[HPFGU-OTChatter] Talking of losing perspective ....

[Shaun Hately]

On 27 May 2005 at 1:15, Saitaina wrote:

> K wrote:
> 
> <The US Secret Service
> has a big 'intimidation' factor to
> their protection plan - lots of
> imposing
> men in suits and sunglasses.>
> 
> Well...yeah.  They have to be
> intimidating, they're fighting a lost
> cause honestly.  For nearly every
> president we have had...someone's tried
> to kill them.  They may not have made
> it out of the planning stage, but
> that's a high rate of attempts to be
> fighting against.  Intimidation is part
> of their plan to weed out the people
> who want President X dead...but REALLY
> don't want to die themselves.
> 
> It's only the truly
> insane/desperate/dedicated/suicidal
> that go against that many armed agents
> in plain sight.

Yep - and here's an example of a successful intimidation - bear in 
mind that in most cases nothing would happen, so nobody would ever 
know a person had been deterred.

Australia has had relatively little in the way of political violence -
 but one reasonably prominent case occurred in 1966. The then-Leader 
of the Federal Opposition Arthur Calwell was shot at in Sydney - 
fortunately for Calwell, the weapon was only low calibre and was 
deflected by the windshield of his car - he was quite badly cut by 
flying glass.

The person who shot him was a mentally unbalanced 19 year old named 
Peter Kocan - who wanted to be famous and decided to emulate Lee 
Harvey Oswald. Kocan originally planned to shoot Lyndon Johnson 
during a visit to Australia - but he saw the level of security on 
television and decided that he wouldn't be able to succeed.

So he went for a softer target.

(Kocan, by the way, is now a reasonably prominent writer and poet).



Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia