Thomas Matthew Crooks was first flagged by law enforcement 90 minutes before he opened fire on Donald Trump, newly released texts reveal.
  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1573·
    2 个月前

    The texts showed that an officer spotted Crooks occupying a suspicious area more than an hour-and-a-half before the July 13 rally commenced at 6 p.m. Previously, Secret Service officials said Crooks was first spotted an hour before the rally—an amount of time many lawmakers already considered to be egregious at a presidential candidate’s rally.

    Other texts obtained by the Times revealed that an officer spotted Crooks using a range finder about 20 minutes before the rally began and snapped photos of him—but didn’t approach him.

    The strangest part of this is people expecting cops to do something that might plausibly put them in harms way

    Modern cops are almost exclusively all lazy cowards at this point.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      861·
      2 个月前

      It has also been ruled repeatedly that police do not have a duty to protect you. There is no requirement that they risk their lives to keep you or anyone else from harm unless they have a “special relationship” with you, meaning you are in their custody. The cops were there to work the metal detectors and direct traffic. There’s no way in hell they were going to take a bullet for Trump. That’s the Secret Service’s job.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
      191·
      2 个月前

      Cops aren’t trained in operational security. When you have a large event with multiple agencies and groups of people doing different things, then it’s easy to blend in if you act like you know what you’re doing. You can walk into almost any building if you throw on a high vis vest and carry a ladder. People will hold the door open for you and even let you into high security areas if you are smooth enough.

        • tempest@lemmy.ca
          2·
          2 个月前

          Crazy person open carrying an AR 15 would probably blend in fine at a Trump rally…

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
            3·
            2 个月前

            Yeah right Republican rallies and conventions are “gun free” zones where you no longer have your 2A rights, apparently. People carrying at these rallies would require Republicans to be logically consistent.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
            31·
            2 个月前

            My educated guess is that they looked at him milling about outside the rally and assumed he was a Trump supporter based on his look and wouldn’t be a problem.

            As for the real answer, we’ll have to wait for them to give a statement, but it’ll likely be watered-down misinformation that paints police in the best light, so we’ll probably never know for sure.

      • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 个月前

        A button-down shirt/khakis and lanyard with a name badge often works, too, especially if you’re talking while using a Bluetooth headset and typing on a phone. People just assume you’re some low-level exec or IT support personnel, esp if your phone is on one of those tacky belt clips.

  • callouscomic@lemm.eeEnglish
    91·
    2 个月前

    So… I guess cops literally aren’t here to protect anyone.

    Whether you’re a kid in school, or a former president. Cops ain’t here for you.

    • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
      222·
      2 个月前

      the most interesting thing about all of this is how no one’s really outraged at this colossal police failure, like they usually are. it’s like “oh… they dropped the ball on trump’s security? oh well shit happens whattayagonnado amirite?”

      • blandfordforever@lemm.ee
        121·
        2 个月前

        We already know that cops are incompetent. We would just like it if they weren’t also doing the occasional murder.

      • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
        81·
        2 个月前

        I mean, it’s his campaign’s decision to hold these giant open air rallies in unsecured locations. So… shrug

      • Ricky Rigatoni@lemm.ee
        1·
        2 个月前

        Trump and his ilk are a big factor to why the police are like this so it’s a bit of karmic justice regardless of anything else.

    • superterran@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 个月前

      Agreed, we need to get the Secret Service to clean up their act before we end up risking the life of some better President!

  • paddirn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    333·
    2 个月前

    Wish there had been this much scrutiny of the police’s behavior on Jan. 6.

    • geekworking@lemmy.world
      10·
      2 个月前

      This seems the most likely reason. It is sort of like they teach in first aid. You don’t say someone call 911 because everyone thinks someone else will. You need to tell one person directly.

      The problem here is that it is not a group of untrained bystanders stumbling upon a surprise emergency. There is supposed to be a pre-established chain of command and group to take these reports and ensure that they are investigated.

      Hell, I was part of events where governors made appearances, and the county had their communication command post setup and even gave radios and a briefing to our volunteers at gates and all of the area leads to report anything directly to the command post.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.comEnglish
        4·
        2 个月前

        Even Burning Man has a proper chain of command for incident management. If a bunch of hippies in the desert can do it, the Secret Service has no excuse.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 个月前

        seems like teaching cops to put their own safety before literally everyone else is maybe a non-small portion of the problem

  • BlitzFitz @lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    2 个月前

    Secret Service and local PD absolutely deserve to get reemed out and punished for this gross incompetence and security failure.

    This is a huge issue that needs to be remedied quickly, else all our current and future politicians are at risk from internal or foreign enemies of the state. Regardless of your political alignment, all our politicians deserve a secure environment without risk to their own lives.

    Anyone that blows this off as, it was just Trump, is massively underestimating the scale of this issue.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
    189·
    2 个月前
    Daily Beast Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [Medium] (Click to view Full Report)

    Daily Beast is rated with Medium Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.

    Bias: Left
    Factual Reporting: Mixed
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  • kbin_space_program@kbin.run
    7·
    2 个月前

    We knew this already?

    The local sniper team was already reported to have sent this up the chain but got no response until that guy climed onto the roof and was about the shoot.

      • aodhsishaj@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 个月前

        Lazy cops being lazy cops. Politically I don’t think there is any world where Trump is a net positive, even if you’re an accelerationist. However, if you’re a cop, you’re supposedly a steward of public safety. Any interdiction before that kid grabbed his backpack could’ve saved lives. Including the shooter’s if there had been any de-escalation success.

        ACAB