Feral Jundi

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Connecticut: The Sandy Hook Massacre And The Defense

Filed under: Connecticut,Law Enforcement — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 10:58 PM

My heart goes out to the friends and family of the victims of this horrible incident. These tragedies are just unimaginable and it angers and saddens everyone….everyone.
With that said, my viewpoint on how to stop such incidents or at the least, to minimize the amount of death and destruction that happens during these types of incidents is to not ‘depend’ on someone else for the defense, but to be ready to ‘receive’ the assault. To be prepared.

To have the proper mindset about school or mall or whatever facility defense, I think the words of Sun Tzu ring true.

“The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”

So for the defense, any administrator whom is tasked with evaluating their security protocols should be asking two questions–are we ready for an attack by an active shooter(s) and have we made our position unassailable? And once a plan is in place, that administrator should test the plan and apply Kaizen or continuous improvement to it–to constantly improve their defense.

My other commentary here is that humans are a better defense against active shooters.  A machine can fail–from cameras to ‘security glass’ to alarms. If it is made by a human, it can fail and it can also be defeated by a thinking human intent on destroying that in which you love. Your best defense is a well trained and thinking human, that is ‘backed up’ by all of those security gadgets.

The other point to bring up here is how fast this happened. The shooter in this attack was able to accomplish his goal within several minutes. The only people that could have stopped him would have been the teachers themselves. Because police could not have reached the scene in time. If there was a guard on the campus, he could have stopped the shooter at the entrance–because the security glass certainly did not stop the shooter.

But what if that guard is killed in the initial assault? It will be your teachers and others to step in to do what is right. It is about survival at that point, and a prepared staff is key. Having guards as a stop gap will definitely be optimum. An armed guard can also be intimidating to potential attackers and their plans–which might cause them to go elsewhere.

So hire guards, create an effective plan, and do not allow your facility and people to be victims. RUN/HIDE/FIGHT. Empower your teachers or employees with the knowledge necessary to survive and even defeat this type of attack. Get prepared and protect the most precious resources this country has–it’s people. –Matt

 

 

Sandy Hook massacre: New details, but few answers
By Steve Vogel, Sari Horwitz and David A. Fahrenthold,
December 16, 2012
The gunman who killed 27 people, including 20 children, on Friday targeted a school to which he had no apparent connection — forcing his way in and spraying classrooms with a weapon designed to kill across a battlefield, authorities said.
On Saturday, law enforcement officials gave new details about the rampage of Adam Lanza, which ended with Lanza’s suicide. Their new narrative partially contradicted previous ones and made a baffling act seem more so.
Lanza’s mother, for instance, was not a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary, after all. She apparently was unemployed. So it was still a mystery why her 20-year-old son — after dressing in black, killing his mother and taking at least three guns from her collection — then drove the five miles to a school where he was a stranger.
The part of the story that remained grimly, awfully unchanged was what Lanza did when he got there.
Authorities on Saturday released the names of those Lanza killed at the school, who ranged in age from 6 to 56. And the state’s medical examiner — speaking in sanitized, clinical terms — described the results of something deeply obscene: a semiautomatic rifle fired inside an elementary classroom.
“I’ve been at this for a third of a century. And my sensibilities may not be the average man’s. But this probably is the worst I have seen,” said H. Wayne Carver II. Carver described the children’s injuries, which he said ranged from at least two to 11 bullet wounds apiece.
He had performed seven of the autopsies himself. A reporter asked what the children had been wearing.
“They’re wearing cute kid stuff,” Carver said. “I mean, they’re first-graders.”
On Saturday, this small New England town and the country played out what is now a familiar ritual: the dumbstruck aftermath of a young gunman’s massacre. Word came that President Obama would arrive Sunday for an evening interfaith service, repeating his role from Fort Hood, Tex.; Aurora, Colo.; and Tucson, Ariz. He would again be chief mourner. (more…)

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Industry Talk: MPRI Contractor Paul Protzenko Killed In Afghanistan

Thanks to Ms Sparky for giving the heads up about this. I do not know the cause of death and I am sure that will come out on monday with MPRI’s official statement. Rest in peace to the fallen, and Paul has definitely given all.  The police program that companies like MPRI are involved with are incredibly important to the overall strategy in Afghanistan. Contractors like Paul are a crucial part of that, and these trainers have also paid a price. My heart goes out to the family, friends, and company during this time of loss. –Matt

Edit: 07/16/2011- I have yet to see an MPRI official statement on this, and they have made no effort to contact me. The only thing I have found about this incident was this post:

Sunday, July 10, 2011
Retired US Trooper First Class Paul Protzenko died in Afghanistan 9th July 2011 while working for a private contracting firm training Afghan police.
The 47-year-old former Connecticut State Trooper retired in 2009 after 20 years service working for the state police. Prior to that, he had served in the US Army.
At the time of the incident, in Panjshir province, Mr. Protzenko was in a vehicle with US Army Sergeant 1st Class Terryl L. Pasker. An Afghan security officer stopped their vehicle and opened fire. Both men died at the scene. A US soldier in another vehicle shot and killed the Afghan guard.
Link here.

Law enforcement professional Paul Protzenko instructs Afghan national police in community policing skills in Panjshir province, Afghanistan, as part of Task Force Cyclone's Police Mentoring Team made up of the 410th Military Police Company out of Ft. Hood, Texas, and civilians.

Former State Trooper Killed in Afghanistan
Jul 10, 2011
A former Connecticut State Trooper, who retired in 2009, was killed while serving in Afghanistan, working for a private defense firm.
Former Trooper First Class Paul Protzenko, 47,  was killed late Friday or early Saturday, according to a spokesperson for Military Professional Resources Inc., the company for which Protzenko was working.
Protzenko’s son Matthew Protzenko, who served in Iraq, said he was notified of this father’s death the day it happened.

(more…)

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