[Vision2020] Things that make you go, "SAY WHAT?"

[Art Deco]

Given the pathetic Idaho Legislature, maybe less rather than more security
is the best option.

w.


On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 8:14 PM, Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

> Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman at:
>
>
> http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/27/2428082/armed-mans-intrusion-unnerves.html
>
> -------------------------------------
>
> Armed man’s Capitol intrusion unnerves Idaho lawmakers
>
> Read more here:
> http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/27/2428082/armed-mans-intrusion-unnerves.html#storylink=cpy
>
> The event has prompted restrictions to public access while Idaho
> legislators ponder permanent Capitol changes.
>
> A man with a handgun used a tour for Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts as cover to
> inspect legislators’ desks and reach into a waste bin on the House floor.
>
> The Jan. 10 incident became public Tuesday when Department of
> Administration Director Teresa Luna used a clip to demonstrate the need for
> rules prompted by last year’s Occupy Boise encampment.
>
> The Jan. 10 incident became public Tuesday when Department of
> Administration Director Teresa Luna used a clip to demonstrate the need for
> rules prompted by last year’s Occupy Boise encampment.
>
> “Events like that should disturb all Idahoans,” said House Speaker Scott
> Bedke, R-Oakley. “It certainly disturbed me.”
>
> Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill said: “To think that somebody is bold
> enough to have followed these children around with a sidearm in plain sight
> — who is also bold enough to go through trash cans, take pictures of
> representatives’ desks and shuffle their papers — all of that created a
> great deal of concern.”
>
> As a result, public access to the House and Senate chambers has been
> suspended on weekends and after 6 p.m. weekdays, though the Capitol remains
> open until 10 p.m. Until now, citizens have been allowed to visit the
> chambers whenever the Capitol was open, a point of pride.
>
> “This is the people’s house, and it gets them excited about their
> government and the freedoms we have,” said Hill, R-Rexburg. “When we start
> locking things up at 6 o’clock, it just saddens me.”
>
> Leadership is working with the Department of Administration to fashion
> long-term security improvements for a Capitol that is far more open than
> most statehouses.
>
> “We’re a security planner’s nightmare,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart
> Davis, R-Idaho Falls. “But it is demonstrative of what we’ve tried to do in
> encouraging access.”
>
> *BAD MANNERS*
>
> The man attached himself to an evening tour led by freshman Rep. James
> Holtzclaw, R-Meridian, who had been asked by a constituent to show the Cubs
> and Scouts around. “I thought he was a parent,” Holtzclaw said, noting that
> the troop leader assumed the man was a security officer because of his gun.
>
> The man’s identity is unknown. He left the Capitol after an unarmed guard
> confronted him. The man said something like, “If I’m not being arrested or
> detained, I don’t have to answer your questions,” Luna said.
>
> Idaho State Police are in the Capitol from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; contract
> security officers provide around-the-clock watches in the Capitol and
> larger Capitol Mall.
>
> Shortly before the 7 p.m. tour on Jan. 10, the man attended an ACLU “Know
> Your Rights” training session, which covered the rules proposed for the
> block outside the Capitol and for buildings and grounds of the mall. He
> attended the same training Jan. 5, offering participants pamphlets on
> Idaho’s open-carry law.
>
> The 11-minute video of the man circulated widely among lawmakers and staff
> before it was made public.
>
> Senate Sergeant at Arms Sarah Jane McDonald called the video alarming.
> “Most of us know not to take photographs of people’s desks,” said McDonald,
> who is in her 11th year overseeing Senate security. “Our mothers would have
> clobbered us.”
>
> *SHOTGUNS IN GALLERY?*
>
> The ACLU has sued in federal court on behalf of Occupy activists to
> overturn the rules governing the territory outside the Capitol. The group
> also is opposing the rules in legislative hearings.
>
> “Free speech and redressing your government in protest is by its very
> nature meant to be disruptive,” said Monica Hopkins, executive director of
> the ACLU. “That’s the wonderful, wonderful thing about our democracy and
> the values that were put into our Constitution.”
>
> But after seeing the clip in Tuesday’s hearing, Hopkins met with Speaker
> Bedke and Pro Tem Hill. “There was nothing in our training that would have
> indicated to any individual that that behavior was acceptable,” Hopkins
> said. “We were as appalled as they were.”
>
> Hill said his immediate concern was the Scouts: “We need to be reminded
> from time to time that we need to be cautious and have plans in place to
> protect all parties.”
>
> Hill has urged lawmakers to be careful about what they leave on their
> desks, but he is also concerned about larger security issues. “What happens
> when six people come and sit in the front row of the gallery with shotguns
> across their laps?” Hill said. “I sure as heck am not going to leave my
> senators in there with that.”
>
> *ACCESS THREATENED*
>
> Guns and long knives were banned in the Capitol from 1996 to 2008 by
> executive order. Gov. Butch Otter let the order expire, citing a 2008 law
> in which the Legislature said it had exclusive power to regulate guns in
> Idaho.
>
> Signs were erected outside the House and Senate galleries after the 2012
> Occupy protests. They list prohibitions: food, drinks, men wearing hats,
> signs, sitting on rails, cellphones, distracting noises. Bags are subject
> to search. But there is no firearm ban.
>
> Idaho State Police Capt. Sheldon Kelley said the next steps for the
> Capitol could include expanding the few areas that are off-limits to the
> general public. “If there isn’t any pertinent reason for the public to be
> there, they’re going to work on controlling access in sensitive areas,”
> Kelley said.
>
> Senate Majority Leader Davis said lawmakers’ aim is to minimize any
> changes. He lamented the unidentified man’s “poor judgment that makes
> policymakers wonder if you have to have a rule. He is an aberration.”
>
> Meanwhile, Davis is pressing for changes in the Occupy-prompted rules for
> the grounds and mall, citing concerns about limiting protests to seven
> days, banning events between midnight and 6 a.m. and barring amplification
> devices without permits.
>
> Holtzclaw spoke about the incident from his desk, which had been inspected
> by the unnamed man.
>
> “This isn’t my House, this is the people’s,” he said. “It will break my
> heart if a citizen can’t come up here and view this. The question is: How
> do we maintain that transparency and freedom while protecting the building
> and the people in it?”
>
> -------------------------------------
> Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares"
> http://www.MoscowCares.com
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "There's room at the top they are telling you still
> But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
> If you want to be like the folks on the hill."
>
> - John Lennon
>
>
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-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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