What a strange title you’re thinking, right? What’s this gonna be about? Well, it has been a strange Thanksgiving.
Of course, I sincerely hope that each and every one of my visitors to Copcorner.net was able to gather with family and friends for a wonderful respite and get away from our hectic daily lives. Taking a moment to stop and think about what makes Americans, and free peoples everywhere, so fortunate is incredibly important. We have an abundance of good in this country and we need to appreciate those good things and those who make them possible. Getting out of the “rat race” for a day or two to slow things down, appreciate our lives and be around our cherished loved ones brings us renewed meaning and focus. I think we go too long between these times. Sentiments expressed at Thanksgiving should be heard throughout the year, or whenever loved ones gather.
As at any point throughout a people’s history, there are always storm clouds on the horizon. This year is no different. Along with the turkey, stuffing, yams, cranberry sauce and all of the other delectable goodies is something else, right? The television is turned on in the living room, right? Everybody is watching the traditional football games from Detroit (oh, those poor Lions!) and Dallas and this year a third one from Philly. Your crew is probably whoopin’ it up, enjoying the hits and funny commercials. In short, having a traditional Thanksgiving thru and thru. While you mother, wife or other loved one was serving up the holiday eats, a worldwide sinister force was serving up the “lethal lessons”…
What else was on the other channels, the news channels to be specific? Did you see what was being covered? Did you stay for a while and watch the coverage, trying to grasp what was taking place? Did you talk about what was being shown with your family and friends? Did you understand it, maybe even just a little? Or did you ignore the coverage, it being too real and heartbreaking for you to watch? Did you even care to see it?
Well, as a long-time police professional, I can tell you that in my world there was nothing else on TV except for the coverage from Mumbai, India. I believe that what began unfolding on our televisions as early as Wednesday morning was a lesson, and a very hard lesson at that. It was the real time coverage of the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent victims by sophisticated terrorists (sorry, not insurgents nor militants but criminal killers) laying seige to one of the world’s most important cities. Plain and simple, it was the live broadcast of ongoing carnage and the terrible effects that it produces.
Remember the title of this posting? So what about the “lessons” part? Read this carefully my friends: what you were watching from Mumbai could very easily have been happening in New York, L.A., Boston, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Houston, or AnyWhereElse, USA. Major city, medium size or small town; urban or rural community, it wouldn’t matter. AnyPlace USA would suit terrorists just fine. Anywhere that they could indiscriminately kill Americans and rack up a body count would fit their purpose.
What was so different about the Mumbai attacks that makes me define it as a “lesson”? First and foremost, the attackers hit at least ten locations more or less simultaneously. They selected luxury hotels, a cafe, a hospital, a cinema, a train station and a Jewish community center among their various targets. These are all considered “soft” targets, easily accesible, open to the public and likely not defended by armed security. The widespread scope of the attacks and the varied type of the locations made it seem as if the entire city was under attack, eventhough all of the selected targets were in one sector of Mumbai, within blocks of each other. These widespread killing sprees made the initial responders deal with confusing intelligence about what was really happening. It made responding to each of these crime scenes with adequate and appropriate police assets almost impossible. It created a lethal lag time as law enforcement fell behind in an intel, force planning and application sense. Any effort at containment was unthinkable. As law enforcement tried to piece together what was occurring, the terrorists went largely unchallenged and were able to slaughter innocent citizens. During this time, many acts of incredible bravery were performed by both uniformed and plain clothed officers who freely entered harm’s way to engage criminals possessing superior firepower and explosives. I’m sure that we’ll read about these stories in the coming times.
Second, the type of destructive lethal firepower used by the terrorists was very different this time. Up until now, powerful vehicular bombs and human suicide bombers were the predominant weapons of choice. These explosions created unthinkable physical destruction to the surrounding area, and allowed responders to be targeted by secondary devices. In many cases, physical evidence which would allow for forensic follow up was utterly destroyed, or only found in bits and pieces. Assigning accountibility for the attacks became problematic due to the lack of hard evidence remaining at the scene.
In Mumbai, the attack was similar to a commando assault, with teams of criminals spreading out throughout the city with assignments, knowledge of the layour of their target locations and weaponry to achieve their body counts. It is rare, or at least it has been until now, to see the faces of the terrorists or capture them at work. This attack provided many glimpses at the faces, dress and equipment assembled as a human killing machine. I surmise that most will be killed, willing to fight to the end and take as many victims as possible. However, some may be captured and this will provide international law enforcement with a rare opportunity to glean intelligence from the killers themselves. Some will have missed their chance at martydom and it will prove to be useful to us.
We will learn some things quickly, such as their love for killing Americans, Brits, Australians, Israelis, or whomever. That really doesn’t matter; we already know that the killing of non-Muslim infidels is their constant goal and real passion. We already know with sickening disgust what drives these killers. But will we be able to face these facts ourselves and steel ourselves to fight the fight that these attacks portend? If I’m describing carnage in some American city in the future, will our society pull together to back our law enforcement professionals to do what must be done? I hope so.
As someone who was assigned to police a major shopping mall in Southern California for five-and-a-half years, I envisioned this type of attack daily. What would it be like for a dedicated group of four or five active shooters to enter my mall and begin indiscriminately killing? How would I react tactically? How would I apply my police knowledge and training to save the most lives and try to bottle up the attackers? Would I succeed or would you be seeing my photo in the newspaper and reading about me as being one of the first officers to fall? Yes, I thought about just such a possibility every day.
And instead of a mall, how about another soft target, such as a church, a market, schools, a sporting event, anywhere large numbers of vulnerable people gather? Do you ever stop to think about how an attack on just such a place as these would change our lives forever, how vulnerable we would feel as a society? Well, again, I do. It’s my job as a professional and my passion as a police officer to protect the innocent.
Keep in mind that police officers all over this great nation of ours stand vigilant to confront this type of threat, both on and off duty. If I’m “lucky” enough to be nearby when one of these terrorists decides to act, I truly hope to grant his desire to experience martyrdom when it’s all said and done.
And so my dear readers, enjoy this wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving to the fullest, but learn the “lesson” that we have all been shown.
Until the next time here at Copcorner.net, all the best.
Tim