The security of the Charlie Kirk memorial is supposedly very tight, the same, repotedly, as for a Super Bowl. The thing about security, regardless of all the high tech that is utilized, is that it all depends on the people who are enforcing it. Therein are both the strong point and weak point of it. Just one example, from my personal experience shows examples of that.
Many U.S. Customs Service, Ofice of Investigations, Special Agents were assigned to augment the Secret Service, at the Republican National Convention for George W. Bush in Madison Square Garden in 2004. We were assigned specific posts and were all given photos of people we needed to be looking for in the crowd, people expected to be there with nefarious intentions. I was just outside the main entrance. As I scanned faces in the throng of people making entry, I noticed that one of the actual Secret Service agents - who was assigned with another SS Agent to a perimeter choke point, where folks first entered the property many yards away from the entrance to the building - had stopped scanning entrants because a young lady in a micro-mini skirt was taking up 100% of his attention as they chatted with one another. As I watched, another young lady, also provocatively dressed, caught the complete attention of the other SS agent. People just walked passed them without receiving a glance from those SS agents. A moment later, I spotted a face from the photographs of suspected agitators. He walked right between both SS agents who figuratively but yet essentially had their heads up those skirts.
When the suspect saw me looking his way he actually got down and duck walked, apparently hoping to be lost in the crowd. I got on the radio and made a notification to another agent in the same area as me. We commenced pushing through the mass of bodies trying to find him. After a minute or so, I grabbed him. As I was escorting him to a secure area, he tried to break away and run. Somehow, many years after my training, I immediately used an arm/wrist lock on him that caused him enough pain to stop in his tracks and to comply completely. I amazed myself, that I used that move never having used it before. It turned out he was probably likely to be more of a nuisance than a real threat and he was held by the SS for a couple of hours at most and released.
Had he been an actual serious threat though, he could have caused an extremely dangerous or even a deadly situation, except for me, or anyone so assigned there, being vigilant. I am not trying to say that I did anything special, I just did my job. Had either of those two women started to talk to me, who knows where my attention would have been. I like to think I would have told them to please move on but damn I am all man, so who knows.
I was 48 years old then, going on 49 within a month or so, and I think maturity helped give me an advantage over those two young SS agents at the choke point, who probably were driven by higher levels of testerone than I had in me. Regardless of hormones, I was there to do a job, took it very seriously, and got it done much to my own amazement. My wife always told me how unobservant was I, but my reply usually was: when things are going well, I don't always notice, but as soon as something is not right, I notice it almost immediately if not instantaneously.
Security at any such event is only going to be as good as the security personnel are alert. Let's hope, after all that has already happened, that they are super vigilant today because they may be responsible, in some way, for what happens after the event, peaceful coexistance or violent chaos unleashed.
All the best,
Glenn B
