All my opinion .... A little bit of food for thought
Let's change the verbage to outdoor events.
My perspective changes.
Do we really want to prevent/discourage Presidents, VPs, First Ladies both past and present from participating in outdoor events?
No more college commencement, no sports events, no throwing the first ball out before a major league game, no Olympics, no outside events in foreign countries- for sure, no more placing a wealth on the Unknown Soldiers Tomb, no more trips to the ice cream shops, outdoor restaurants, lawn and garden parties or cookouts. This is just a few events that would be prohibited.
All because we can't trust the SS to develop safe site plans, snipers, drone aerial surveillance, communication for all involved, and more. They don't seem to be able to take responsibility and as we have heard there is no accountability. The new director is hurt, the staff are sad, upset, low morale, and concerned about protecting themselves.
Since Butler I've learned and researched on federal processes extensively. SS only protects the inner perimeter, they delegate everything else to local police with no support, training or communication. Large cities are able to do a great job. It's a little small towns, with small police forces that struggle, they may not have inside venues or folks with no transportation to travel to an inside venue or large city.
Should we only have events in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, or New York City, because they have the resources training and staff? What about the people of rural America, the children hoping to get a lifetime chance to see a current a former president or first lady. I remember the first time I saw a president, it was a feeling of aw and vast emotions, I was 12.
I say no, we can't discourage outside events because an agency with a 3 million dollar budget it's incapable of protection. Are we going to force protectees to run scared because the agency can't function as mandated by Congress.
If the Secret Service cannot protect protectees, we need to look to another agency.
Should we consider the military, they have more than enough people, the best resources in the world? Possibly create a new protection division.
Just shut down the protection division of the Secret Service.
They've been plagued by one scandal after another for the last 30 years and been unable to recover.
Anyone have any thoughts...