If anyone’s religious congregation or other more secular organization is concerned about their security protocols, please feel free to put them in touch with me. I’ve done a lot of work on that over the years. It would be an honor and privilege to help you/them out. I can always be reached through the contact a front pager tool in the drop down menu at the top right of the page.
For everyone’s convenience, I’m attaching a paper below this post that I did for a contact at DHS back in 2013 when I was assigned at US Army War College. It deals with what needs to be considered when working through security considerations. Some of you may find it of use for your synagogue, church, mosque, ashram, stupa, other house of worship, or other secular organizations you’re affiliated with in regard to this ongoing insanity. It is adapted from my 2006 article in Security Journal, which was derived from the work I did on anti-terrorism for corporate security at Disney University in 2004 (I’m a Mickey Mouse professor!).
Everyone try to have as good a remainder to your weekend as possible.
Open thread!
Gin & Tonic
At least the baseball game ended at a semi-reasonable hour.
Sandia Blanca
Thank you, Adam, for sharing your expertise with us.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Praise Beebo!
Mary G
I get a “this page not working” message, but:
Our troops win!
Pogonip
One big problem for houses of worship is that during the service the congregation is facing away from the door and is not as alert as they usually would be, as they are concentrating on the service. In some jurisdictions arming ushers is illegal. In others it may be legal but no one has the time for the necessary constant training. I’m not thrilled with the idea of locking the doors during the service; what if there’s a firebombing? The only ideas I have right now are to post outdoor lookouts, search bags being carried in, and, if the congregation can afford it, hiring armed guards.
Pogonip
@Mary G: Skoal!
JaySinWA
@Adam L Silverman: Adam, when you suggested possibilities of quick copycats in a previous post I was trying to remember previous copycat episodes. All I could remember were things several weeks, months or years apart. Could you do a synopsis of the history of copycat crimes and how soon they manifest? In your copious free time of course.
NotMax
Open thread?
For the first time in a long while, certainly the first time this decade, someone is coming over tomorrow for dinner and a movie. Frenzy of what passes for housecleaning in progress, along with triple checking the pantry and fridge. Trip to the market for two missing items (a green pepper and some whipping cream) accomplished. Also fingers crossed that tomorrow will not be the the day my cooking decides to go rogue. Baked a chocolate cake today and that came out perfect, so the signs are propitious.
If the meal should go south, have ample stock of wines and liquor. :)
NotMax
@Mary G
And outside of the airport, beer in Iceland is expensive!
JaySinWA
@NotMax: Green pepper and whipped cream sounds adventurous.
NotMax
@JaySinWA
Livin’ life on the edge.
:)
MomSense
@NotMax:
You must keep a very well stocked kitchen if you only need to buy a green pepper and whipping cream. That’s impressive.
Schlemazel
Thank you, Adam. You are a mensch.
jl
@Mary G:
” the soldiers preferred local beers over imports and were very willing to sample different microbrews as well as the more popular standard lagers. ”
We have multi-cultural troops preferring socialist Nordic microbrews? I guess it won’t make Fox and Friends.
JaySinWA
@jl: Fox and Fiends will just focus on drinking Iceland dry.
Adam L Silverman
@JaySinWA: Am I allowed to get some sleep first?
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax:
And a good time was had by all…
jl
@JaySinWA: Nothing in the report on the Brennivin situation. But maybe the troops were on orders to be able to be able stand up the next morning, so most of them stayed off it.
Adam L Silverman
@jl:
You’re welcome. Nice to know my work of the past decade has not been in vain.
jl
@jl: Not sure whether that was a typo or I meant a joke about what happens if gulp down schnapps, or whatever that brew is.
JaySinWA
@Adam L Silverman: Permission granted. Obviously I have no power over you, but I would like to understand the dynamics here.
Adam L Silverman
I’m to bed!
Adam L Silverman
@JaySinWA: Ask me the question tomorrow or Monday when you see me either post or comment. Provided nothing else goes kaboom tomorrow, I’m gonna try to be offline most of the day. So if you don’t see me, that’s a good sign.
