RUSH: Here’s Mike in Price, Utah. Mike, great to have you. Hi.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. It’s an honor to speak with you, and I’m a longtime listener.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: I’m a 30-year veteran state of Utah law enforcement officer. I was actually a wildlife law enforcement supervisor, but I went through the academy, all the same training as all the other law enforcement officers, but specifically I had extensive training prior to the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City where members of my agency combined with law enforcement officers from virtually all over the country and all over the world participated in that heightened security for that event, and it was very successful.
So my training and background causes me to have a little bit of awareness about this Boston episode. And I don’t mean anything as a criticism of the Boston police and the state police and the federal agencies there at the finish line, but recently some photos have been available on Fox. I saw a photo showing what they believe is one of the devices at the front of the spectator row adjacent to the finish line, and probably a visitor across the street took the picture. So there are probably literally hundreds of similar pictures because everybody’s loved ones are crossing the finish line.
Well, with the time stamp on current digital photography and videography you could time how long that device sat there without somebody looking at it. And part of my training for the Olympics, they stress that unattended packages should cause concern and should cause law enforcement to investigate. Much the same way in airports there’s a constant announcement to paying attention to unattended baggage, you know, unattended items.
RUSH: I hear that all the time, yeah.
CALLER: Somebody should have seen it. But, again, I’m not criticizing those guys on the ground ’cause they had thousands of people there.
RUSH: Well, wait. Let me ask you a question. What if that bag is at somebody’s feet?
CALLER: Well, it was at somebody’s feet. Somebody who no longer has feet, probably.
RUSH: Well, but if somebody’s taken a picture of it, even a law enforcement person walking by, and the bag’s at somebody’s feet, isn’t the assumption it’s that person’s bag?
CALLER: It might be the assumption, but in my training we were told to ask, “Is that your bag? Do you know who belongs to that? Do you know how long it’s been there?” The Boston Marathon is a worldwide and national event, has heightened security, but again, I’m not criticizing those guys on the ground ’cause they had a lot of responsibility. But what I’m saying is maybe a heads-up to all of us out there in the public now, that have to understand that personal security, and to some degree protection, is also our responsibility.
RUSH: I could not agree with you more on that.
CALLER: We need to pay attention. And the adage about when seconds count, a police officer may only be minutes away. It also relates to gun control. A well armed and trained person may be capable of defending themselves when their local police or sheriffs are five or 10 or 15 minutes away. And the same type of device, you know, in this case apparently a pressure cooker was used, that is a lawful device used legitimately by 99.9% of the people in the United States, but somebody used it to commit a murder. So are we gonna hear about four liter pressure cookers now because six liters is too big of an explosive potential? I know it was addressed yesterday. But my point is Americans need to understand that we’re living in a different environment now. And it’s very rare that these things occur, but just take your ear buds out of your ears, get off Twitter, turn off your cell phone, pay attention to what is happening around you.
RUSH: Now, Mike.
CALLER: It may be at a big event or a football game or whatever.
RUSH: Mike —
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: See, the problem is that… how do I say this? Isn’t it true, let me ask you, isn’t it true that the news coming out of various federal agencies is that Al-Qaeda’s on the run. They’re not a problem anymore. We got bin Laden. We’re getting out of Afghanistan. There’s no threat. Are people being told things that maybe aren’t true regarding security in America?
CALLER: Yeah, I believe so. I think they’re going out of their way to downplay the potential —
RUSH: Right, for political reasons.
CALLER: Yeah, absolutely. It’s to drive their agenda. You know, and what frustrates me is that Americans have a responsibility to be involved actively and to pay attention. You know, I was a firearms instructor for law enforcement for 20 years so I did intensive training. And we stress, you have a white zone, you have a yellow zone, and you have a red zone for your mental state. White zone is when you’re in bed with your wife watching Jay Leno. Yellow is where you are to be 95% of the time if you’re out in public. Who’s ahead of you in the grocery store. Who’s behind you in the bank teller window. Who’s filling their car up across the pump from you. Pay attention. And then red is that 1% where you’re in a fight-or-flight situation.
RUSH: What about when you’re watching Letterman?