Category Archives: Security

Energy, Security

Memo to NJ State Police: Lose the SUV

Leave a comment

I thought these executive protection recommendations by Bruce Alexander were interesting:

Despite what Capt. Al Della Fave of the NJSP said regarding SUVs “operate in all terrains. They won’t get bogged down.� “They are heavier and can withstand a crash better,� get rid of the SUV.

Bogged down? Where are you taking him, to a tar pit? When it comes to Executive Protection there are a variety of considerations when it comes to selecting a vehicle but getting “bogged down� is rarely one of them.

There are times when an SUV is appropriate but based on the publicly available information in this situation, this isn’t one of them. An SUV simply can not maneuver as well as a sedan particularly at higher rates of speed or under an emergency driving condition requiring braking, skid or traction control. Another consideration is the increased vehicle profile that an SUV presents as opposed to a sedan.

Finally when it comes to weight as a means of protection in an accident, like they say back home “that dog don’t hunt.� Weight in this case simply means you have a heavier object in motion, not greater protection. Memo to Capt. Fave, an armored sedan is pretty darn heavy

Nice analysis. Wonder what times require an SUV. Ground clearance? Photo shoot at the New Jersey car dealers association meetings? Maybe it’s the least different model of transportation for the state and therefore a form of camouflage — spinners might soon be required too.

Update (23 Apr 2007): Bruce has posted more commentary with even stronger language regarding the misleading characteristics of giant SUVs.

An SUV should not be used as a regular means of transportation for Executive Protection. SUVs are difficult to control and simply do not perform as well in emergency situations typically encountered in Executive Protection which includes accident avoidance in addition to vehicle ambushes etc… Compounding this problem is that most Executive Protection driver’s training programs do not spend the same amount of training time in an SUV practicing evasive driving techniques as they do in a sedan. Consequently when it comes time to drive an SUV in an Executive Protection mission, driver skill isn’t usually as proficient.

It time to put to rest the notion that “bigger is better� when it comes to vehicle size and safety and Executive Protection.

Poetry, Security

A Bird Came Down the Walk

Leave a comment

by Emily Dickinson

In the Garden

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,–
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

Civility in nature, disturbed by the observer.

Food, Security

Rabbits on the motorway

Leave a comment

One day in school my English teacher asked a fellow student to explain the significance of chapter three in the Grapes of Wrath. Fortunately she called on the eminently brilliant Brad Setzer who suggested that the chapter, ostensibly about a turtle trying to survive as it crossed a road, was not only a synopsis for the rest of the book but that it represented the very struggle of life itself.

Compare that fictional tale with the recent news about an overturned rabbit truck that deposited huge numbers of the fuzzy creatures on a road near Budapest:

“There are thousands of them on the road but they’re not using their newfound freedom well; they’re just sitting around, eating grass and enjoying the sun,” [highway patrol spokesman] Galik told Reuters.

Are we now less like the struggling turtle and more like rabbits sitting on the motorway, dazed and confused by the concept of freedom?

Before you decide, note the conclusion of the real story:

By midday, 4,400 bunnies had been rounded up, but 100 were still roaming the fields surrounding the highway.

“Those 100 are free to go. We will not collect them,” Galik said.

The ending wasn’t so happy for the ones that were recaptured. They were expected to complete the trip to a slaughterhouse, authorities said.

What would Steinbeck say?

Brad has since moved on to discussion of more mundane things, if you ask me:

I also suspect the impact of inappropriate currency pegs – like the de facto currency union between the world’s biggest oil importer and the world’s biggest oil exporter – is an under-reported story.

Much more fun to report about bunnies on the loose.

Poetry, Security

US Gun Control and Death

Leave a comment

The Virginia massacre will drive the question of gun control back into the mainstream US debate. I have already noted some strange details emerging:

Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell said his shop sold the Glock to Cho in March. The serial number had been scratched off, but federal agents traced it to the store using a receipt found in Cho’s backpack.

Why scratch the serial number? And why keep the receipt?

Because he killed and injured so many victims in a short span of time, some people speculated that Cho used high-capacity magazines containing as many as 33 rounds in each clip.

Under the federal assault-weapons ban enacted in 1994, magazines were limited to 10 rounds. But that ban was allowed to expire in 2004.

“The key thing that we have seen in all of these school shootings is easy access to high firepower weapons,” said Daniel Vice, an attorney with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “These killings can’t be done with baseball bats and knives.”

The ban was allowed to expire because…? Remember how the current US administration recently also fought against an international ban or regulation of illegal arms?

This horrific tragedy brings to mind a Japanese death poem from Yoel Hoffmann’s compilation of jisei no ku:

Atsujin

Earth and metal…
although my breathing ceases
time and tide go on. 		Tsuchi kane ya
iki wa taete mo
tsukihi ari