On this day in 2005 Hurricane Katrina came ashore near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. The hurricane is implicated in the death of more than 1800 Americans and damages exceeding $100 billion.
What’s on your mind related to homeland security?
A quick review of the summer, now quickly closing:
So far the wildfires have been less destructive than I anticipated. But worse is likely still ahead. The exceptional drought in California and extreme drought in Nevada and Southern Oregon set-the-stage for a dangerous autumn. Precisely when or where?
The hurricane season was predicted to be “below-normal” and results to-date track the projections. But tomorrow we remember the ninth anniversary of Katrina’s landfall in Louisiana. We know it will happen again in New Orleans or Houston or Miami or Hampton Roads or following the path of Sandy.
A powerful mid-August low pressure cell brought flooding from Detroit to Baltimore and into New England. The long-standing record in Islip, New York for rainfall in a 24 hour period was seven inches. On August 13 the city received nearly 13 inches. Detroit was hit again this week. More extreme weather has been statistically confirmed.
The 6.0 earthquake in sparsely populated Napa is another proverbial wake-up call for the eventual hit on dense urban areas. The 1906 San Francisco quake is estimated to have been a 6.8. The Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic, so the 6.8 earthquake is almost 16 times stronger than the 6.0. The 2011 Tohoku earthquake was 9.0 or over 31,000 times stronger than a 6.0 (That’s not a typo. You can do the calculations here.) San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Memphis, Anchorage know it is just a matter of time.
Ebola is not casually transmitted. It has usually been possible to contain it. But the increasing number of Ebola cases since March highlights the challenges emerging from increased density and mobility. While the Ebola threat to the US is scant, implications for other novel viruses are worth keen attention. In May several of us exercised a pandemic’s impact on the US supply chain. As one grocery executive said, “There’s no real solution to this one. It’s mostly a choice between very bad and awful.”
The March disappearance of MH370 and the shooting down of MH17 in July are each surreal in their own way. In the last half of July three passenger planes crashed in an eight day period. Aviation remains comparatively very safe and has consistently become safer over-time. But with more people flying in more planes more accidents will occur even if the proportion of accidents declines compared to overall use. Similar can be anticipated for transporting oil and hazardous materials by railway, pipeline, or truck.
Back in February I predicted Syrian-sourced terrorist attacks on Europe. There has been one. A few more have been preempted. Given what has happened this summer in Gaza and Northern Iraq, I am surprised we have not seen more attempts. We will and in the US too.
The Nigerian girls continue to be held captive. More have been captured. More boys and girls have been killed. Boko Haram has also declared creation of an Islamic State (whether related or not to the one in Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq is not yet clear). Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other Salafists control large swaths of Libya. Al-Shabaab has lost ground in Somalia but is increasing its activities in Kenya, Djibouti, and Uganda. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula continues to operate in Yemen and plot operations far-afield. Religious differences amplify tribal conflicts across the Sahel. The summer months have not been encouraging in Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Central Asia. Political divisions have deepened. Communal conflict has increased. The same might be said for places and people closer-at-hand.
North American demand for drugs and Latin American suppliers (some with connections to Central Asia and terrorist-related distributors) continue to develop a thriving market for their dangerous products and associated violence. As with any complex adaptive system the consequences are manifold and often unintended. But we have seen across the United States and throughout Central America that children are frequently the innocent victims.
For any child of the enlightenment and every Type-A personality there is in this quick review strong motivation to identify causation. Is there an epidemiology of evil? Is there a target-zero? Some sort of pump-handle to remove and thereby mitigate or prevent unnecessary death, injury and destruction?
Perhaps. Certainly our retrospective forensic skills are often strong enough to recognize what we missed. But prospectively? There are many more of us interacting in many more ways and our connections are increasingly interdependent. The potentialities are as logarithmic as the Richter. Reality is robustly random. Extremes are not anomalies, they ought to be expected. But they cannot be precisely predicted.
Plenty of opportunities for October surprises.
We are left with what we can apply in the fleeting present: preexisting resources and relationships, a commitment to accurately observing unfolding reality, and a predisposition to positive — and if we can, collaborative — action.
This essay was originally written on the evening of August 29, 2013 with the title of 2920 Days Ago. Since then, the essay has been updated to reflect the passing of an additional year since Hurricane Katrina. The views represented in this essay are those of the author and do not reflect the views of his employer.
Any random date on a calendar represents an important personal or professional milestone. Birthdays commonly represent another year of personal maturity and growth. Wedding anniversaries represent the passing of another year of sharing the ups, downs, struggles and celebrations of life with a significant other. In other instances, a specific date reminds us of the significant tragedies that have influenced the collective resilience of the United States of America. The date December 7, will always be “a date which will live in infamy” influencing the builder and baby boomer generations of American society. The date 9/11 will always memorialize the sacrifices of persons who fell victim to the terror attacks of that day having given rise to an American enterprise known as Homeland Security. The personal perspectives and memories of these events change with the passing of each year. This essay was originally written on the evening of August 29, 2013 and represents the author’s observations in the years following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line on August 29, 2005.
It is about 9:10 PM Central Time on August 29, 2013. I have just finished reading a bedtime story to my seven-year-old daughter. As I lay with her and watch her fall asleep, my mind wanders back to the night of August 29, 2005. My location at that time was the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, located on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. I was tasked with executing a plan developed the previous week, during the now well-known Hurricane Pam exercise. Our goal was to establish a field hospital at this facility. Over the upcoming days, our facility would treat an estimated 6,000 survivors requiring medical intervention, An additional 18,000 survivors were triaged and then transported to various mega-shelters located throughout the United States.
In the short time spent with my daughter that evening a year ago, I closed my eyes and listened to her calming bedtime lullabies. My mind began to shift between the past and present. Earlier in the week, a professional colleague had commented in an email about the “Big 8” coming up this week. That email, coupled with my own thoughts, brought me to realize how much has and has not changed in the days, months, and years since August 29, 2005. This Friday, August 29, 2014, represents the 9th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the passage of 3287 days.
