Saturday, March 15, 2014

"Shelter in place" sounds better than "cower".

Infowars reports that the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in New York and New Jersey is holding unannounced "lockdown drills" in schools.

“On Thursday, March 6, a team comprised of ten officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, and the NJ Department of Education’s Safety and Security Task Forces visited Glen Ridge High School to conduct an unannounced school lock-down drill,” reports Georgette Gilmore. “With the exception of Glen Ridge Superintendent Dr. John Mucciolo and Chief of Police Sheila Byron-Lagattutta, no Glen Ridge Public School personnel received advanced notice of the exercise.”

The federal/state “security team” later reported their satisfaction with GRHS Principal Dirk Phillips for activating the school’s lockdown procedure when ordered to do so by DHS officials and police.

“The NJ DOE team told us that of all the schools they have visited, GRHS was one of the best,” said Superintendent Dr. Mucciolo, confirming that the drills are now becoming commonplace throughout the region.

A prominent feature of these drills is the command to students to "shelter in place". Note the word command, note the phrase "shelter in place".

The article raises some rather alarming points.

While authorities justify school lockdown drills as necessary exercises to prepare for potential school shootings, the likelihood of one happening is miniscule. Critics have pointed to the fact that the drills achieve little else than traumatizing school children.

Some have also argued that teaching kids to “shelter in place” rather than evacuate the scene of a shooting is bad advice because it is likely to lead to more casualties. The process of having children submit to armed masked men during school lockdown drills is also contradictory in that it teaches them to behave exactly the same way towards an actual gunman.

Yes. Actual shooting attacks in schools are exceptional events. As in, they are the exception to the rule. Your kid is more likely to be eaten by a tiger than to die in a school shooting. We don't have armed tiger patrols to prevent that eventuality, do we? So why do the authorities feel the need to have federal police agencies conducting school lockdown drills?

Because: lawyers.

From a tactical point of view, getting all the kids to huddle in a corner is the stupidest possible response. You have just made a pile of immobile children, commanded them not to move and reinforced those commands with drills. That's the perfect environment for a crazed shooter, as proven by Adam Lanza.

However from a bureaucrat's point of view, this is the only possible response. State politics dictate that schools be Gun Free Zones, so you can't get the kids all into the school gym and defend them. You can't teach them to escape out the windows etc. because then you have a bunch of kids running around the schoolyard with no coats on during a drill, and their mummies will get all upsetted. But as long as you have a PLAN and a PROCEDURE, and DRILLS for that plan, the lawyers are happy. That it is the worst possible plan is irrelevant in court.

The Feds are involved mostly because DHS is searching for new and innovative ways to expand their power and throw their weight around, plus they have all this shiny new combat gear they want to drive around in. They have more and better stuff to play with than the Gestapo ever did, and they're looking for places to show it off.

Best part is, a whole generation is being taught to -cower- in the face of authority. That's what "shelter in place" means. Cower, and hope the alligator eats somebody else. Excellent behavior to have in a population when you're installing a police state.

Ladies and gentlemen, free men do not cower.  The proper response to a lockdown drill is for your kid to GET OUT NOW!!! and call you up on his cell phone after he or she has escaped. If necessary the kid needs to bite and claw their way out past any officials who try to restrain them. Teach your kids to FIGHT, not cower like mice.

I think its time for parents and students to start up some serious civil disobedience to this.

The Phantom

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