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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
March 12, 2006
Drunk wandering on
tarmac shows flaws
in Homeland Security |
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Because Midway is my favorite local airport, I'm taking it upon
myself to issue a security alert. Let's see, I think I'll pick pink for the color.
The alert is to inform all American citizens whose travels take
them through Midway Airport to be on the lookout for young drunks wandering aimlessly on airport tarmacs. Forget about the suspicious
looking elderly man with a weathered briefcase or any old lady with thick-soled shoes. Instead, while waiting to board your plane, keep
your eyes open for any individual in civilian clothes staggering about the runways.
This alert is vital because with all the efforts and billions
of dollars spent and wasted attempting to catch little old ladies trying to sneak crochet needles on board planes, we are still
vulnerable to security breaches.
Of course, this is in response to the recent security breach at
Chicago Midway Airport where a 22-year-old intoxicated man made his
way into the area where the planes are.
Mark Mechniek was arrested and charged with reckless conduct
and trespassing on airport property. He spent six minutes on the
field before being apprehended. It was not a top-notch Homeland
Security agent who discovered him. A pilot in a plane on an
adjacent runway spotted Mechniek on a Sunday afternoon. Imagine if
he had waited until the cover of darkness.
The Department of Aviation and the Transportation Security
Administration have since instituted a "comprehensive retraining" of
the 200 plus security agents at Midway and will make necessary
changes to all three checkpoints. Extensive security measures will
also be looked into at Chicago O'Hare Airport. Transportation
experts say this security lapse could have been prevented.
The big question is why wasn't it prevented? How many
thousands of airport security experts/consultants do we need to make
sure our airports are secure? Why do experts always have the answer
only after something happens? Aren't there any experts with any
preventative expertise?
Instead of charging the drunk for trespassing, why not make him
a consultant and give him a multi-million dollar no-bid contract?
Better yet, why not require all the current security gurus to show
up for work under the influence? It might be interesting what they
might stagger upon.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was reported as saying this was one isolated incident and
nothing to be alarmed about. "It's not 50, 100, 200," the mayor said. He also said he saw no reason to increase the number of
officers at the airport's perimeters. When the mayor used a midnight hour stealth tactic and closed Meigs Field and turned it
into a park, he said it was done because of possible security concerns. Is the ability of a civilian to walk off the street and through a security
gate and right up to the planes not a concern? Using the mayor's logic, September 11, 2001, was just one day.
The biggest question I have is what if Mark Mechniek was not just an inebriated intruder but someone with other destructive motives? Six
minutes is a long time. It's plenty of time for a sober someone with skills, resources, and intent to willfully inflict harm.
The mayor has often requested a "No-fly Zone" over Chicago but has
been denied by the Federal Aviation Administration. It seems his two airports would be safer if he requested a "No drunk-walking-on airfields-zone."
Almost five years after the biggest breach in ensuring domestic
tranquility, our trusted government can't keep drunks from getting
to our planes, and we wanted to give an Arab country ownership of six major U.S.
ports. Imagine if some young drunk decided to go snorkeling at one
of our ports and swam up to a big oil tanker and just hung out.
What if he wasn't a drunk but someone with less than honorable intentions?
What if he didn’t like Americans?
I hate to even think about that. |
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