3287 days has spanned three presidential terms.
3287 days has spanned the terms of three Secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security.
3287 days has spanned the tenure of three FEMA Administrators.
3287 days has spanned the terms of two Governors in Louisiana.
3287 days has spanned the terms of two Governors in Mississippi.
3287 days has spanned the terms of two Mayors in New Orleans.
3287 days has included three significant tropical weather systems making landfall or affecting the same Louisiana coastline affected by Hurricane Katrina.
3287 days has included two significant tropical weather systems making landfall near New York City, and impacting the Northeastern states of the United States.
3287 days has included the largest oil spill in American History impacting the same coastal communities and social economies affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike.
3287 days has spanned four Directors of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness or the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
3287 days has included countless reports published by the GAO and Congressional Research Service on the preparedness of the United States.
3287 days has included acts of terror committed in the United States.
3287 days has included a school shooting in Newtown, CT.
3287 days has included congressional fact finding and the publishing of A Failure of Initiative.
3287 days has included the passing of PKEMRA legislation.
3287 days has included the development of homeland security to an all hazards environment.
3287 days has included the expansion of homeland security’s focus.
3287 days has included the expenditure of 14 plus billion dollars to build hurricane protection levees around the metropolitan New Orleans area.
3287 days has included the expenditure of 17 plus billion dollars in recovery aid to the State of Louisiana.
3287 days has included the development of catastrophic response plans for major metropolitan areas.
3287 days has included the production of Quadrennial Homeland Security Reviews-each having their own characteristics and personalities and political spin.
3287 days has included the development of several Homeland Security or National Security Strategies.
3287 days has included the development of National Frameworks for Prevention, Response, Preparedness, and Mitigation.
3287 days has included numerous policy changes, defining how we as a nation respond to and recover from catastrophes.
3287 days has included the birth of two beautiful daughters.
3287 days has included the earning of an undergraduate degree.
3287 days has included the earning of a prestigious graduate degree.
3287 days has included many memories.
3287 days has included five career moves.
3287 days has included the rebuilding of Louisiana’s emergency management culture in the face of constant adversity.
3287 days has included the demonstration of resilience in an enterprise known as emergency management.
3287 days has included an unknown number of reports, academic papers, research, and the development of think tanks based on the premise of resilience.
3287 days has included the deaths of 1,836 US residents due to Hurricane Katrina
3287 days has included an influenza pandemic.
3287 days has included a significant natural disaster in Japan with numerous cascading effects, including the loss of fixed nuclear reactors.
3287 days has included the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
3287 days has included a national recession.
3287 days has included detrimental budget cuts to government agencies in the state of Louisiana, potentially impacting their ability to respond to the needs of their residents in the future.
3287 days has included the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
3287 days has included the development and implementation of Presidential Policy Directive 8.
3287 days has included the development and introduction of THIRA.
3287 days has included the consumption of numerous bottles of whiskey.
3287 days has included the process of healing.
3287 days has included a synthesis of interaction, experience, and complexity.
3287 days has included the demonstration of resilience by multiple stratums of society.
As my daughter fell asleep I realized just how much can actually occur in the span of 3287 days. By the same token, I also realized how much can be lost over 3287 days.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed the negative effects of partisan politics on American society.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed the negative effects of finger pointing and blame on the homeland security enterprise of the US.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed how the success of the homeland security enterprise is only as good as the most recent catastrophe.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed attempts to define the concept of homeland security.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed the struggle to define an all hazards approach to resilience.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed how the physical, social and political attributes of the term risk reduction has been negatively applied to public policy.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed an increase in dependency upon the federal government.
In the past 3287 days, I have observed a political desire to “not be the next Katrina.”
In the past 3287 days, I have observed hundreds, if not thousands of applicants and speakers describe their “Katrina Story.”
It is now 9:46PM in the evening, and I have come down from the attic where my personal notes from the “Katrina Days” are stored in a fireproof container. I open my notes from late August of 2005 and begin to process the emotions of eight years ago, and how my thoughts and perceptions have changed over the past 3287 days.
As the clock approaches 10PM, I locate a picture of an elderly couple and a golden retriever. A colleague took the picture on the morning of August 31, 2005 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center (PMAC). The couple arrived as part of the initial push of evacuees from the New Orleans area. This picture has had a place of prominence in every office that I have occupied over the past 3287 days.
As I recall, the only belongings the couple had with them were several days of food for their golden retriever. I remember how I checked on them constantly while they were at the PMAC. I remember making sure they had water and food while they waited on metal chairs outside the PMAC in the dense, late summer humidity of Baton Rouge. I remember walking outside in the late evenings and early morning hours 3287 days ago and seeing the couple sleeping in those folding metal chairs, each with their head on the other’s shoulder. I remember the golden retriever staying awake and observant while his masters slept. I remember walking outside and noticing the couple was missing. 3287 days since then, and I still wonder what happened to that couple.
As I continue through my notes, I remember the promises of federal assistance and how a community embraced those who needed assistance with or without government direction.
3287 days ago, I witnessed the student body of LSU adopt survivors rescued from a nursing home as their own grandparents.
3287 days ago, I witnessed a medical community embrace volunteerism and their professional oath to serve those in need.
3287 days ago, I witnessed a new football coach and his players move pet crates to establish a pet shelter for companion animals who had evacuated with their owners.
3287 days ago, I witnessed my wife, sister-in-law, and father-in-law come to my aid and staff what would become one of the largest companion animal evacuation shelters in America.
3287 days ago, I witnessed a dog named Ollie become the first pet evacuee housed at this shelter.
3287 days ago, I witnessed employees of the State of Louisiana demonstrate and renew a level of energy and commitment to the people of Louisiana.
3287 days ago, I witnessed the best of a community.
