2008 “Mr. Obama, You Can’t Say That Dallas Doesn’t Love You”
posted by February 22 at 8:35 AM
onThere’s good Kennedy mystique, and then there’s bad Kennedy mystique…
Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday [in Dallas] stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.
Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order—apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service—was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on.
Uh… since when is the Secret Service less freaky about security than local police departments?
Thanks to Slog tipper Reggie.
Comments
maybe GWB put Brownie in charge of the secret service, too. With advice from Mushareff.
Serously this is terrible.
That is some seriously freaky shit. Especially in Dallas, of all places.
Um, it's Texas, did you really expect everyone to leave their guns at home?
I attended the rally in Madison and there were only cursory patdowns done by a private security company.
Apparently there was more security in order to get on the floor but they didn't seem that concerned with everybody else.
seriously WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope Obama at least is asking some questions. sheeesh...
No searching for weapons? In *Texas*?
Goddammit, they're already trying to assassinate him and he's not even president yet.
In Dallas, too. Old habits die hard, I guess.
Pun not intended, but fitting.
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maybe some things don't change like that dark unkown underfaction that lashes out at....change.
In Texas, problems are solved with guns. You don't shoot people, but you do that Sheriff shit where you raise your voice and start shooting your gun in the air. Imagine that at an Obama rally. Congress.
Remember kids, the problem with shooting guns in the air is that what goes up must come down.
</psa>
I went to the rally at the Key Arena a few weeks ago and didn't get screened. In fact, I only saw screening going on for people who'd stand in the huddled mass in front of the stage. Consequently, I'm betting the SS forgoes screening a lot more often than this story indicates.
I look at this the other way. I would say that that the Dallas police were dragging their feet to prevent people from hearing Obama speak. The Secret Service, who expect to be reporting to Obama a year from know, put a stop to it.
everybody like barack, so there's no need to worry!
@11 - that's completely absurd.
Your headline is wrong -- the quote is "DOESN'T love you". It doesn't make sense otherwise.
Thanks, Fnarf. I tossed it up, walked away. The minute I saw it I realized I fucked it up. Sigh.
The real issue here is that Obama's appearance crowds keep growing and growing. People were lining up outside of Reunion Arena at 6:30 a.m. and the place pretty much filled up; this is as much an issue with Secret Service as it is with local event promoters finding themselves unprepared to deal with the masses. The bottleneck on that Dallas line was ridiculous, and I'm sure Obama's camp had at least something to do with just opening the floodgates and getting the rally on its way so that people with jobs could leave in time. Could've turned out awfully, but, shit, Dallas crowds aren't as bad as Slog commenters think. Who'da thunk. Still, other cities should take heed and prep for Obama's appeal appropriately.
Screening only the people who are very close makes sense. It's not like someone is gonna be able to sneak a sniper rifle into the bleacher seats, even without a metal detector.
Have we ever had a politician draw this many people? Is there an equivalent in the celebrity/music world that would also require a lot of security?
How the hell can you screen 18,000 people in a timely fashion?
Once elected, will he do rallies like this?
The mind wonders...
once he's elected, he's going to be so busy climbing us out of the shithole chimpy threw us into that there won't be another rally till 2012.
if there's even an amurka by then.
seriously.
this is a non-story. the SS has reasons for doing things certain ways. I was probably in the last 1000 or so of people who got into Key Arena. We were rushing the doors like it was a cincinnati Who concert. There was no (visible) screening and we weren't really entering the main doors single file. Of course the only seats left at that point were in the nose bleed sections. The SS job entails risk management. In some ways they may be creepy, but I trust them more than local police departments.
Now if you could just Photoshop Obama's head into some stills from the Zapruder film. Tastefully, of course. I wouldn't use the one with the big chunk of head laying on the trunk of the car with Jackie diving after it. No, wait -- yes, I would.
btw, one advantage to being in the nose bleed section at Key is that one could watch the police in the catwalk section. most people there probably didn't see them.
Interestingly--when I went to see Obama at Key Arena, before I even got to the front doors, a LOCAL security screener from the Center claimed I couldn't enter the area because I was carrying an SLR camera (removable lens). I protested and stayed in line anyway. When I got to the doorway, a couple in front of me WITH A STROLLER was being patted down, and then I was allowed in without anyone blinking.
At least our local security people here are vigilant. But if this story pans out--that the Secret Service was being lax--this needs to be corrected, pronto.
Sooo... Hillary does have a "plan B" to get the nomination, and her moles in Obamas security detail are putting it into play...
i have it on good authority that obama can dodge bullets.
A better option for the headline would have been: "Dumbshit who has no understanding of security protocol brings the other dumbshits out of the woodwork to comment."
I think they hired Brownie to supervise.
some dude @25, Obama doesn't have to dodge bullets; they bounce harmlessly off his Kryptonian skin just before being transformed in flower petals by the radiance of his divine soul.
Lesson from this: fuck Dallas.
I dislike this topic immensely.
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