Discussion: Report: Convict With Gun Was Allowed On Elevator With Obama

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Resumed in 1980 after the 1968-1976 steep descent. But who is counting after all those years.

42

There’s definitely a Saturday Night Live skit here…

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Of course, they’ve been threatened. Goes with the job.

The burning bush guy got sent to jail for a silly reference though. Not the same. And no one wanted him dead, as bad as he was. We just wanted him out of the White House. Well, Cheney, too.

Bush is at least honoring the code of actual presidents.

Too bad about Cheney. The man who wasn’t and never would have been one.

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WTF is the secret service doing ?
Why did they allow ANYONE to get on an elevator with POTUS? “Sorry sir please take the next lift.” Is that too hard to say?

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Pulled out of Treasury and into DHS, spread thin by mission creep that has them guarding embassies and repeatedly hit by republican budget cuts. People are getting in who wouldn’t have made the cut before.

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In the early 60’s, there was a Broadway Play, Mister President. One of the songs from that play is quite prescient: **The Secret Service Makes Me Nervous"

The “secret service” makes me nervous
those White House “dicks” get all their kicks
when they observe us!

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  1. No one said the “convicted contractor” had any felony convictions. In most states you need a felony conviction to lose the ability to own/carry a weapon/firearm.

  2. The company the contractor works for was (proabby) responsible for any/all background checks. THEY should be fired - along with ALL of their contractors for this error.

  3. Afaik the SS has not used gun, i.e. fired a bullet, in over 60 years.

  4. I agree that whoever rides in the elevator [or is in the same room] with the POTUS should be a known quantity and unarmed unless they’re SS.

  5. I’m sure the NRA’s answer to all of this would be to arm the POTUS. As long as he’s packing, he’s totally protected, amiright?

  6. Clearly the intentional [GOP] decrease in funding for the SS is showing the intended result.

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This happened in Georgia home of the newly enacted “guns everywhere” law. I wonder if some of its advocates are rethinking it.

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Not long ago the Secret Service and the Supreme Court were arguably the two most respected, if not revered, institutions of government.

It’s sad to see them deteriorate like this before our eyes.

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Is that post your “A” game?

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The term you’re looking for is ex-convict. Still, this is some very scary stuff. Can we just fire the whole Secret Service and rebuild from the ground up?

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I’m thinking that every last agent needs to be replaced. I realize that can’t happen over night but JEEBUS ON A CRISPY CRACKER!!
And nobody noticed the priors on that guys record and he still got a job as a security contractor? Luckily when fired the fellow seemed to be sensible.

What training do SS agents get?

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The break it and complain gang.

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That’s what I’ve been thinking. Makes you wonder if it has something to do with skin color. What if some of the people who are charged with protecting the President are racists and just don’t care what happens to him?

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That’s a question that ought to be examined seriously regarding the culture inside the SS system. If it’s Christian Fundie, there could be a problem.

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I feel that if a Secret Service agent or other law enforcement individual were threatened, there’d be a much stronger, focused response than for our president. It seems law enforcement has become more concerned with its own members’ safety than with those they are charged to protect.

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This is more than a failure of the SS Director. This is a failure of personnel below that position as well. It is also a failure of policies and procedures that the SS have been tasked with for a very long time. This isn’t just sloppy as hell. This is stooopid and slack. Tasked with protecting the POTUS, and you don’t vet EVERYBODY that can come within marksman handgun range? Seriously?

If people are being overtaxed, then that is a failure of SS management not to pull additional personnel into the protective service, so that POTUS and family are secure. Yes, it takes a level of manpower to vet everybody, but if you can’t vet someone, you sure as hell do not allow them anywhere near POTUS. And you get enough personnel to vet everyone.

Somebodies need to get their asses kicked hard, and then get those bodies replaced by somebody who will tighten procedures, and get somebody who will ensure those procedures are enforced, and get somebody who ensures that everyone is vetted or denied proximity.

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The Secret Service likely killed Kennedy (by accident) and covered it up (on purpose), so no, this isn’t the most inept or corrupt they’ve ever been.

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Unfortunately, it is my belief that the reason the security for Obama is so lacking is because there are some in the employ of the Secret Service that do not care what happens to our black President. It is sad; but, as we have learned since he became President racism is not dead.

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The president and secret service members were about to get into the elevator when a dude came running from behind yelling “hold the door, hold the door,” which the secret service agents diligently did. The rest is history…