3287 days ago, I witnessed what is now termed “self-organizing communities” prior to it becoming another buzz word of this emerging enterprise of homeland security
3287 days ago, I witnessed resilience.
3287 days ago, I witnessed the best of Louisiana.
3287 days ago, I witnessed the resilience of America.
3287 days ago, I determined that I was PROUD to be a Louisiana responder and emergency manager.
It is now 10:30 PM in the evening and the memories of that night and the days to follow continue to flow.
3287 days ago, at this time, I was told to expect the first wave of evacuees from New Orleans.
3287 days ago, I looked a minimal staff of medical volunteers, state employees, and 100 or so LSU students in the eyes and told them that I didn’t know what to expect.
3287 days ago, we accepted our first wave of nursing home evacuees.
3287 days ago, I didn’t know that we would eventually receive the patients and heroic medical practitioners from Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
3287 days ago, I didn’t know that we would hear the first-hand stories of orderlies feeding hospital patients semi-frozen peas one pea at a time to maintain their nutritional intake and survival.
3287 days ago, I didn’t know that something as simple as a beacon light on a crane would shut down the evacuation of patients from New Orleans area hospitals.
3287 days ago, I didn’t know that I would experience the emotional roller coaster of planning for the dead, while rejoicing each birth that occurred at our makeshift campus hospital.
3287 days ago, I never thought that I would reach a point of acceptance, and see those following days in an entirely different perspective.
A lot has happened over the past 3287 days.
In the past 3287 days, the people of Louisiana have demonstrated resilience throughout various natural and man-made adversities.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that our homeland security enterprise should not be about resilience, rather resilience has and continues to be the strong narrative of this enterprise known as the United States of America.
In the past 3287 days, I have wondered what happened to that elderly couple and their golden retriever.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that our homeland security enterprise has emphasized processes and frameworks rather than focusing on the social networks and community empowerment.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that our enterprise should be focused on helping that elderly couple with a golden retriever.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that our enterprise is a service industry.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that there are those who need our help.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that no matter the governmental policy, citizens will help others, regardless of race or socio-economic status.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized the significance of citizen responsibility
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that in the absence of political motivation, people will help people.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that an overabundance of partisan politics will gum up the works of our enterprise.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized the righteousness of our society.
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that an elderly couple with a golden retriever, an expectant mother, or a dog named Ollie will be taken care of by our “Great Society.”
In the past 3287 days, I have realized that regardless of media biases, this is a great country, and that the resilience of this country is truly dependent upon its citizens.
As for the next 3287 days, I am not sure what lies ahead.
I know that in the next 3287 days, my daughters will be sixteen and thirteen years of age, respectively.
I know that in the next 3287 days, my wife and I will be celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary.
I know that in the next 3287 days, I will have aged nine years, and be that much closer to retirement.
I know that in the next 3287 days, the people of Louisiana will continue to demonstrate resilience.
I know that during the next 3287 days, I will have eight more opportunities to reflect upon those days following August 29, 2005.
I know that during the next 3287 days, I will continue to ponder the gains and losses made to better the emerging enterprise known as homeland security.
———-
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jerry Monier is a Spring 2013 graduate of the CHDS Masters Program. In the past 3287 days, Mr. Monier has served as a national level homeland security consultant, public health preparedness manager for the State of Louisiana, and most recently, the Chief of Preparedness for the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in Louisiana. During Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Monier was employed by Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and was assigned to establish a field hospital at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center located on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The PMAC Field Hospital provided medical care to 6,000 survivors and triaged an estimated 18,000 survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The views expressed are his own and do not reflect those of his employer.
[David Gomez is a retired FBI agent and current Homeland Security Consultant. This is part 2 of a 2 part post. You can read part 1 at this link.]
As a young police officer I was taught that the most important thing in police work was to go home to your family every night. That meant learning to use the training, tactics, and command presence that we all learned in the academy to remain safe. It didn’t mean shooting every person we came across that posed a threat. Rather we were required to memorize the 10 Management Principles of the LAPD.
Based on the Nine Principles of Policing developed by Sir Robert Peel in the 1800s, the one I remember most vividly to this day is the one that says:
“Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”
Meaning that all police are all inherently part of the community they serve, even though they may live dozens of miles away. New York Police Commissioner and former LAPD Chief-of-Police William Bratton in this New York Times article recounted those management principles, first espoused by Sir Robert Peel in the early 1800s.
Those were the guidelines I followed early in my career until a certain level of cynicism overtook me. That police cynicism was hard to overcome, and didn’t leave until I had spent a significant amount of time in the FBI. Interestingly, the cynicism returned for a time after 9/11, when I saw all terrorists as personifications of evil, rather than merely as criminals to be investigated. The situation in Ferguson, MO., has once again brought that cynicism back to the forefront. But this time it is local police that are the object of my focus.
The images and conduct of police reported out of Ferguson are disheartening at best. First, there was an absence of any semblance of police strategy in dealing with both lawful and violent protestors. The police treated both equally badly, showing up in camouflaged combat gear and automatic weapons more suitable for jungle warfare than an urban environment, and arresting citizens, reporters, politicians, and criminals equally without regards to motive or intent. Tear gas was used indiscriminately to disperse crowds that were not attacking police, but merely protesting the death of one of their own at the hands of police. The right to peacefully assemble took a vacation from Ferguson for a few days last week.
Second, the manner in which the police chief, the mayor, and even the governor fumbled the narrative regarding what was happening in Ferguson was appalling. There were dueling press conferences, leaks of information, conflicting reports, and a total lack of comprehension about the role of the media during a homeland security crisis. As of this writing over two million tweets have been posted about the events in Ferguson, the majority of them negative recitations of police misconduct. Whether about perceived or actual misconduct, these tweets drove the narrative of police conduct in Ferguson. In the 21st century, a comprehensive media strategy is an essential requirement of every homeland security professional’s compendium of tools.
