Wednesday, October 01, 2014

A thought on the Secret Service scandals

Now I will grant that there are numerous issues with the Secret Service--failures to do background checks of those who will be near the President, failing to stop a White House intruder, failing to keep the front door closed and watch the White House lawn, etc..--but it struck me that reports are claiming that the first agent who failed to make a tackle once the intruder was in the White House was female.

Now I will grant, cheerfully, that there are likely many places for female agents.  Attending female members of the President's family comes to mind, and it also occurs that there are many places where the best intelligence can be gleaned by a woman.  There are probably a lot of other great places for women in the Secret Service.

However, I would also hope that we could agree that the most important duty of the Secret Service is to make sure the most likely perpetrator--say a large, athletic male--does not get close enough to the President or his family to injure them or worse.  And as such, I would hope that we would agree that a key qualification for those closest to the President and his family is to be able to block or tackle a 250 lb, athletic man.

And, like it or not, with all due respect for former East German swimmers, I believe that the job description will all but read "only large, healthy, athletic males need apply."    Just like in the NBA, and just like in the Marines, sometimes physical ability matters.  Hopefully we get some people in the Secret Service who understand this before someone gets hurt.

4 comments:

Gino said...

remember some yrs ago, in atlanta, a prisoner escaped from the courthouse, killing three or four others before he was caught a couple days later.

he was being led by a female guard, a short one, at the time he overpowered her and began his killing.

i think it was ann coulter who wrote a good column on this at the time. this was maybe 10yr ago.

political correctness will always win, because they havent learned a thing yet.

Bike Bubba said...

Brian Nichols. Good memory.

Now I would add that, as a former scholarship football player, most men would have trouble handling him, and his friends had warned that he might attempt an escape. Definitely not just because the guard was female, but it probably didn't help, either.

And it's worth noting as well in the Secret Service case that there appear to have been a number of agents who either were not in a position to try, or did not try, to make that stop. There's another big story here.

Gino said...

brain nichols, yep that was it, and the lady read from the 40 days book and convinced him to turn himself in... after spending a night with him... lol

i still say it the 'personal attention' that softend his heart, and not the book... women have that way with men like that... as every husband knows...

Bike Bubba said...

Purpose Driven Life, wasn't it? And I knew she'd gotten meth for him--kinda like Judges 5:25, "He asked for dope, she gave him meth"--but it's not clear to me whether she "spent the night with him" or whether she was just kidnapped.

I think the big story here, though, is more along the lines of any football game. You want to protect the President? OK, first, you make sure you've got people who can block and tackle, and second, you make sure they do. Something is definitely missing there.