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Defending Democracy Initiative: Can We Be Serious Now?
Defending Democracy Initiative; Preparing Law Enforcement at the local and state level to protect public officials and candidates for office after 7/13/2024.
Over the next days and weeks there will be much speculation on the reasons why Thomas Matthew Crooks identified as the person who shot Donald Trump by the FBI attempted to assassinate the former president during his rally in Pennsylvania. Already disinformation has blamed ANTIFA, Ukraine and “the crazy left”.
Unattributed sources with the Dept. of Homeland Security confirm an increase in dangerous rhetoric across social media calling for civil war, retribution against targets on the left and RHINO s or never Trumpers.
One post called for attacks on local and state officials not supporting trump and called for the “execution of traitors”.
Now with emotions so high, conspiracy theories growing and disinformation and calls for violence getting louder, can we get serious now.
The Threat Isn’t New
Since 2015 we have written sixteen articles on the protection, or lack thereof for public officials. We have recommended, begged, pleaded, and advocated for local and state law enforcement to take the security of public officials more seriously. And to that end, Independent Security Advisors and I founded the Defending Democracy Initiate in 2021 whose purpose is to provide close or executive protection training and services to local and state law enforcement. We also combat disinformation and conspiracy theories that can lead to political violence.
And after the events of 7/13/2024 and the attempted assassination of a former President and candidate for office, the threats to local and state officials have increased exponentially.
Can’t be Surprised
President Biden has given speeches where he “Warns Democracy is In Peril” and said “the battle for the “soul of America” is “animated by the perennial battle between our worst instincts—which we’ve seen of late—and our better angels.”
And now the President has to comment on an attempted assassination of his political opponent and a former President.
So, our political discourse has become toxic, and the President condemns political violence.
AG Merrick Garland says “we have worked to combat a worrying spike in threats of violence against those who serve the public. Those threats including targeting members of Congress, police officers, judges, jurors, election workers, and the Justice Department’s own employees”.
So, our political discourse is toxic and there are active threats being made to public officials including election workers at the local and state level.
The Media Knew
In the VOA July 13, 2024 article by Jeff Seldin, “Shooting at Trump rally follows years of elevated US threat levels” he notes in the articles “The possibility of political violence has been a major concern for the U.S. Homeland Security Department as far back as January 2021”, and he mentions the 2024 Homeland Security warning that says “that attacks could be directed at “government officials, voters, and elections‑related personnel and infrastructure, including polling places, ballot drop box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, political party offices, and vote counting sites.”.
So, again, if we know there are real, active and growing number of threats, and the media is reporting these warnings from US Government reports, where is the increased level of protection for those public officials holding our system together?
Repercussions:
Social media is abuzz with recriminations, conspiracy theories, calls for violence against those who “stand against trump” tonight. But it will be down ballot candidates for office, political supporters and donors who will be targeted.
High ranking federal officials will now have their security adjusted accordingly, they will become what we refer to as “hard targets”, but what about the county commissioner who is a loud and vocal supporter of Trump or Biden?
Is the democrat county elections official going to receive any level of protection? Can the local or county police provide those services?
Solutions
Fusion cells need to better distribute threat intelligence down to local and county law enforcement, and we better think outside the box and find the manpower and resources to establish close protection teams at the lowest possible levels.
Auxiliary or reserve police officers, the national guard, private sector agents, bailiffs and corrections officers, DMV and other agency police officers should all be trained in close protection.
Form teams from across multiple agencies to reduce the burden on any one agency and place them once activated under one command structure.
Its time for the Dept of Homeland Security to set aside grant money for the training of officers, deputies and troopers in the close protections skills they need to protect public officials.
Note* We have trained over 600 officers since 2011 in close or executive protection. Our programs are fully accredited by police training regulatory agencies and we are an approved federal training vendor. We follow federal and state law enforcement training protocols and law enforcement officers can receive in-service credits for graduating.
The point is we have a proven cost effective program that can help prepare law enforcement to mitigate these threats.
Closing
We as a society need to dampen down the violent political discourse. We need to make it clear we can disagree with policy, with each other, but we can do that without hating our public officials or each other personally.
But until “our better angles” do appear, and we agree to turn down this level of hate, public officials, and our democracy needs to be defended.
Author
Matthew Parker is CEO, and Director of Training for Independent Security Advisors LLC, and a licensed private investigator and executive protection specialist with over seventeen years of operational experience. He has served as the director of protection for international trade delegations and diplomats during official state visits to the United States, former special advisor and security consultant providing advice on matters of terrorism, international commerce security and supporting democracy programs for the Institutional Investors Consulting Company and a former special advisor to the Government of Iraq & Kurdish Regional Government, where in 2021 he became only one of three Americans who have received the Iraqi Commitment Medal on behalf of the Government of Iraq.
Mr. Parker has worked on various political campaigns for both republican and democratic candidates. He has interned for a US Senator, and he currently supports the Defending Democracy Initiative which supports programs combatting misinformation and providing security to our public officials. https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-parker-16a60118/
#defendingdemocracyinitiative #executiveprotectiontraining @ISA
Previous articles are available at https://www.eptraining.us/blog/
https://www.eptraining.us/defending-democracy-and-the-political-process/blog/
https://www.eptraining.us/protection-for-elected-officials-times-are-a-changing/blog/
Protection for Elected Officials, Part 6, Why Didn’t You Just Listen?