I’ve heard quite a few blacks saying, that they are more concerned with who will be Obama’s vice president, as they all believe, that if he does make it to getting elected to the white house, he wouldn’t last one hour in there, "bang" they say, insinuating a gun shot sound, and then this just in …
Police Concerned About Order to Stop Screening
By Jack Douglas Jr.
Dallas Star-Telegram
Thursday 21 February 2008
Dallas – Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening
people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic
presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.
The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop
bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed
it was a lapse in security.
Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department’s homeland
security and special operations divisions, said the order – apparently made
by the U.S. Secret Service – was meant to speed up the long lines outside and
fill the arena’s vacant seats before Obama came on.
"Sure," said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great
number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But,
he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a "friendly
crowd."
The Secret Service did not return a call from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.
Doors opened to the public at 10 a.m., and for the first hour security officers
scanned each person who came in and checked their belongings in a process that
kept movement of the long lines at a crawl. Then, about 11 a.m., an order came
down to allow the people in without being checked.
Several Dallas police officers said it worried them that the arena was packed
with people who got in without even a cursory inspection.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because, they said, the order was made
by federal officials who were in charge of security at the event.
"How can you not be concerned in this day and age," said one policeman.
