Another “stand down” order has cost the lives of more Americans. Previously, a stand down order was sent to men who could have been used to save the lives of Americans who were under attack in Benghazi, and though no one really wants to say it, that order came from the top, the White House. Now it’s being reported that a second ‘stand down’ order has been given. This time it occurred during Monday’s Washington Navy Yard shooting.
According to the BBC:
One of the first teams of heavily armed police to respond to Monday’s shooting in Washington DC was ordered to stand down by superiors, the BBC can reveal.
A tactical response team of the Capitol Police, a force that guards the US Capitol complex, was told to leave the scene by a supervisor instead of aiding municipal officers.
take our poll - story continues belowCompleting this poll grants you access to DC Clothesline updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.The Capitol Police department has launched a review into the matter.
Aaron Alexis, 34, killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard.
“I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that some lives may have been saved if we were allowed to intervene,” a Capitol Police source familiar with the incident told the BBC.
Anyone want to take a guess at who gave the stand down order? According to the BBC, the SWAT team was near the scene at 8:20 EST.
According to Capitol Police, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Washington DC’s main municipal force, told the Capitol Cert officers they were the only police on the site equipped with long guns and requested their help to stop the gunman.
When the Capitol Police radioed their superiors, they were told by a watch commander to leave the scene.
Aaron Alexis was reported killed after 9:00am.
“Odds are it might have had a different outcome,” Capitol Police Officer Jim Konczos said regarding the decision to order the stand down. “It probably could have been neutralised.”
Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terry Gainer, who oversees the Capitol Police department, confirmed officials were pulling radio logs from Monday’s incident and interviewing the officers involved.
“It’s a very serious allegation and inference to indicate that we were on the scene and could have helped and were told to leave,” he said. “It crushes me if that’s the case.”
One Capitol Police officer said that upon hearing the request to engage Alexis and the subsequent stand down order brought frustration among his colleagues in the department.
One has to wonder if this came directly from the DC Chief of Police Cathy L. Lanier, or if it came from a little higher up. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Tim you are being conspiratorial.” Perhaps, but someone gave the order and the fact that it’s been three days, and no one is talking about who gave that order is pretty telling, don’t you think? How difficult is it to determine where the order came from? Furthermore, what would be their motive for issuing such an order?
On the political side of the shooting, DC Mayor Vincent Gray suggested on Tuesday that the sequester may have contributed to the conditions that allowed a shooter gain clearance to enter the Navy Yard Monday.
The mayor told CNN,
“It’s hard to know, but certainly as I look at, for example, sequestration, which is about saving money in the federal government being spent, that we somehow skimped on what would be available for projects like this, and then we put people at risk. Obviously 12 people have paid the ultimate price for whatever — you know — whatever was done to have this man on the base.”
“It really is hard to believe that someone with a record as checkered as this man could conceivably get clearance, could get credentials, to be able to get on the base,” said Gray. “I just met with the commandant of the Washington Navy Yard last week. We were talking about the security and we know this is one of the most secure facilities in the nation. So how this could happen is beyond belief.”
It’s not hard at all to believe. Major Nidal Hasan was in the Army for years, and they knew his convictions about Islam and jihad and did nothing. Furthermore, both Hasan’s jihad was carried out in a “Gun Free Zone” and so were the Navy yard shootings on Monday.
But it doesn’t stop there. The “Ugly Face of Tyranny” and gun grabber Dianne Feinstein immediately started pushing the anti-Second Amendment rhetoric instead of looking for a real solution. She didn’t even had to put in that Alexis was armed with an AR-15, which was debunked. She issued a statement saying:
This is one more event to add to the litany of massacres that occur when a deranged person or grievance killer is able to obtain multiple weapons—including a military-style assault rifle—and kill many people in a short amount of time. When will enough be enough? Congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country. We must do more to stop this endless loss of life.
I agree. Let’s start by repealing all federal gun laws. They obviously aren’t stopping anything and the Constitution didn’t give the federal government authority in that area in the first place. Let’s remove all of these “Gun Free Zones,” including on military bases. We trust these men and women with some serious weaponry on foreign soil, why don’t we trust them on our own soil?
To that end, I leave you with a favorite of mine, Judge Andrew Napolitano, who is the voice of reason in the midst of this socialist mentality that is pervasive in the media and the federal government. Napolitano likened the situation to that of Edward Snowden.
“Whatever you think of Edward Snowden and the constitutional wisdom of what he did, the government didn’t know he was there. The government obviously didn’t know this guy was there,” said Napolitano, who then pointed out that Washington, D.C. has in place some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.
He said officers at the Navy Yard aren’t legally able to carry a weapon once they leave the building. Napolitano questioned why officers on military bases are not armed following Fort Hood and now this latest attack.
“Candidly, we have a problem with the military. If you cannot trust military officers to carry weapons on a military base after Ford Hood and after this, then people don’t believe in the Second Amendment at all,” he said.
Napolitano said if there were armed military personnel at the Navy Yard yesterday, the casualty figures would have been much lower. Plus, he said the presence of armed officers could have dissuaded the gunman from attacking in the first place.
Tim Brown is the Editor of Freedom Outpost and a regular contributor to The D.C. Clothesline.
