The Monday crash involving an angry man who drove his car through City Hall might be dismissed as just an isolated, bizarre incident. But what if the car had been packed with explosives?
Al-Qaida might not be an immediate threat in Wichita. But the threat of domestic terror attacks such as the bombing that devastated Oklahoma City must be taken seriously.
“It certainly exposed a weakness in our system,†said Chris Carrier, the city director of public works.
City and county officials should review security and shore up vehicle barriers at public buildings to guard against this kind of vehicular assault.
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15 Comments
The car was traveling up to 50 mph when it slammed into the City Hall doors, Stolz said.
What a maroon. 50 mph sounds close enough for the damage and the location of the vehicle, but high for the angle.
Glad no city employees were hurt.
It is unlikely the city considered the possibility given the layout of City Hall.
I recently finished “THE AGE OF SACRED TERROR” at the end of it they talk about how it is not only the Moslems who have their nut jobs. Here we have “Christian Identity” which is an offshoot of Arian nation. These guys are just as committed to causing mass casualties, in fact the OKC bomber was affiliated with Christian Identity. They have been stopped a couple of time in plots to poison public water supplies.
But like Freud said about the Banana, sometimes it is just what it is.
Perhaps this was just a crazy guy?
The guy probably scoped out the City Hall entrance long before last night and found his opening. Unless we’re gonna become a nation under siege, we cannot possibly prevent every wacko’s fantasies.
We’ll find out details of this incident eventually. But there’s nothing to expect a cop telling a guy to turn down his car stereo that should lead all of law enforcement to prevent an attack against a government building in the middle of the night. It’s a fluke. He’s a nut. S#it happens.
For every better mousetrap, there’ll be a better mouse. But at some point, we’ve got to play the odds.
The recent shootings at that Omaha mall could have been prevented if everyone had been stopped and been subjected to a full cavity search before they could shop the Hillshire Farms kiosk.
But just what are you ready to subject yourself to because you’re so afraid of what *might* happen?
Part of the George WMD Bush legacy has nothing to do with constitutional law or his crimes against humanity. Shrub saved his presidency on 9/12 by playing the Fear Card. We see it with all the so-called “conservative” syncophants who’ve posted in this forum all sorts of “What if….?” scenarios.
We cannot be free if we’re afraid of everything. We cannot be brave if we’re afraid of everyone.
Dog,
It was a cigar, not a bannana. To my knowledge, Sigmund did not carry bannanas around much.
“It was a cigar, not a bannana. To my knowledge, Sigmund did not carry bannanas around much.”
Maybe not, but I bet he dreamed about them a bunch:-)
Do you think full-on body cavity searches will help curb that kind of danger in the future? How about realizing that we are not and never will be “safe”. And more police-state measures will just make us less free and still unsafe. Sheesh.
If there was a true “terrorist threat”, wouldn’t they attack Wal-Mart or McDonald’s?
I thought we “believers” were to supposed to fear nothing but nothing but God? Oh well.
We always wanted a drive-in City hall …
“We cannot be free if we’re afraid of everything. We cannot be brave if we’re afraid of everyone.”
Agreed. And while certainly public buildings should be reasonably secure, building up a massive security apparatus to try to cover every possible threat simply throws up a physical barrier between gov’t and the citizens; a barrier that reinforces an “us/them” mentality.
Very true GMC. Some years ago I hosted a visitor from Ukraine and took him to a City Council meeting that I was addressing. He was struck by the openness as he met the mayor and watched me ‘attack’ them without fear of being carried away. If we lose that we lose it all.
Steve it appears you are correct, when I heard it years ago. A reporter had asked him about phallic symbol and how they appear naturally in nature which showed the power of the male penis. The reporter started asking if this is a phallic symbol and is that a symbol. Finally when the reporter hit on Bananas. Freud reply that sometimes a banana is just a banana! But I found two verse and both said cigar and one in answer to a student and the other at a conference.
I don’t think this guy’s motivation was Christianity, Islam or was attributing society’s phallic symbols to his problems.
It was simply a case of an individual being a hothead and demonstrating that he had not yet acquired responsible behavior in his life.
Crashing into a security checkpoint that checks for weapons should indicate that we all know there are problem individuals in our society.
I would bet that if this person who crashed through the courthouse had killed someone, his first reaction would be that was victimized by some process or environment.
No.
It was just an example of a jerk over reacting to a situation.
That’s all it was, nothing more.
My point was that the gears are already turning for the beefing up of security at City Hall. And I believe whatever they are doing now is working. This was some disgruntled felon who lost control. And no amount of barricades or whatever they scheme to fix the new problems they have just found will help. whatever they do outside of replacing what the dumb ass broke is a waste of our money.
On the whole religion thing, I was trying to emphasize that the people who are most frightened about all of this crap are the people who claim to believe in 1)Matthew 6:25-34 and 2) Luke 12:22-34.
I wasn’t suggesting anything about the dude other than he was a fool who just screwed himself.
This was clearly a terrorist attack. The city of Wichita should invade Emporia. If we don’t fight them there then they will fight us here.
Know matter much you beef up security you cant prevent every conceivable attack.
Maybe instead of screaming our bloody heads off about security, we could see this as an opportunity.
I would imagine that about half of the people that go into City Hall on any given day could take care of their business more easily and without cavity searches at an efficient drive-through such as my bank has. Would sure beat standing in line at a counter, save the need for parking space and if it’s secure enough for banks, surely it’s secure enough for city employees.