TSA and Community Policing

A lot of individual errors seem to make the biggest impact on the most recent terrorist attack on Delta airline. The Nigerian security clearly missed the boat; then the Dutch missed it again; then while he was on our "watch" list of 550,000 - we didn't notice him headed to the US; then we ignored his dad's warning about him given to our US embassy in Nigeria; and we didn't place him on the "no fly list" of 3,400 - any one of these were options for catching and stopping him. Any one would have averted the attack. Finally, what saved that airline full of people - was what most police have known for years - they make it easy to participate in their own community policing - they acted like an involved community and caught him trying to ignite the explosive.
Who knows, perhaps there were a lot of warning signs that he gave before he started the attack - and perhaps we will hear about citizens who may have noticed a problem early in one of his flights - but we still do not encourage citizens to step forward - we still do not protect them from false allegations. We still do not protect them from fellow passengers.
LESSON: Ultimately, until we fully involve the community in its own protection, we will be plagued by series of opportunities to stop terrorists, but we will make many small mistakes again that will add up to allowing a disaster to happen. We were very lucky this time.

Violation of Trust, even just a theft.

On a personal note, just a reminder to you all during this holiday season that I had my i-pod stolen out of my church's Sacristy ($300) on November 1st while I was the lay reader for the 7:30 service. I posted a sign in the sacristy saying it was "lost" - that was just my attempt to allow the person who stole it to save face and return it to me. However it was in my inside pocket of my leather jacket which was hanging on a chair at the table in the middle of the sacristy. I remember thinking before I went in to the service, perhaps I should take it with me. - but felt it was safe in that room. It wasn't - so someone had to deliberately check my inside zipped pocket. I reported to the police and the serial number has been entered into NCIC - the national database of stolen articles. I just don't want any of you to have something stolen during the Christmas season - even in a supposedly high trust situation.
If you have lost something or been ripped off, I would encourage you to report it to the police too. This is a especially true when it might have been a friend or colleague. Remember to have someone violate a member in a high trust situation, is a much more serious event, than the violation by a stranger. In fact for sex offenses, the violation of a child by a trusted relative or friend, is much more damaging than the same assault by a stranger. And I am hurt by this theft - it was a violation of the high trust I had for all. It also means that someone in the church is in such a bad way that they could not ask for help, and probably violated one of their own values to commit this theft. Hopefully we can find the person, and provide assistance and treatment as needed. Deus te amat, and the thief. Bill