Security for Meet and Greet Events

[ellisonz]

When I went to our town hall meeting with former Congressman Charles Djou here in Honolulu at a local high school there was an officer from the Sheriff's Office posted by the door.

I think it would be fair to say that a simple security measure would be for all events such as these have one officer from law enforcement present with the Congressman from the beginning of the event until the end.

Have there been law enforcement officers at your political events? Do you agree or disagree that this would be a sensible policy?

[GSLevel9]

1. certainly start holding events indoors

so people can be run through a metal detector, that's a start.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

2. no, I believe this is an over reaction. n/t

[ellisonz]

4. How so?

I don't think it would take a large amount of expenditure to protect 545 members of the House and Senate. Consider the protection the President gets from the Secret Service.

If there had been a law enforcement officer present I would wager 2-1 that there would be substantially less victims.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

7. Tucson is a big "Small Town" there is no where I am afraid to go in the city.

when do you stop adding security ? Do they come to my friends house when they hold a fund raiser for her ?

[ellisonz]

9. Stated public events.

It's not about being afraid, it's about common sense. There are police generally on hand for sporting events, why not for these types of events where it is stated the official will be publicly available and there will be a crowd?

I think they should come to your friends house if the official requests the protection.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

10. no, i believe it is an over reaction

I do not want to see TPD everywhere, a Goverment official goes.
I have no objection to them going anywhere they are requested to go.

[handmade34]

3. less money on security and

more money on universal health care (including mental health) and job creation, education and housing...

[ellisonz]

5. ...

But how are we going to do that when the people responsible for allocating those funds are being threatened constantly? It's not as if we haven't spent the last two years marveling at the crazy's showing up at town halls trying to intimidate elected officials and disrupt our democracy.

We can definitely spend less on the military, it's not the same as domestic security.

[handmade34]

8. yes, the dilemma

chicken or egg? the statement was somewhat rhetoric; we have difficulties implementing those things I advocate, because the people those programs would help, are pressuring the ones in power- not to???

[Telly Savalas]

11. The cost to have a single law enforcement official present

at each public event involving a Congressperson is microscopic when compared to the cost of providing universal health care. Pitting these spending priorities against one another is stupid.

[handmade34]

12. be nice

not stupid... just rhetorically stating that if many of the social programs we are fighting for, existed - there wouldn't be need for so much security

[PurityOfEssence]

6. Yet more cost for the non-corporatist politicians

Or, in the case of many Democrats, the LESS-corporate politicians.

Life is incremental, and one of the sad results of this will be reluctance of liberals to go into public with their politics. The right needs to be specifically confronted to decry this incident, but to a degree, the damage is done: it will decrease willingness of leftists to campaign and bring their message out into the public, and it will cost them more when they're already at a monetary disadvantage in this post-Citizen's United world.