One of the most trotted out phrases used after an Incident such as Orlando, San Bernadino, Boston Marathon Bombing, Chattanooga and Fort Hood is “If you see something, say something.”
Michael Matza, in an article for Emergency Management.com asks the question, what does something mean? He goes on:
“Dropping a dime on someone whose words or behavior seem menacing does not necessarily prevent tragedy. According to news reports, the FBI interviewed Mateen twice since 2013, both times in response to complaints by coworkers that he had bragged about ties to radical Islam.
Those interviews proved “inconclusive,” said Ronald Hopper, the agent in charge in Orlando. “So there was nothing to keep the investigation going.”
Mateen’s case – one among 10,000 in the FBI’s routine workload – was closed.
Had the nation’s top law enforcement agency missed the opportunity to intervene? Had the people who knew and worked with Mateen done enough to raise alarm about his reported fascination with ISIS and al-Qaeda?
Daniel Gilroy, a former coworker, said Mateen used slurs to refer to gays, blacks, Jews, and women, and “talked about killing people all the time.” He reported Mateen’s “unstable, unhinged” behavior to the security company that employed them. Now, he wonders, should he have done more?
“I feel a little guilty that I didn’t fight harder,” he told multiple news outlets. “If I didn’t walk away and I fought, then maybe 50 people would still be alive today.”
This is not the only example of suspicious behavior not being followed up properly? Are there other factors in play? Let us look at the San Bernardino attack. As the Daily Mail reported:
“Neighbors of husband and wife San Bernardino shooters ‘noticed them acting suspiciously but did not report them for fear of radical profiling.”
Now we come to an issue that very few people want to talk about. Political Correctness. It is a problem in our society and unfortunately has become one of the major barriers to properly securing the nation. Now the question will be asked “So you have zero respect for people’s individual rights?” Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that political correctness does not equate with individual rights, in fact, more often than not, it inhibits individual rights.
Political Correctness is defined as: ” a term which, in modern usage, is used to describe language, policies, or measures which are intended not to offend or disadvantage any particular group of people in a society.”
Here is the problem with the concept of Political Correctness: that is a very broad definition. Too broad. It basically encompasses all of life. With a population as diverse as the United States has, and with particular attention being paid to little action, how can a person do anything without someone considering it “offensive”? This is especially true when applying this notion to a group, such as law enforcement, who have to try and serve and protect a broad, diverse group of people within their communities.
So the question facing law enforcement, and emergency managers by extension is this, can “See Something, Say Something” be successful in a PC dominate culture?
As highlighted by the inaction of the San Bernardino neighbors, “See Something, Say Something” in our current American culture does not and will not work.
Profiling works, it does. Distressing, that tool, much like Stop and Frisk in New York, was sacrificed at the alter of political correctness, putting us all at risk. Until we as a society get back to the idea of “Sticks and Stones”, these incidents will continue to happen.
Good Luck and Good Hunting