JaySinWA
@Adam L Silverman: Well that was quick.
West of the Rockies
@NotMax:
Well, usually seduction would involve whipped cream and strawberries, but if green chili peppers works for you, rock on!
jl
@Adam L Silverman: I’ve spent time in Northern Europe and they drink too damn much beer. I got sick of it after a while. In Sweden, I went on a beer strike and was shamed by my colleagues.
I was on my beer strike at a lakeside pub near Uppsala and I asked an outraged waiter if they had a non alcoholic beer, since maybe I could manage that. He said “Oh yes, Sweden has wonderful non alcoholic beers, not like that crap they call non alcoholic beer in the US. You’ll love it.” It was a 1% beer and it was very good. I pretended it was ginger ale.
Platonailedit
JaySinWA
@Adam L Silverman: Okay I’ll try and remember. I think the issue is less about copycats because I think it takes time for them to decide to do an attack, but there could be real concern about a coordinated attack in several areas that would imply increased security now as opposed to increased security in the weeks ahead. Perhaps a distinction without a difference.
Ladyraxterinok
@jl: I went to Uppsala in 62 (at the end of my 1st yr in grad school) specifically to see the Codex Argenteus at the university library there. (It’s a 6th cent copy of the 4th cent Ulfilas tranlation of the bible into the Gothic language.) We had studied it a bit in one of my classes. On the way there I met a classmate returning from seeing the Codex–weird!
kattails
@NotMax: Hey, good for you, I hope the evening is just really pleasant and rewarding both ways, and the good fairies are watching over the cooking.
kattails
@Adam L Silverman: I am sincerely hoping that nothing goes kaboom for quite some time except perhaps some Republican heads exploding after the elections. In the meantime, many thanks for these thoughtful if worrisome posts.
kattails
@NotMax: Good for you, I hope the evening is most pleasant and rewarding for both of you, and the good fairies are keeping an eye on the cooking.
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: Sleep is greatly over-rated, or so I’m told.
Gretchen
Today had me thinking how sad it is that I pass security wearing what appear to be bullet-proof vests when I pick up my grandson from preschool every day. He goes to the preschool at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas which lost three people to a shooting a few years ago. He goes there because they are more willing to help a child with behavior problems than were the two previous preschools which kicked him out. A preschool (and grade and high school) has security with bullet-proof vests. Good work, America.
dimmsdale
Thanks for the paper, Adam. It’s a sad day in this country when we all need to start thinking like security professionals, but there we are. (I shudder to imagine if interstate CC reciprocity ever becomes a ‘thing’–a bunch of strapped yahoos tramping around the over-stimulating atmosphere of NYC gives me the willies).
On the plus side, the weather in the NE is highly conducive to making up a batch of chili a la Silverman, so there’s something to look forward to.
The Pale Scot
@jl: Akavíti, oh man. a friend bought a bottle home, I swear the walls were rippling
We called it whale juice
Yutsano
@Gretchen: When I went to Munich in 1995, I went to a synagogue there. But we almost weren’t let in. The only reason we actually made it was due to our American passports and my klutzy German assuring the door guard. He agreed we could come in and look around but not enter the sanctuary since we were both a mixed gender group and we had no proper head coverings. But the eternal light shining on the bimah was just so amazingly beautiful. And no pictures. But it was a definite never forget.
A Ghost To Most
Religion ruins everything.
cmorenc
@A Ghost To Most:
Except music. If they’d stick to singing and playing black or bluegrass gospel or perhaps certain classical pieces (e.g. Bach) and skip the long-winded preachiness and hypocritical bible-thumping it would be ok.
BruceFromOhio
@Sandia Blanca: @Schlemazel: Seconded!
A Ghost To Most
@cmorenc:
Religion needs music to lull the gullible.
Music doesn’t need religion.
Kayla Rudbek
@NotMax: the only thing that is cheap in Iceland is the yarn at the duty-free store at the airport!