Soldiers With Automatic Weapons Checking IDs at a Social Security Office in Florida

[kpete]

Training excercise startles locals

The Daily Commercial

MILLARD K. IVES | Staff Writer



It may have looked like they were ready for war or some deranged person looking for his late Social Security benefits.

But it was only Federal Protective Service officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who were conducting a random training operation early Tuesday morning when they surprisingly showed up at the Social Security Administration office in downtown Leesburg.

With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building.

.....................................

According to one Homeland official in the Washington, D.C. office, Operation Shield. is an effort that uses routine, unannounced visits by FPS inspectors to test the effectiveness of contract guards, or protective security officers -- "detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities."

http://www.dailycommercial.com/News/LakeCounty/010412shield

[DCKit]

1. Looks more like an exercise in intimidation. nt

[LiberalAndProud]

8. ^ This and / or

desensitization.

[DCKit]

28. Meant to say that too.

My words failed me. Yours are excellent.

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. +100

[RC]

2. This in the Land of the Free.

Why don't I feel safe?

[indepat]

18. Because brown-shirt-types conjure all types of ugly and horrifying fascist images?

[Pachamama]

3. "But it was only Federal Protective Service Officers with the US Dept of Homeland Security who were

.....conducting a random training operation....."

Whoa...that is a scary statement.....

So these are what, ex-Blackwater private contractor police for the Federal Govt who operate on US Soil and getting a little logistical practice operations in?

[limpyhobbler]

5. what's with the automatic weapons?

what are they training for exactly?

[MineralMan]

26. Not automatic weapons. Read the exerpt.

They weren't soldiers. The weapons were semiautomatic. It's in the excerpt. The title is bogus, and isn't the title use in the article at the link. The OP wrote an erroneous title.

[TalkingDog]

27. Oh yeah... that makes it so much better.

Don't give a rat's ass about the title. Old people having the bejeebus scared out of them by men with WEAPONS is unacceptable.

[SlimJimmy]

30. Would you have read the thread if it said "FPS officers check ID's at federal building?"

[Dreamer Tatum]

20. Where is Obama on this? nt

[Luminous Animal]

4. Welcome to the surveillance state...

When is Obama going to come out against this?

[RC]

6. What makes you thing he will?

After signing the NDAA - The Defense Bill? We know what's in that one.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

7. and what if you refused to surrender your ID?

would you be secretly and indefinitely detained? Where's the National media about shit like this, not just a local newspaper. Oh I forgot they're busy covering 1/2 dozen clowns all saying the same thing.

[ellisonz]

9. Sad that these offices need guards...

[gtar100]

10. Florida is going off the deep end. Are they leading the way for the right-wing utopia?

I guess they're going to learn the hard way about that old adage "be careful what you wish for".

[Pholus]

12. I am starting to think these are Krugman's "Aliens" -- threat based stimulus spending.

We spend sooooo much to make that guy look like a total badass rather than being cheap and giving him the rusty 0.38 and radio that would be APPROPRIATE for security at a place like that.

[newfie11]

13. Leesburg VA???

For Gods Sakes this country has gone off the deep end! Is there like something in the water to increase insanity???

[Ineeda]

17. Leesburg FLORIDA n/t

[lunatica]

14. This is no reason to believe the US is becoming a police state

[hobbit709]

15. Not soldiers, just members of the Geheime Staatspolizei up to their usual intimidation tactics

[Ship of Fools]

16. ...closer it creeps--step by step, inch by inch...

[onenote]

21. If I had a family member working at a federal facility

I'd be most happy that the building was subject to security measures and that there was an ongoing effort to determine the effectiveness of those security measures. There are enough nutjobs fueled by anti-government rhetoric and with easy access to weaponry that I would not want a loved one working in what could readily be considered a target in the dim hopes that nobody would try anything.

Yeah, it sucks that its come to this, but you can't ask people to take jobs in government and not protect them.

[Gold Metal Flake]

22. If you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about.

Quack quack quack

[hack89]

23. Not a soldier, not an automatic weapon

these are the federal law enforcement officers that protect government buildings. Don't you think there is a need for them?

[MineralMan]

24. Is that a soldier? Is the weapon an automatic weapon?

That is your title, not the title of the news story. You've introduced two inaccuracies, even before readers began reading. You made incorrect assumptions when you wrote an erroneous title. Both are clearly not true, even from reading your exerpt of the article. Why did you write that title?

From the article, the man is clearly not a soldier. The weapon was not identified by model, but is identified in the story as a semi-automatic weapon. I don't like the situation at all, and think this is way excessive at an SS office, but accuracy is important.

It was a federal officer, not a soldier, and they are issued semi-automatic weapons. There are differences on both counts that are important. Why not just post the title from the story, instead of editorializing incorrectly by writing an incorrect title?

I guess I don't get it.

[Hugabear]

25. Practice for Election Day, 2012

I'm sure that Rick Scott will find some excuse to have heavily armed National Guard troops outside select polling places. You know, those polling places that might be in "dangerous" areas (translation: those that are predominantly likely to vote Democrat) in order to provide "protection".

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Almost as scary, but those are federal cops

They are not soldiers, not even coasties, the only ones using blue BDU's.