Finally, the actions of a few rogue officers negatively influenced the perceptions of millions of viewers on television. Followers of social media who read and watched St. Louis area police officers posting racist comments on Facebook, or pointing loaded automatic weapons at lawful protesters and threatening to “f*cking kill” them if they didn’t move back was a public relations and policy nightmare.
In discussions about the police response in Ferguson, retired NYPD Lieutenant John Comiskey pointedly reminded me, “Police work is more like a humanitarian or peace keeping mission than a combat mission. It’s not about simply arresting people.” Or as another former police officer, Andrew Priest, put it, “Police work is 97% being a priest, 3% being a warrior.” Police work has also been described as ninety-nine percent boredom and one percent sheer terror.
In the city of Ferguson, however, for a time we saw no priests, no peacekeeping, and no humanitarians, only warriors. Sheer terror among the police officers seemed to have replaced common sense and effective police work.
Working as a rookie cop in Los Angeles, I may have felt closer to the South Central community where I worked than other cops, because I grew up just outside the city line. My sister—a nun—taught school in Watts, and my mother was a cafeteria worker at a public school there as well. I participated in the Basic Car Plan, which was that era’s community-based policing. For all the criminals I dealt with daily, I learned that there were plenty of families just like mine—only African American—living in Watts. Good people, fair, hard working, law–abiding people. People who supported the police, but were always wary of the rogue cop element that exists in every police department. While the LAPD developed in me an “us against them” survival instinct, the people I met in South Central helped me overcome the negative aspects of that instinct.
Ferguson, Missouri is not Mayberry, North Carolina. Neither is it South Central Los Angeles in the 1970s or even today. It is a town obviously polarized by race, politics and poverty. As events unfold over the shooting death of Michael Brown, Ferguson became a lightning rod and protest platform for political and social activists including anarchists, communists, the Ku Klux Klan and others. In a direct affront to Constitutional values, even members of the mainstream media have been harassed and arrested by police under the guise of maintaining civil order.
We can never return to Sheriff Andy Taylor and the Mayberry of television. But we—as law enforcement and homeland security professionals—can aspire to be Andy-like in our approach to lawful citizens protesting the questionable death of a young black man in their own town. That type of emotional-led police training and experience is what differentiates good, community-based policing from oppressive, us against them policing that has permeated the airwaves of late. Empathetic policing and emotional intelligence seem to be what are missing from the police department of Ferguson, Missouri and surrounding communities.
Sunnil Dutta is wrong. In a democracy, it is the public’s responsibility to challenge the police in the face of what they perceive as police misconduct. The police’s responsibility in turn is not to respond in kind. After all, an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, even as it restores peace. I hope that is a lesson professor Dutta will now convey to his homeland security student’s at Colorado Technical University.
[David Gomez is a retired FBI agent and current Homeland Security Consultant. This is part 1 of a 2 part post.]
In the Andy Griffith Show, the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina served as the setting for small town sheriff Andy Taylor, his hapless but good-hearted deputy Barney Fife, and an array of citizen characters that represented life and policing in early 1960s small-town America. There was Floyd the talkative barber, Howard the county clerk, and Gomer and Goober Pyle. There was also a criminal element represented by Otis Campbell, the town drunk who let himself in and out of his cell when inebriated, and Ernest T. Bass, the local good-hearted troublemaker who like to chuck rocks.
Fast forward 50 years later, and police work is not so simple anymore. There are terrorists, anarchists, drug lords, and violent gang members to worry about. Not to mention the proliferation of legally and illegally armed citizens, some of who present a direct threat to the safety of the modern police officer. Mayberry was a fictional town, but today’s hometown security threats are real and omnipresent.
The question is how much has policing changed from the time of Andy Taylor?
On August 19th, Sunnil Dutta, commenting on police and protestor conduct in Ferguson, Missouri, wrote in the Opinion Section of the Washington Post, “I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.” Dutta, an adjunct professor of Homeland Security at Colorado Technical University and a 17-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department went on to write,
Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge. Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me.
In the piece Dutta argues that the responsibility for not getting hurt by police lies with lawful protestors. The tag line of the article—and it is unknown if headline editors at the Washington Post added this—was: “It’s not the police, but the people they stop, who can prevent a detention from turning into a tragedy.” In effect, Dutta is saying, “Police are the real victims here; you made me do this, so it’s your fault.” Unfortunately, the “you made me do this” line is the same ‘blame the victim’ argument I frequently get from my six-year old twin boys.
As a former LAPD detective, and a fellow homeland security professional, I was saddened to read this. While most of Dutta’s comments about police work rang true, some did not. For example, Dutta writes, “cops are not murderers. No officer goes out in the field wishing to shoot anyone, armed or unarmed,” which is patently untrue. To deny that a rogue element exists among police officers is to deny the hard truth.
One need only look at the history of the LAPD and the Rampart police scandals to know these officers exist. I know because I worked in Rampart with some of those officers and others whose greatest desire was to become involved in a shooting. They were the exception, no doubt, but they exist.
In a similarly themed article, former patrol officer Justin Freeman, writing for PoliceOne.com in an article titled why people see cops as ‘arrogant’ stated:
…think about the workday of a police officer. Her job assignments consist, primarily, of being dispatched to successive 911 calls. When someone calls 911 for police service, there is a tacit admission by the caller that the situation at hand has deteriorated beyond his or her control, and police are needed in order to bring the situation back under control. That is the unstated assumption that the officer has going into each situation — not that a social equilibrium needs to be maintained, but that a situation needs to be quickly and efficiently brought back under control. Freeman’s article goes on to develop the theme that over time, and in response to all the calls for service, police officers develop a well-reasoned mistrust of the citizens they encounter on the job as a matter of officer safety.
To paraphrase Freeman with something I frequently heard on the LAPD, “there are three types of people in this city: Cops, people who love cops, and assholes.” If you are treated badly it’s because the police officer doesn’t know or trust you enough to discern if you are one of the first two types. Which to most cops is pretty much everyone they meet on a day-to-day-basis.
