Very bad news if true

[nancylebov]

http://www.star-telegram.com/dallas_news/story/486413.html

Dallas police say the secret service told them to stop checking for weapons at Obama rally this past Wednesday.

This is extremely ugly if it's accurate, so I want to check on it. The claim that the secret service told the police to stop checking is hard to verify, so I want to start with something easier. Was anyone on my friendslist or anyone they know at the rally? Were they checked for weapons?

If this is true, what then? What's a reasonable way of applying pressure so that the Feds at least can't be so blatant?

I wish I could say that I believe my government wouldn't behave like that, but I'm not that trusting.

It wouldn't even have to be racism-- it could just be going after the Democratic candidate who's more likely to win the general election.

Is there any way to track whether white hate groups are being monitored at least as actively as usual?

Link from supergee.

Comments

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Um, we didn't get tightly checked going to a rally for Clinton a few weeks ago. And my mother was in a wheel chair and we had several bags hanging off it. There were dogs running around sniffing at everything.
The Secret Service seem to be spending more time actually watching carefully and putting themselves between the candidate and any problems. Which when you are talking about Large Rallies is actually the only way to handle things.
All the major assassinations that we think about have happened either completely out in the open (JFK, King, Bhutto) or in areas were weapons checks were usually not performed (Robert Kennedy). Not inside the Rally Room itself.
Do you have any idea how long it would take to do a Real Weapons Check on 20K+ of people? Just think of the fun you have checking into an airport.
Frankly, I'm more worried about the crackpot across the street from the Rally Building Parking Lot.

[crystalpyramid]

My boyfriend says they did a Real Security Check for the Obama rally in Maryland — ~18,000 people got the full treatment with wands and metal detectors. They had to start early, but people had to come early just to get in.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

The wheelchair may have been the cause of that. So far, the ingrained "be polite to disabled people" meme consistently overpowers the "be paranoid" meme.

My (now) wife and I had to go to City Hall to get paperwork for our marriage in late September, 2001, in Boston, the city that the hijackers departed from. Paranoia was high. There were long lines to get through the metal detectors, and everyone was being carefully searched. They took one look at my wife's white cane, and immediately ushered her and her large backpack around the metal detector with no search.

Some day, we'll see a major terrorist attack carried out by someone disguised as (or actually!) a PWD, and then that will change.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say that I believe my government wouldn't behave like that, but I'm not that trusting.

Sadly, I completely agree. The utter insanity of Shrub and company have made worrying about conspiracies far too easy to believe. I'm still wondering what will eventually come out about their foreknowledge of September 11. Dear gods, it will be good to have a president who isn't both half crazy and a criminal.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

The one account I've seen had no mention of screening, so that's evidence for the story. I've got one other attendee on my flist, I'll ping them to see if they've got any input.

One possibility is that the campaign asked for the screening to be skipped so they could have everyone inside by the start of the speech.

As for white hate groups . . . I've read some folks who are checking up on them, and the main comment on the presidential race has been "Ron Paul is cool."

[aedynn.livejournal.com]

I was at the rally in Dallas and we did not see a thorough checking when we went in. However, they did tell people beforehand not to bring bags, so I don't know if they stopped those with bags. We entered fairly late (stood in line for 3 hours) and I think they did start moving the line more quickly towards the end.

[sylvar.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how plausible this is, but I wonder if they were trying to bring in plainclothes agents who needed to carry and not be spotted.

I think it's more likely based on a request from the campaign, though.

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

I'd be more worried if the order came at the beginning instead of at the end; they probably assume that anyone who intended trouble would show up early to be sure to get in, and so it was a calculated risk in getting everyone inside in time.

I'm not paying too much attention to politics, but I found it interesting that the local media coverage leading up to the Obama-Clinton debate kept showing Ron Paul signs.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

They may not have had any choice. I've seen Ron Paul signs in my end of TX, but no Obama ones and the only Clinton ones are in front of her campaign HQ.

[andrewwheeler.livejournal.com]

There's a follow-up story (http://www.star-telegram.com/dallas_news/story/489920.html), in which the Secret Service says they followed a standard procedure for large events.

Sounds plausible to me, especially since here and in that article people describe similar procedures at other events.