up by police on an illegal handgun charge the day before the Ford incident, but was released. The police confiscated her .44 caliber revolver and 113 rounds of ammunition.
(Cont. below the fold …)
Not so different from the recent WH fence jumper as reported by WAPO.
Four days after the incident, a look back shows that Gonzalez had come to the Secret Service’s attention twice earlier this year.
Once detained by VA police when he was found to have an arsenal in his trunk and a map with a line pointed to the WH. The Secret Service interviewed and cleared him. In August he was hanging around the WH fence with a hatchet in his waistband. Fully aware of the earlier incident, the official said, “he did not exhibit any mental-health issues at that point. He had not engaged in any criminal activity.” Gonzalez was let go.
Just your ordinary, everyday armed USian.
With this incident freshly in mind along with the recent Secret Service agents partying in advance of the Presidential detail, WAPO did a bit of reporting this weekend into a 2011 incident: Secret Service Stumbled After Gunman Hit White House Residence in 2011. As far as it goes, it’s a decent report and definitely worth reading. The Secret Service does not fare well in it. But it begs a few questions.
First, why did it take almost three years to put this story together? Was it embargoed until new security measures, such as ShotSpotter, were in place and functioning? Or held back not to give a potential copycat any ideas?
Second, how does it compare to the original report, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez arrested after shots fired near White House? The differences are striking beginning with shots fired near White House and not that shots hit the White House. Then there were the assurances. Just an unexplained nut:
One official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said Ortega-Hernandez’s alleged motive may have been anger. “He hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society,” the official said.
A lone wolf (isn’t it always in the good ole USA? Except for the assassination of Lincoln, of course.):
Ortega-Hernandez has a record of arrests for relatively minor offenses in Texas, Utah and Idaho, authorities said, but he has not been linked to any radical organizations.
A revealing, and most troubling aspect to me, of the first report was:
In trying to determine why he traveled to the nation’s capital from the western part of the country, investigators also found no connection between him and the Occupy D.C. protest, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the case.
How much time and effort was the Secret Service devoting to a perceived threat from Occupy D.C? Hatchetman with a sawed-off shotgun, two sniper rifles, an assault rifle, a bolt-action rifle, one intact shotgun and five handguns, no threat. Occupy D.C, very scary.
The latest report reveals another perceived threat:
Amid conflicting radio chatter, including a Secret Service dispatcher calling into 911 with contradictory descriptions of vehicles and suspects, police began looking for the wrong people: two black men supposedly fleeing down Rock Creek Parkway.
Very scary black men. Not that there’s ever been a black assassin of a POTUS (who lives a majority African-American city), but I guess, you never know.
Should we make anything of the names of the two perps? Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez and Omar Jose Gonzalez? Not exactly what I would expect to see as would-be assassins of the first black POTUS. Possibly not even what the Secret Service is seeing in the large volume of threats being made against Obama. Hope it’s just on odd coincidence.