Was police work always like this? Or has 9/11, the threat of terrorism, and concerns over homeland security changed the nature of policing? Some argue that the police response to the public during homeland security incidents is a law enforcement education and training issue that police commanders have failed to pursue since 9/11. The responsibility to educate police on the public’s perception of them, demonstrate that police are a part of the community they serve, and hold police accountable to a higher standard of conduct is a managerial imperative that is not always followed (Comiskey, personal communication, 2014).
As a young police officer I was taught that the most important thing in police work … [to be continued on Tuesday, August 26th]
Here is a map of the magnitude 2.5 or greater earthquakes reported by the United States Geological Survey on August 24, 2014. (The red lines are the plate boundaries.)
And here’s a list of those earthquakes:
And here’s a picture of a fire in the Napa, California mobile home park where my mother-in-law lives.
Her home did not burn. But almost everything inside was treated the way you might expect a 6.1 earthquake would treat the contents of a mobile home.
One story of one earthquake on one day.
On this day in 1949 an 8.1 earthquake struck a sparsely populated area off British Columbia and the Alaska panhandle. There were no deaths. But it demonstrated the potential energy of the Cascadia fault system.
On this day in 2008 a train derailed near Luther, Oklahoma. Crude oil and ethanol being transported exploded. The fire continued for over 24 hours.
On this day in 1831 Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Southhampton County, Virginia. Up to seventy died in the rebellion. At least 100 were killed in the aftermath.
What’s on your mind related to homeland security?
In mid-June the wife of my long-lost cousin wrote to her Facebook friends:
To encourage and reward lawlessness by refusing to enforce the will of the people as proven by laws passed by our political representatives is the signature of a tyrant. In this case, Obama’s refusal to enforce immigration laws and his blatant suggestion that his chosen illegal activity will be rewarded are proof of his tyrannical tactics.
Sarah Palin is certainly not alone in this judgment of the current President. A frequent commentator to this blog writes:
A White House who believes it can use its pen and phone without ramification and a Congress and constituents who continue to allow such outrageous behavior – how dare you folks allow this continuing weakening of our established procedures by a WH and AG who could give a damn about our laws and enforcing them… The real question, will it be domestic terrorism we need to truly be concerned about, or a government who cannot adhere to the checks and balances placed before us by our forefathers to guard against possible breach of faith and in the words of Frederick Douglass, the following: “Find out just what People will submit to, and you have found the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Award-winning screenwriter and playwright David Mamet agrees that President Obama is a tyrant.
He’s a tyrant and I give him great credit. He’s always said that his idea was to reform the United States. And, you know, like many tyrants, like Wilson and like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he believes that his way is the right way and that he’s going to implement his vision of the world, and many agree with him. And he’s acting in concert with his conscience. And I applaud him for that. I just disagree with everything he’s done.
New York Times writer C. Gerald Fraser has called Mamet the “Aristophanes of the inarticulate”. Aristophanes was a writer and director of biting politically-charged comedies. Plato suggests that his play The Clouds set-the-stage, so to speak, for the prosecution and execution of Socrates. No wonder Plato mistrusts poets. Plato also suggested Aristophanes plays to non-Athenians as a way of better understanding the complex culture of the city-state.
Here’s a brief excerpt from Aristophanes’ The Wasps:
BDELYCLEON
Everything is now tyranny with us, no matter what is concerned, whether it be large or small. Tyranny! I have not heard the word mentioned once in fifty years, and now it is more common than salt-fish, the word is even current on the market. If you are buying gurnards and don’t want anchovies, the huckster next door, who is selling the latter, at once exclaims, “That is a man whose kitchen savours of tyranny!” If you ask for onions to season your fish, the green-stuff woman winks one eye and asks, “Ha, you ask for onions! are you seeking to tyrannize, or do you think that Athens must pay you your seasonings as a tribute?”
XANTHIAS
Yesterday I went to see a whore about noon and told her to get on top; she flew into a rage, pretending I wanted to restore the tyranny of Hippias.
This play was first performed in 422 BC. It describes an Athenian democracy degraded by a populist authoritarian executive and a banal, self-indulgent, litigious, and often vengeful populace. A long war and related economic decline have generated widespread cynicism. Bdelycleon, above, is a protagonist for reclaiming the joy of life… partly by putting aside anti-social conventions and adopting a rather refined, yet still spontaneous conviviality.
Mamet’s use of tyrant surprises me. But I expect that was his goal. He once told some interviewers, “In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, based solely on our ability to speak the language viciously. That’s probably where my ability was honed.”
Vicious, as Mamet knows, is related to vice, suggests cruelty, and signals faulty, defective, corrupt. The opposite of virtuous.
If you have ever seen a Mamet play — Glengarry Glen Ross or Sexual Perversity in Chicago — you might agree the playwright is masterful in exposing how language can be used to misdirect others and, especially, self-deceive.
Vigorous language is needed. It both seeds and weeds our thinking. But it seems to me vicious language is a threat to real thought. Shedding humility the vicious communicator is exposed as anorexically prideful. The language is chosen to intimidate or, failing that, confuse. At the very least vicious language renders a real conversation practically impossible. Dangerous in a want-to-be (need-to-be?) democracy.
— Parabasis —
This post is I readily admit very close to off-topic. Given what continues along our border, what is emerging in North Africa and Southwest Asia, and various domestic threats, it is rather weird to quote a Fifth Century BC dramatist regarding the tendency to socially scripted over-statement.
But it also seems to me the situation in Ferguson has exposed an unbridged abyss between homeland security tactics and strategy. Especially treacherous is where rhetoric is inclined to rock-slides. Too many of the players in Ferguson have performed as if they were reading from (badly written) scripts. Catch-words, platitudes, stock-phrases, pseudo-slogans, clichéd complaints have been repeatedly deployed on all sides; which one or more of many sides receives as proof that others are not listening. So each retaliates on each with a barrage of their own bromides. Absurdly farcical possibilities unfolding into tragedy. Words replaced with other weapons.
