The fact that their job is difficult has no bearing on their competence. This article has a pretty good summary of the problems with the Secret Service over the past decade or so.
5 Likes
That list is remarkably similar to the issues pointed out with LEOs at all levels of government. I guess the visibility is different in the case of this particular agency. Still the claims that the real source of the problem is that they don’t have enough staff is in line with what we’re hearing now at the local level. They’ll probably want more funding for training, too. 
At the root is really the emphasis on security theater instead of real security, lack of oversight, lack of reporting, and a resistance to rooting out unqualified and/or incompetent people. Looks like they’re getting closer to emulating the TSA - another winning team from the Department of Homeland Security.
10 Likes
Sorry, I didn’t intend that article as an explanation of what, specifically, is wrong with the Secret Service, but it contained a convenient run down of their various scandals over the past decade+. Yes, they’re still cops and ACAB, and so they have much the same problems and same bullshit as other LEOs. Defunding them is probably not an option, though. But I do think some serious top to bottom house cleaning is in order.
4 Likes
Oh, yeah. Totally agree. First we make sure the better team is in charge of government, then we keep the pressure on to make this a priority.
I think it’s a good start, though, and real cause for concern given what’s come out about the possessions of the most recent shooter, and the fact that it’s only July…
ETA link about recent shooter news.
9 Likes
Well, Dick Cheney was the bone-chilling reminder of what a Vice-President can accomplish when your boss is the Idiot-in-Chief, so I assume J.D. Vance doesn’t have any immediate cause for concern. 
4 Likes
every time i hear this i am so impressed
Officers didn’t find him around the building, so a Butler Township officer attempted to gain access to the roof by being hoisted up by another officer, Knights said
the police, secret service included, were so incompetent that they had no way to see onto a roof that provided a clear line of sight to the failed ex-president.
they had no one stationed on the ground guarding it. they had no one stationed on the roof to let them see the crowd. and they had no fing binoculars - nor apparently any guns with scopes - no way at all to see up there without standing on each other’s shoulders 
i think this was spot on:
no one can hold them accountable, least of all themselves, so - just exactly like uvalde - no one is really in charge
everyone is expecting that it must be someone else. they are only punished when they take responsibility for something. so they never do, and are never forced to
5 Likes
The Secret Service apparently had enough kit in place to shoot the guy after the fact. If they could see him well enough to do that, they ought to have been able to get a peek at him before he started taking pot-shots at Trump.
Having said that, the building in question was outside the Secret Service’s perimeter and hence the responsibility of the local police, so at the very least there were bound to be communication issues.
The problem with the former, as far as I’m concerned, is that the Secret Service, for all its faults, ought to have been able to find somebody whose marksmanship skills extended to actually hitting vital parts of Trump (not exactly a small target) with at least one out of eight shots at 100 metres or so (not exactly a huge distance, for an AR-15-style rifle), as opposed to a random juvenile gun nut who, we’re told, didn’t just not make his high school’s rifle team on the first attempt but was asked not to try again.
OTOH, perhaps both alternatives are true at the same time 
4 Likes
But they did. They literally did. Here’s the timeline:
- 5:10 p.m. Crooks was first identified as a person of interest
- 5:30 p.m. Crooks was spotted with a rangefinder
- 5:52 p.m. Crooks was spotted on the roof by Secret Service
- 6:02 p.m. Trump takes the stage
- 6:12 p.m. Crooks fires first shots
This is according to the Secret Service themselves. This is why I was asking why they let Trump take the stage. It doesn’t make any sense.
11 Likes
I can’t find it now, but I remember a report of Secret Service radio chatter that they’d spotted him, including the line “we’re watching him watching us watching him” or something close to it.
6 Likes
And like, I get it if they didn’t want to jump to conclusions and just assume he’s a shooter, but why let Trump take the stage until you clear that roof and that person of interest?
10 Likes
By the way, in case anyone is wondering where I got that timeline, it’s from here:
8 Likes
That blows my mind. It’s almost as if the service were like “oh finally, someone with enough guts found our weak spot and is going to end this charade already,” but it was too late once deadeye blew his cover by missing the shot.
2 Likes
thanks for sharing that. it is strange. if the service could see him, why did the cops bother sticking their heads up there? ( but maybe that indicates a lack of communication between the police and the secret service. )
i have wondered a bit if maybe ■■■■■ bullied the agents into letting him speak. although it’s their job to say no, rumors during his administration were that some of them were very enamoured of him. and it would well fit his personality
5 Likes
AFAIK the agents have to go wherever the “principal” goes and don’t have the authority to give him instructions. The only way for them to stop him going on stage, if he had rejected advice not to speak, would be to restrain him physically.
There’s a story that when Mikhail Gorbachev visited Washington DC he saw an Armenian (IIRC) restaurant and decided to drop in. The Secret Service agents had to run ahead to secure the restaurant and tell the staunchly anti-Soviet owner that the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR was about to pay a visit.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
