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There are no shortage of talking heads on the attempted assassination of former President Trump so I will get straight to the point.
It is not 1865 or 1963. It is 2024 and there isn’t a scenario where an assassin gets high ground on a stable platform 150 yards away from a former President of the United States.
Lack of staffing, missed assignment or a mistake is not a plausible excuse. It was an intentional act by some combined with failed leadership by all.
Intentional Act
Trump has had more threats on his life than any politician in history and it’s not even close. After years of being called everything from a child rapist to Hitler, the threats have become so normalized that prominent figures have even suggested that he should be murdered.
The rhetoric stopped being about general “mud-slinging” years ago and it morphed into high level officials intentionally setting the scene for what occurred Saturday night. Both President Trump and his Secret Service detail have been asking for additional security for months and it was denied. Combine those denials with a bill introduced in Congress to strip President Trump of Secret Service Protection, what else could anyone with a brain infer?
The evil behind those decisions may have not pulled the trigger but in a country with a fair amount of deranged lunatics, they set the stage for an assassination attempt.
Leadership Failure
While others are distracting you with the height and gender of Secret Service Agents, the foundational principles of leadership are so absent in this incident, it’s hard to believe or understand.
My 13 year old could have viewed a google map image and identified the building structures that should have been secured not to mention that a minimum protocol for exterior security is 1000 yards…not 100.
A 150 yard shot with optics is so basic, the decision to leave high level structures open was a death sentence to President Trump.
And every person with the knowledge and expertise in the area of dignitary protection had a moral and ethical duty to not only raise awareness but demand action.
This is not a situation. where we need to “learn from our mistakes.”
This is a colossal failure of proportions that cannot be described in repeatable words.
It’s not one person that pre-plans, it’s many. From weeks before to the day before to an hour before, multiple personnel check, re-check and confirm the operations plan.
The idea that someone simply “missed” a rooftop 150 yards away is not possible. If it was “missed” then where are the simple leadership protocols of saying something to someone?
What Now?
In the coming weeks, you are going to hear the typical government response that will sound something like this.
“We need more staffing and we need more money.”
Good luck if you buy that nonsense. Our government invented the TSA after 9/11 and you know how that is going.
If staffing was indeed an issue and as I said earlier, it was. The Biden Administration repeatedly denied additional staff to the Trump detail but staff has nothing to do with leaving a rooftop unsecured 150 yards away.
A couple of security guards at a cost of $50 could have been placed on the roof during President Trump’s speech that would have prevented you reading this today.
That sounds preposterous but that will be nothing compared to what you will be told in the weeks and years to come.
Dr. Travis Yates retired as a commander with a large municipal police department after 30 years of service. He is the author of “The Courageous Police Leader: A Survival Guide for Combating Cowards, Chaos & Lies.” His risk management and leadership seminars have been taught to thousands of professionals across the world. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy with a Doctorate Degree in Strategic Leadership and the CEO of the Courageous Police Leadership Alliance.
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Source: www.lawofficer.com