Aristophanes — no friend of his city’s authoritarian ruler — strongly suggests that the principal source of tyranny is our individual and collective tendency toward non-thinking.
I have experienced the wisdom of crowds, especially if the crowd is listening and in meaningful discussion. I want to be in conversation with you. When our digital “talks” get going — when we listen and build on the wisdom of each other — it is noticed. Then our words have influence. Especially when we are not repeating scripts but actually thinking, listening, and exploring — together — about tough issues that are, we demonstrate, abundant in ambiguity and ambivalence.
Long time (perhaps the longest?) HLSWatch commentator William Cumming has a guest blog up on Eric Holdeman’s Disaster Zone blog. And he doesn’t nibble around the edges:
Increasingly, I am supportive of the notion that emergency management is not a contrived subject or profession but in fact underlies much of organizational process that leads to various forms of governance.
I’m not sure if I accept this notion, but it is a big idea. However, I do think his opinion on the use of the military in most other nations for emergency management responsibilities is an important insight.
Well in my opinion, emergency management is the worst form of organizational response to crisis management and resilience (that includes elements of preparedness, planning, prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery) except all others. What alternative choices are there?
One big one is a military command and control system that actually can prevent effective collaboration and cooperation, whether among individuals, NGOs, governments or other spontaneously developing post-disaster organizations. Since more than 90 percent of the nation-states have vested their EM function in their military, organizationally designed to inflict maximum organized violence on some other group or nation-state, I find that this approach is largely vested in a leadership’s desire for control and resurrecting the status quo ante. These factors are not absent from emergency management but seem more likely not to dominate when the civil sector is dominate.
He goes on to provide five building blocks for emergency management going forward. Please see Holdeman’s blog for the full text as it is well worth your time to read. It is also worth pointing out here his summary:
In summary, perhaps the system of emergency management must promote collaboration and cooperation so that the system is supportive of the best resilience. And while individual brilliance will from time to time appear and needs to be utilized, systems and processes must reflect the collective wisdom of those involved with the emergency management process in any crisis or disaster.
What I like here is the focus on process and system. Often, at least it seems to me, leadership development and education is held up as the holy grail of homeland security development. I believe Bill is pointing out that while when you get exceptional, or even adequate, leadership good things follow but the most important thing is to develop an overall system within which best practices are developed, shared, and implemented.
Here is a good example of a local public health system getting ahead of the potential (just wanted to underline that point) threat of Ebola appearing in U.S. cities.
The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) hosted a media briefing Wednesday morning with various leaders of the city’s public health branches to outline the plans for the “very low” likelihood that the deadly Ebola virus disease (EVD) would make it to Massachusetts.
“While the risk to our residents is very low, it is always better to prepare so that we can appropriately identify and care for suspect cases and work with the community to prevent further illness,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). “We want a well-coordinated plan in place in the event a case of EVD is found in the city.”
Apparently, this morning’s briefing was not a one off:
This morning’s media briefing in Boston was the first of many public awareness campaign steps city health officials are taking in order to prepare Massachusetts and Boston in the case of an outbreak.
“As a result of years of practice, investment and responding to real emergencies, hospitals in Boston are well equipped and trained to appropriately and safely care for a suspect case of EVD,” said John Erwin, executive director of the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals. “To ensure the best possible preparations, however, hospitals will need the support of city, state and federal health officials. That’s why this planning effort is so important.”
While specifically concerning Ebola, this message is about public health threats and even homeland security in general:
“Every successful preparedness campaign requires the support and strong involvement of the community,” said Atyia Martin, director of the BPHC Public Health Preparedness Program. “We will work hard to make sure that residents have the information and resources that they need to stay informed and healthy. That is what this effort is all about.”
As the Boston.com article points out, learn more about the Ebola and the city’s public awareness campaign at bphc.org/ebola.
Today’s post was written by Max Geron
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The tweet read:
“Honestly, of all the people that should be upset about #Ferguson, why aren’t the other police who actually do “protect & serve” speaking up?”
It came from one of the people who follows me on twitter and while not directed specifically at me, it was directed to me. It is an excellent question and speaks to what I think needs to change about law enforcement.
It’s not simply about social media use by law enforcement, although in my view that needs to improve. It’s actually how we talk about and how we respond to protest. Law enforcement officers are often quick to say that we are here to protect the rights of those who want to express dissent as well as the rights of those against whom the protest is directed. As true and simple as that statement is, the reality of it is exponentially more complicated.
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The images from Ferguson, Missouri are disturbing and disappointing to those who recognize their role in law enforcement as servants of the public as opposed to strict enforcers of the law, maintainers of order or members of a paramilitary organization. While enforcing the law is a primary function and order maintenance is a part of that job, they are but components of the larger public servant role. Additionally, while police agencies are paramilitary in nature, law enforcement leaders now, more than ever, need to guard against the increase of militarization currently underway.
I’m disheartened that police unions and associations across the country are concerned about citizens photographing police while in public and have no qualms about speaking out against it. This adds to the concern of the public that we are moving more towards a police state and slowly eroding the freedoms we should cherish in this great nation.
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So what?
Law enforcement leaders must guard against applying “best practices” to fluid and dynamic incidents with which they have only limited experience such as protests. They must also recognize that deploying a SWAT team is, in and of itself, a use of force and not appropriate in all circumstances – response to peaceful protests being one of those inappropriate uses.
Sometimes the most difficult thing for leaders, especially law enforcement leaders, to do is nothing or doing less. This is often what is called for, and now apparently happening in Ferguson. When the Missouri State Police reported to Ferguson, they did so reportedly without donning riot gear, which appears to have contributed to a much softer reception and peaceful march on Thursday evening.
