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Messages - crimresearch

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1
Politics & Religion / Criminal Record Search Question
« on: September 02, 2004, 08:07:57 PM »
If you are looking for criminal convictions, court proceedings, etc, these are a matter of public record, and are in no way affected by laws regarding credit reporting.

Each state Dept. of Corrections should maintain a database, as do the feds.

If you are looking for arrests/indictments where there was no conviction, then a Lexis/Nexis search, or or such database search can be performed by a PI or attorney.

2
Politics & Religion / Homeland Security
« on: August 28, 2004, 07:46:20 AM »
Very interesting set of articles.
I'm wishing that the agencies set up in response to 9/11 had taken a different approach than they did, and the FAMA rhetoric is pretty unsettling.

3
Politics & Religion / Homeland Security
« on: July 22, 2004, 05:15:22 PM »
"...no one even engaged these guys in a conversation, and no one, not the flight crew, and not the air marshals, challenged their egregious violations of protocols about congregating near restrooms or standing up in unison as the plane started its descent. Nothing was done to alleviate the terror Jacobsen, and probably a lot of the other passengers, felt."


And letting people like Jacobson direct air marshals to confront people acting in an 'obviously' suspicious manner is a real good way to get air marshals killed...they aren't security guards who are supposed to hassle minorities so the white lady can feel safe.
 They have a tactical job to do, and public perceptions are never a good tactical mandate.

4
Politics & Religion / Homeland Security
« on: July 22, 2004, 02:15:11 PM »
Quote from: Anonymous
Any solutions Paul?


Any solutions for keeping politicians and the media from ruining the best laid plans?
Nope, not a one.  But then again, that's why I'm not a political scientist...
 8)

Are there better solutions to be had from pursuing risk management strategies?
Yes, in the less than perfect fashion that seperates real life from the ideal.
No one is going to make terrorists disappear, but they might make it worth their while to go after someone else.
And it is important to admit to such realities in examining security.

Medical science thought that they had eradicated diseases like TB and polio, and so forth decades ago.  Medical science was wrong, because people screwed it up...now we have epidemics that are harder than ever to deal with...
That doesn't mean that medical science should never have addressed the problems. or criticised the old way of dealing with disease.
It just means that having a solution that works is no sort of guarantee

When I taught the only security/anti terrorism classes offered pre 9/11 at one of the top criminology departments in the US, I devoted an entire section to an examination of how *people* will screw up your best security plan, and how to anticipate media, politics, organizational behavior, and human nature when asked to come up with a solution for a security problem.

Very few of my students were ever happy with that section of the course.
They wanted a concrete answer, and wanted to assume that because they had the right answer from a security standpoint, that it would automatically be adopted, and that it would automatically work.


But we as a nation under recent terrorist attack, and reasonably anticipating others to come, can do significantly better than we are doing...the really tough question is how to get past the politicians and the media in order to address the terrorism issues directly and scientifically.

5
Politics & Religion / Homeland Security
« on: July 22, 2004, 12:37:01 PM »
"Again, my issue is with the skewed, untrained approach to security and its often shoddy application. If you want to offend/detain/search do it across the board, 'cause believe me the bad guys are gonna figure out a fresh new way of gettin' the job done."

One of the reasons that terrorism is such an attractive option for those with political agendas, but limited political capital, is that it works so well.

And one of the reasons that it works so well is that the terrorist is playing with very few restrictions. They can use targets of opportunity, instead of being limited to legitimate military targets. They can use means and methods that are off limits to legitimate governments. They don't have to play by any rule but one:
'Do whatever it takes to get your agenda on page one'
And they have an automatic win from the media attention given to their actions.

The more that the media lavishes attention on the terrorist's actions, the more reactionary and media influenced will be the reaction from politicians.

So professional risk management scientists (such as the ones who sent every member of Congress a report well before 9/11 noting that Middle Eastern extremists would likely attempt to fly aircraft into skyscrapers) are sidelined, and military types with impressive looking uniforms and medals, but who did NOT issue any such reports before 9/11 are put in charge of 'security'.

Automatic win for the terrorists.

So people will become invested in rumors and scare-mongering like the Annie Jacobsen article, and focus their attention away from everyday awareness to only looking at stereotypes.

Automatic win for the terrorists.

So people will fall for any 'magic wand' or 'band aid' solution that comes down the pike, be it 'explosives detecting' dowsing rods, or armed pilots, or changing the jackets of airport screeners from 'Argenbright Security' to 'Federal Marshal' while keeping the same employees and policies.

Automatic win for the terrorists.

And as these reactions settle in, people will do what people naturally do, which is to look for ways to minimize inconvenience to themselves from whatever measures are in place.

So 'important' people will get to bypass security checkpoints, back doors will be propped open so friends can stop by secured workplaces, suspicious activities will be overlooked through various rationalizations, budgets will be cut to fund more important boondoggles...

And another automatic win for the terrorists.


Paul

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