{"id":2621,"date":"2002-05-28T15:25:02","date_gmt":"2002-05-28T20:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2621"},"modified":"2002-05-28T15:25:02","modified_gmt":"2002-05-28T20:25:02","slug":"so_what_are_we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/28\/so_what_are_we.html","title":{"rendered":"“So what are we supposed to use? Harsh language?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

All those khaki-clad, helmed-or-bereted, stern and military-looking National Guardsmen who’ve been there in airports, keeping us safe from terrorists?<\/p>\n

Some of them were carrying, under orders, unloaded weapons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In New York and Pennsylvania, Guardsmen were not allowed to carry loaded weapons. Instead, they had clips ready to load into their unloaded weapons. BFD.<\/p>\n

Those states that decided their soldiers should carry loaded weapons said doing so was intrinsic to the success of the mission, to be able to defend themselves and the public.
\nStates that decided otherwise said the guardsmen were there mainly to buttress local law enforcement, and they noted they could order the weapons loaded at any time.
\nOfficially, the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs would not comment on whether the state’s National Guard troops carried loaded or unloaded weapons. “We are not going to confirm specific rules of engagement because our soldiers could be back in the airports,” spokesman John Maietta said.<\/p>\n

I.e., for at least Pennsylvania and New York, it was more important to look <\/i>safe than to be <\/i>safe.<\/p>\n

The newspaper breaking the story, the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/i>, contacted the states with the nation’s busiest airports. Pennsylvania and New York had folks come forward saying that the guns were unloaded. Most of the states (including Colorado) indicated that they had — gasp! — authorized loaded weapons. A number of states had No Comment, which seems a bit odd.<\/p>\n

The problem is, of course, now that the information has (inevitably) leaked out, it makes it all the more likely that someone will guess (rightly or wrongly) that Guardsmen (or other security types) are unarmed, or are just for show, and will Do Something that will possibly lead to People Getting Hurt.<\/p>\n

Stupid, stupid, stupid.<\/p>\n

And why this? According to the Guardsmen who spilled the beans, they were told that the Powers that Be didn’t “want any John Waynes.” In other words, the Guardsmen couldn’t be trusted not to start opening up with their weapons into the crowds.<\/p>\n

Boy, doesn’t that make you feel safe?<\/p>\n

(Via Blather<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All those khaki-clad, helmed-or-bereted, stern and military-looking National Guardsmen who’ve been there in airports, keeping us safe from terrorists? Some of them were carrying, under orders, unloaded weapons. In New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-estate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1173,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/04\/when_is_a_cop_n.html","url_meta":{"origin":2621,"position":0},"title":"When is a cop not a cop?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Oct-01 7:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"When he's a highly-trained anti-terrorism Marine with a high-powered automatic weapon pointed at your head. The American citizenry is in for some interesting view changes in the coming weeks and...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39886,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/04\/go-nuke-or-go-home.html","url_meta":{"origin":2621,"position":1},"title":"Go nuke or go home!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Dec-13 4:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While admitting that the goal of keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of Iran is a non-trivial task, I find it remarkable that Rep. Hunter (R-CA) can speak so casually of dropping nuclear weapons on Iran (\"tactical\" ones, to be sure, but that just means Hiroshima-size) as (if I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51822,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/23\/some-noteworthy-policing.html","url_meta":{"origin":2621,"position":2},"title":"Some Noteworthy Policing","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-Jul-15 7:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Congratulations to the Towns County, Georgia, Sheriffs Department. Somehow, like magic, they managed to stop an \"aggressive\" suspect, restrain and arrest him, even though he twice tried to get to loaded weapons he had on him or in his car. And they did it without shooting him, or even doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45607,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/30\/looks-like-nuke-times-again.html","url_meta":{"origin":2621,"position":3},"title":"Looks Like Nuke Times Again","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-Sep-14 9:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So what's most disturbing in this article?- A major radiation incident at the WIPP facility, leading to a shutdown and growing backlog of nuclear waste storage?- Investigations into same that indicate all sorts of problems with the operations at WIPP?- Proposals to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131855,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/23\/screwing-the-soldiers.html","url_meta":{"origin":2621,"position":4},"title":"Screwing the Soldiers","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 23-Oct-16 10:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"At the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, in the mid-2000s, the Pentagon set up a program through the National Guard to provide cash incentives for folk to enlist or re-up. Only the program was mismanaged, enlistees were given incentives (or higher incentives) than they qualified for (so that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44348,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/14\/when-special-weapons-and-tactics-arent-all-that-special.html","url_meta":{"origin":2621,"position":5},"title":"When “Special Weapons and Tactics” aren’t all that special","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Aug-14 12:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Makes one wonder, between the War on Drugs and the War on Terror and the leftovers from the War in Iraq, where else we might have put all that money that wouldn't have involved so many flash-bang raids on houses that didn't really need flash-bang raids.\u00a0\ufeff 10 facts about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}