Officers often point to the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle as justification for wearing riot gear. A segment of those demonstrators refused to engage in the negotiated management tactics employed at the time by Seattle police. Scholars have argued that a failure by Seattle PD to plan for that refusal is what added to the reasoning for the militarized response and therefore increased the resistance. [See Patrick F. Gillham and Gary T. Marx, “Complexity and Irony in Policing and Protesting: The World Trade Organization in Seattle,” Social Justice 27, no. 2 (80) (June 1, 2000): 212.]
Interspersed with the rioting came the reports of media personnel being threatened with arrest and being ordered to stop filming. Little does more to incense the media, especially the television media than ordering them to stop filming when that order is not based in the law. Compound that with arrests of some journalists and the problems were exacerbated. In very few circumstances can civilian police make such a demand of citizens (another blog post/topic altogether).
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Long before Michael Brown was shot, the Ferguson police department seems not to have recognized that they were in a precarious position for several reasons. Their minority representation was not reflective of the community they were policing. In the language of social identity theory, the police in Ferguson, Missouri are a 53 person out-group with the ability to take not only the freedoms of the in-group but their lives as well. Much work must be done in that department and community to repair the perceived injustices. Police need to do more to recruit candidates that are more representative of the population they serve, while at the same time making inroads to the citizens with their current cadre of officers.
Their strategy for policing protest, if they had a formal one, seems to indicate a lack of understanding of the effect that a strong show of militarized force can have on a community that believes they have been disenfranchised by their police department. By being members of the “out group”, they were incapable of understanding the impact such a tactical display would have on the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri. Furthermore, their initial refusal to release the name of the involved officer supports the theory that they were unable to understand how that could be perceived as an inability to be objective and impartial in their investigation.
This repair effort must come not only from the police leaders in Ferguson but also from the civic and community leaders. They must come together and have the critical conversations necessary to establish expectations and understanding on how things must change to rebuild trust and increase transparency in their government.
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Finally, do not make the mistake thinking this is solely a Ferguson issue, a Missouri issue or mid-West issue. This is a homeland security issue and was evidenced in the responses to the Occupy Movement in 2011 across the country. The increase in militarization is a national issue only thrust into the forefront of the American awareness by the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri. The withdrawal of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan has left thousands upon thousands of former soldiers looking for work. For law enforcement agencies looking to hire qualified candidates, former soldiers appear to be outstanding recruits.
We are only beginning to consider the implications of the flood of former military personnel joining the ranks of civilian policing. I submit that more study into this phenomenon is needed. The issue of militarization of American policing is not just the acquisition of military equipment; it is the infusion of so many former soldiers into the ranks of the civilian police.
For American police, retention of the “servant” mindset is more critical than that of the “warrior” mindset.
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Max Geron is a senior executive in a major urban police department and, according to the Washington Post, a security studies scholar.” He is the author of “21st Century Strategies for Policing Protest: What Major Cities’ Responses to the Occupy Movement Tell Us About the Future of Police Response to Public Protest,” which can be found at this link: https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=753807 . The views expressed in this post are Geron’s; they do not represent the opinions of any agency or organization.
Today’s post was written by Matthew Hanley.
Officer Smith receives the call he has been dreading his entire career, an active shooter at the local elementary school.
The 911 dispatcher provides the only description available of the shooter – a white male wearing a black shirt. Officer Smith arrives in just under 2 minutes.
As he exits the vehicle, he hears a series of shots ring out. He makes the decision to enter the school alone. Down the first hallway he encounters the gunman – white male, black shirt, handgun. He instinctively fires 3 rounds and the suspect falls to the floor.
As Officer Smith approaches the suspect, he recognizes the man as an off-duty police officer.
Shots continue to ring out in the gymnasium.
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This is precisely the scenario that could play out across the country if a new mobile phone application called Hero911 becomes widely adopted.
Hero911 is meant to reduce law enforcement response time to active shooting incidents at schools. Schools purchase a service called SchoolGuard ($2500 setup fee and $99/mo). Police officers voluntarily download the free Hero911 “social protection network” application. (By the way, the phrase “social protection network” is trademarked.)
When an active shooter incident occurs, the school activates SchoolGuard (also trademarked) which immediately notifies nearby police officers, both on-duty and off-duty, of the incident.
(The Hero911 app is clearly meant to be used only by sworn police officers or “a qualified retired law enforcement officer.” But one of the people who recommends the app on the Hero911 website — “To all sheepdogs, the Hero911™ Network can save lives, please put the app on your phone, I did.” — is Lt Col (retired) Dave Grossman. Grossman is a former Army Ranger, teacher, consultant, and author of On Killing, On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs, and other publications. He does not appear to be an active or retired police officer. One wonders how many other knowledgeable, experienced, and weapons-smart non-police officers might also “put the app on” their phone.)
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Cleary seconds count when responding to active shooter incidents and law enforcement agencies should be exploring ways to expedite that response. But these types of incidents are extremely chaotic and the response must be conducted in a coordinated manner utilizing best practices.
Encouraging the self-dispatch of off-duty officers is potentially dangerous.
Without the ability to communicate via radio, off-duty officers are not able to receive accurate suspect/incident information or able to communicate their location to other responders. Without a uniform or clothing identifying the individual as a police officer, the likelihood of the off-duty officer being mistaken for a suspect is real and potentially deadly.
Hero911 does briefly address these concerns – somewhat – on their website (FAQs). Here’s an example (my emphasis):
Officers without proper training, skill and identification should not respond, but remain vigilant after receiving the alert. ….All laws, home agency policies and protocols must be followed.
Officer safety is a major concern during these catastrophes. Please consider purchasing a well-stocked “Go-Bag” for your personal vehicle. Hats and vests with bold POLICE markings are strongly recommended.
Applications like Hero911 are well intentioned and could potentially reduce response times to active shootings by creating a direct link between school officials and nearby police officers.
However, before law enforcement agencies endorse the use of such applications, policies and training should be developed to address the self-dispatching of off-duty officers.
Additional information can be found at www.hero911.org.
