Locals vs. Secret Service

The big story this afternoon has titles like this:

Local SWAT Team from Butler, PA Reveals No Communication with Secret Service Prior to Shooting, Scheduled Meet-Up Upon Arrival Never Occurred

and this:

Way Beyond Sketchy – Local Butler County SWAT Team Says Trump Secret Service Detail Did Not Communicate with Them Before Shooting

Obviously the locals feel wronged by Secret Service and are eager to throw SS under the bus—supposing that any bus ever rumbles out of the various investigations/coverups under way in DC. On the other hand, we’re just as obviously not getting the full story.

It’s clear that there was communication—of some sort—between the Butler locals and Secret Service. At the same time that the locals are saying there was no communication, they’re also saying that they offered drones to the SS but were repeatedly rebuffed—they were even, for all intents and purposes, told to cease and desist with the drone stuff. A positive injunction against deploying drones. So, at some level there was communication. Of some sort. But obviously not at all satisfactory.

The easiest way to parse these new stories is to simply assume that the Butler people are speaking here very specifically about a lack of communication between their SWAT team and the SS counter snipers. It seems that there was an agreement that there would be a meeting between the local SWAT team and the SS counter snipers. It’s just that the meeting never happened. Think about that for a moment. Men with high powered rifles setting up at the same venue and not talking to one another, no de-confliction? Sounds like a catastrophe waiting to happen. So who screwed this one up? I’m guessing the same person who put the kibosh on the drones. As nearly as I can guess, all this must come down to the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Pittsburgh Secret Service Field Office.

My understanding is that, in the original scheme of the “loose security event”, there were not even going to be any SS counter snipers—that was a last minute decision, or at most just the day before. If I were a SS sniper I would definitely want to get in touch with and coordinate with any local SWAT team on the site. After all, the locals likely had zero experience with this type of situtuation. Their snipers would be trained for hostage situations, where the location of the perp is pretty much known. That’s very different from scanning a wide area and potentially shooting at some one who hasn’t taken a hostage. I’m sure these dynamics also explain why the locals were so anxious to coordinate with the SS guys, and the lack of coordination just might also explain why the locals may have been hesitant about shooting Crooks.

But here’s the thing. The every day job of the SS SAC includes liaison with local LE as well as with other federal investigative agencies. His yearly rating includes whether or not and how well he conducts that type of liaison. It seems clear that he was in touch with the locals—if only to tell them to take their drones and shove ‘em. SS sniper and local SWAT coordination? That should have run through him, too—that would not be something that would be left to the snipers. The SAC was in overall charge and his job was to coordinate things. It sounds like he told the locals, ‘Yeah, our guys will meet with your guys.’ So what happened? Did he simply forget? I don’t buy that—not without real proof.

Since this kind of protective detail assignment was not the SAC’s normal work, I have to believe that he was in touch with, consulted with, people higher up the command chain—people back in DC. Protecting a FPOTUS and now controversial presidential candidate is a big deal. You can imagine the SAC calling back to SSHHQ: ‘Should I take the drones from the locals? Oh, OK, I’ll tell them to shove their drones where the sun don’t shine. How about coordinating our counter snipers—the guys who just showed up—with the local SWAT team so they don’t all get in a firefight? Oh, no? OK. How about establishing responsibility for the perimeter buildings and setting up joint comms? Oh, just wing it?’

You get the idea. There are just way too many things that went wrong to be explained by incompetence. We’re talking about a window of opportunity being created for an assassin. We know that refusing the drones—repeatedly—was an intentional act, an intentional refusal to take standard security measures. How about other coordination with the locals? See? Some of that is starting to look intentional, too. But it’s the kind of stuff that I just can’t see happening spontaneously in Western Pennsylvania. That’s not how normal coordination between the locals and the feds works—trust me on that. Until proven otherwise, I’m gonna assume that the bad decisions—up to and including sending Trump out to be shot—were the result of directives that the SAC received from …

Precisely. From whom? From someone back in DC, is my assumption. Until I’m proven wrong.

Next question. How long can the various investigations be kept going? Until Labor Day? Until after the election?