Blackwater Offers Classes To Combat Active Shooters

[Blue_Tires]

Source: WTKR-TV

Private security contractor Blackwater USA has developed an intensive training course to prepare law enforcement officers for active shooters like the one that killed 32 people at Virginia Tech.

The five-day session will put trainees into simulated scenarios at a mock high school and a 5,000-square-foot tactical house. Blackwater has a 7,000-acre campus in northeastern North Carolina.

Marty Strong is a vice president at Blackwater. He says law enforcement agencies have long worked under the premise that first responders prepare for nonviolent negotiations.


Read more: http://www.wtkr.com/Global/story.asp?S=6989346&nav=menu78_3

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like any good group of mercenaries, they know that where there is death, suffering and violence, there is opportunity for profit...

[Rick Myers]

1. Good Christian Soldiers!!!

:grr:fuckheads:grr:

[sarcasmo]

25. Don't they sing Onward Christian Soldiers?

[msongs]

2. blackwater - new careers opportunities after iraq is strip mined for taxpayer cash nt

[rfranklin]

3. This is bullshit...they'd be better off studying mindreading...

Because predicting who will go loony beforehand is the only way they can effectively prevent such shootings.

[Igel]

15. Not "prevent".

"Respond to".

Columbine was a disaster, and the press' consensus--likely true--was that different tactics at V-Tech might have reduced the body count.

[rfranklin]

18. They had no clue what was going on until a dozen were dead...

The paramilitary games are most often just that.

[saigon68]

4. More pigs swilling at the "Public Trough"

[RamboLiberal]

5. First off I don't like Blackwater and what they do

as mercenaries. IMHO these kind of facilities that train LEOs and elements of the U.S. military should be a public entity not private. Having said that this kind of course is a good idea and Blackwater certainly has the facilities that majority of police departments do not. IMHO Columbine especially it was frustrating to see the police and their SWAT teams take an interminable amount of time to get in that building and clear it when the two shooters were long dead. The teacher Dave Sanders who died at Columbine may have been saved if only they had gotten to him sooner.

From what I saw they police at Virginia Tech did a better job in getting in to the building and probably some of that was the lesson learned from Columbine. Columbine did change the way police and SWAT train for the active shooter scenario.

[Mojorabbit]

7. I don't like the militarization

of the police. I am old enough to remember the days when the cops were friendly and I did not feel afraid of them. I shudder when I see them in their black outfits and helmets. We are the public, not the enemy.

[RamboLiberal]

9. I don't like it when they man protest marches

or some of the raids they do or see them out there on the streets dressed like that with assault weapons. However there are the occasional situation where a SWAT team is needed like a Columbine, Virginia Tech, etc. I'm afraid the militarization is going to only get worse. I also think it is the attitude of those being recruited, many being ex-military.

[Indenturedebtor]

10. I am 28 and not old enough to remember that

Cops have always been to me something to be feared and avoided... even if something happens to you, don't go to the cops, they'll only make it worse and treat you like you are the criminal. When I first got to China a couple of years back and some cops offered to help us buy a ticket for a train (in incomprehensible Cantonese), I thought they were trying to arrest or ticket us.

Cops to me have always been the active arm of the government that takes your money and ruins your life. Never once in my entire life have I heard a story where the cops served or protected... not once. Lots of stories about fees, fines, and rough treatment though. Good times.

[saigon68]

12. A Cop acquaintance , who liked to wear Black, told me once

"When you wear Blue you have to Kiss Ass"

"When you wear BLACK you get to Kick Ass"

[tabasco]

16. They act like Green Berets who just captured Bin Laden

when they catch somebody with a few pot plants in their basement.

The police state is here.

[Phrogman]

6. The common word for "tactical house" is "kill house".......

LOL

[davepc]

8. Blackwater (and other similar companies) have been offering various training to LEO/military units

for years.

Blackwater even has some classes open to the public.

[0007]

11. If you have link to that statement I'd appreciate you posting it.

"Blackwater even has some classes open to the public."

[RamboLiberal]

13. Google Blackwater Training

http://www.blackwaterusa.com/training/courses.asp

Open enrollment courses are open to the public. I was at an IDPA State pistol competition last month and among the drawing prizes awarded were training courses at Blackwater. Wish I'd have won one, be fun to see the place. I would've felt like a spy.

[0007]

17. Thanks for the link! nt

[sofa king]

14. Screw that. Teach OUR KIDS active shooter tactics.

I really do think that schoolkids should be taught group defense tactics, which they could easily be taught in phys ed. Among other things, it encourages people to take responsibility for their own self-defense and it may make lone gunmen think twice before acting out if they know they're going to wind up at the bottom of a scrum instead of hunting individual victims.

Most of you know exactly why that's never gonna happen: if the public knows proactive defense, "free speech zones" will suddenly get a lot larger than The Man wants them to be.

[superconnected]

19. 7000 acres. that's friggen huge.

[derby378]

20. I'm no fan of mercenaries, but don't blame Blackwater...

Blame Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold for unleashing hell on Columbine High School back in 1999. Those two helped cement the definition of "active shooter" in the first place.

[bemildred]

21. Ah, the new, domestic "School of the Americas".

:puke::puke:

[Posteritatis]

22. What's with this term "active shooter" anyway?

It has the ring of carefully-chosen jargon about it, but I'm just not getting the adjective.

[bemildred]

24. Well, it's the opposite of a "passive shooter".

Is that an oxymoron or what?

[Irreverend IX]

26. Passive shooter = Charles Whitman.

I take it an active shooter refers to someone who's actively moving through an area and looking for people to gun down, as opposed to someone who snipes from a hiding place, or someone who shoots a few people and then takes a hostage and tries to negotiate with the police when they arrive.

[Posteritatis]

27. Ah! That makes sense; thanks. (nt)

[bemildred]

28. Well, I understand your logic, but I don't find it convincing.

That just means you have to find the perp, instead of him waiting for you to show up. So you have an armed and dangerous perp on the run. That is not special.

[Posteritatis]

30. I think the distinction is "on the hunt" versus "on the run"

The latter would be mainly avoiding the authorities; the former would be mainly seeking targets. It's a subtle distinction, but it's there.

[bemildred]

31. That was my take. "Stationary" is not the issue.

But how is one to know what the intentions of the (presumably unavailable for questioning) shooter are?

[Paladin]

32. Those Terms Are The Ones That Ought To Be Used

The notion of labeling Charles Whitman as a "passive" shooter is stomach-turning. More bloodless, techno-military terminology---just what we need......

[cyberpj]

23. Just another way to let them suck more money from Gov't contracts. They were created for this. nt

[agent46]

29. The new philosophy is to privatize

Using the trendy "big box" franchise development scheme as its model for expansion, I'd hate to think what Blackwater might have in mind for our local police forces down the line a bit. My bet is this is how they begin positioning themselves to be ready for market when some patriotic American municipality finally decides to make history as the first to contract out their local police force. I'd also bet they're still counting on plenty of seasoned entry level talent from unemployed combat soldiers transitioning out of military service in that "generational war" the White Haus has been trying to sell everybody for six years now.