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Matthew Hanley is a senior executive in a state police agency. The views expressed in this post are Hanley’s; they do not represent the opinions of any agency or organization.
On this date in 2007 an 8.0 earthquake in the Pacific off Peru devastates several coastal communities killing more than 500 and injuring more than a thousand.
On this day in 1935 Wiley Post and Will Rogers were killed in the crash of a private airplane. (Sort of interesting that spill, fire, explosion, and other search terms mostly found individual car crashes and other transportation-related accidents. Nothing really big.)
On this day in 1998 a car bomb exploded in Omagh, Northern Ireland killing twenty-nine and injured more than 200.
What’s on your mind related to homeland security?
Last week a regular reader and thoughtful commentator observed:
Black Swans are better ignored until their arrival – cynically, it reduces expectations for preparedness, responsibility and accountability if you do not acknowledge the possible threat.
Given the context of this individual’s commentary over the years I do not take this as cynical. At least in the modern use of cynic: “a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.”
Rather, I hear irony: “the mildly sarcastic use of words to imply the opposite of what they normally mean.” I hear an encouragement to greater preparedness, responsibility and accountability.
If I have misheard, s/he — probably he — will correct me.
By definition Black Swans cannot be accurately predicted. As a result they are not well-suited to tactical planning. At least not if plan-execution is your goal. But assiduously working through strategic scenarios with tactical details can be helpful to expose preparedness issues. This is especially the case if tactical planning is consistently framed and facilitated to achieve strategic purposes.
Too often organizations are tempted to treat planning documents as operational algorithms, something that — with enough resources and training — will unfold per specifications and achieve each outcome.
In disaster preparedness, involving black or white swans, this is self-deluding.
Lee Clarke has famously and persuasively called such plans: “Fantasy Documents.” He writes, “When uncertainty about key aspects of a task is high, rationalistic plans and rational-looking planning processes become rationality badges, labels proclaiming that organizations and experts can control things that are, most likely, outside the range of their expertise.”
This is hubris: “an excess of ambition, pride, etc, ultimately causing the transgressor’s ruin.”
Bill, Claire, others: Are there longitudinal studies of the personality types attracted to Emergency Management? Especially planning folks? I am familiar with a study of the Clark County (Las Vegas, NV) Fire Department that I tend to project on the homeland security professions. It found more than three-quarters of CCFD personnel testing with a strong SJ temperament on a Myers-Briggs type instrument.
Those with SJ temperaments are often called “Guardians” or “Protectors”. According to Dr. David Keirsey: “Practical and down-to-earth, Guardians believe in following the rules and cooperating with others. They are not very comfortable winging it or blazing new trails; working steadily within the system is the Guardian way, for in the long run loyalty, discipline, and teamwork get the job done right. Guardians are meticulous about schedules and have a sharp eye for proper procedures. They are cautious about change, even though they know that change can be healthy for an institution. Better to go slowly, they say, and look before you leap.”
This personality type is especially well-suited for many aspects of public safety and disaster response. But Black Swans are seldom tamed by following the rules and working steadily within the system.
Unless — I suggest — the rules and system are developed to anticipate Black Swans, to expect the unexpected and to develop the cognitive and organizational capabilities to critically and creatively engage the unexpected.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb drew on David Hume to popularize our current notion of Black Swans. In his 2012 book Antifragile Taleb tells us:
The biologist and intellectual E. O. Wilson was once asked what represented the most hindrance to the development of children; his answer was the soccer mom… Soccer moms try to eliminate the trial and error, the antifragility, from children’s lives, move them away from the ecological and transform them into nerds working on preexisting (soccer-mom-compatible) maps of reality. Good students, but nerds–that is, they are like computers except slower. Further, they are now totally untrained to handle ambiguity. As a child of civil war, I disbelieve in structured learning… Provided we have the right type of rigor, we need randomness, mess, adventures, uncertainty, self-discovery, near-traumatic episodes, all those things that make life worth living, compared to the structured, fake, and ineffective life of an empty-suit CEO with a preset schedule and an alarm clock.
Rigorous random near-traumatic episodes sound like the sort of “content” that many of the personality types drawn to public safety and emergency management would welcome. This is the kind of learning that encourages us to expect the unexpected and develop the skills to engage the unexpected.
When was the last time you participated in a table-top or exercise that you would describe as rigorous random near-traumatic? Have you ever participated in a planning process that could be described with these terms? Too many planners and trainers and, increasingly, managers (self-styled leaders) are really just soccer-moms in disguise.
Here’s the national preparedness goal:
“A secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.”
Some people (e.g., several hundred retired admirals and generals) argue obesity threatens both the security and resilience of the nation.
A few years ago, in a document titled Too Fat to Fight, they claimed
Being overweight or obese turns out to be the leading medical reason why applicants fail to qualify for military service. Today, otherwise excellent recruit prospects, some of them with generations of sterling military service in their family history, are being turned away because they are just too overweight….
[At] least nine million 17- to 24-year-olds in the United States are too fat to serve in the military. That is 27 percent of all young adults. Obesity rates among children and young adults have increased so dramatically that they threaten not only the overall health of America but also the future strength of our military.
Obesity threatens more than the nation’s ability to staff its armed forces. It’s an economic threat. And, as the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review report points out (p. 31), “homeland security is inseparable from economic security.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (still acronymized as CDC):
• More than one-third (or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese.
• Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death.
• The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.
What can be done to “prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover” from obesity?
Among the hundreds of answers offered to that question, here a suggestion from a 1:41 youtube video I saw a few weeks ago.
Homeland security starts at home.
On this day in 2007 an EF2 tornado struck Brooklyn, New York. (Swiss Re recently published a study of the tornado threat to US urban areas.)
On this day in 2009 a small plane and a tour helicopter collided over the Hudson River between Hoboken and Manhattan. Nine died.
On this day in 2013 a suicide bombing at a funeral in Quetta, Pakistan kills over thirty.
What’s on your mind related to homeland security?
