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The Secret Service will improve when they have a President that they like and respect.
Your opinion then is that each SS agent has the individual right to decide whether or not they will protect the President, based upon his/her personal opinion?
Good luck with that.
Your opinion then is that each SS agent has the individual right to decide whether or not they will protect the President, based upon his/her personal opinion?
Good luck with that.
The protective service has never guarded a first family so hostile to them and the military. They witness first hand what is said and done by White House staffers and cabinet members.
At some point it must have an effect on morale and even performance.
Slacker Obama requires a greater number of protective officers than any previous president. Any guesses why?
.
The Secret Service is a mature bureaucracy that tends to attract folks that have a control mentality. Like any reasonable large group of people probably 10 to 15% are alcoholics or drug addicts. I does not take much to find a few making really stupid mistakes. There is nothing that can be done beyond moving the drunks dumb enough to get caught drinking on the job to guard someplace like the weather station on Attu or Kiska Islands.
I do not know that President Obama hates his guards. Where is your evidence that he does?
Change the culture by changing the leadership. It's obvious that things have been allowed to drift in recent decades and we all see the results. It's appears to have become an old boys club and the boys think they're immune to foul-ups. They need a wake-up call.
All these events would be comedic if they weren't so serious.
If you read the book, "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," by Ronald Kessler some of the book talks about what the presidents and their families were like as people to work for (Kennedy through Obama) and the rest of the book talks about the problems of the Secret Service itself and its inability to retain good experienced people. None of the book talks about politics or presidential policies, just how the presidents and their families treated their administration's employees and discussed their personal habits. I assume they started with Kennedy because there were Secret Service agents still alive who could be interviewed for the book. The problems, however, with the agency itself aren't pretty.
I'd disband the Secret Service altogether and turn over the protection of the President to the Marines.
The SS don't have a clue what discipline and service and honor are all about. The Marines will do the job they're given.
Most Secret Service are vets. There is a vet hiring preference in the SS.
I'd disband the Secret Service altogether and turn over the protection of the President to the Marines.
The SS don't have a clue what discipline and service and honor are all about. The Marines will do the job they're given.
I have no doubt that the Marines could handle the uniformed security aspect (as they do at US Embassies, Navy bases, and Camp David) but what about the close protection aspect? They don't have any experience with that, US ambassadors get close protection from DSS special agents and the Marine Corps commandant and Navy Chief of Operations get close protection from NCIS special agents.
Furthermore, what do you do about the lack of law enforcement status? Who is going to investigate threats made against the president?
Had a chief at the federal agency where I used to work, who was loved and respected by everyone, because of his intelligence and integrity.
When he was replaced by a conniver, the guards tore the place up.
9-11 was one huge connivance.
Last edited by Hyperthetic; 03-13-2015 at 12:05 PM..
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How do you fix the Secret Service?
