![\"Wielding](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wielding-a-deranged-man-300x213.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nAaron Alexis shot out the tires of some construction workers’ tires in 2004. Three years before he joined the Navy. In 2008, while he was in the Navy, he tore up a nightclub. In 2010, he shot though his ceiling because his upstairs neighbor made too much noise in his opinion while he was living in Fort Worth. After he was evicted from that apartment, he shot through the wall of his new apartment in the house of his landlord and employer, for unspecified reasons. <\/p>\n
In the the first case, the paperwork was lost on the way to the prosecutor’s office, in the second, local authorities left it to the Navy to punish him, but they decided it would just be easier to get rid of him. In the third, the police decided that there wasn’t enough evidence against him. The fourth incident was never reported to authorities.<\/p>\n
Just last month, in Rhode Island, Alexis called the police because people were talking to him through the walls and ceiling of the motel room and they were sending vibrations through his body. The Newport police warned the Navy about Alexis’ bizarre behavior. Last month.<\/p>\n
But, you know what caused the incident at the Navy Yard? Security clearance procedures. Well if you ask Congress. Susan Collins, a Republican Senator from Maine says the military needs to cut the time between renewal of clearances says the Washington Times<\/a>;<\/p>\n \u201cOne step that can be taken immediately is ensuring that criminal databases and the terrorist watch lists are always consulted and that there\u2019s some sort of continuous monitoring that would pick up problems rather than waiting as long as five or 10 years to review security clearances,\u201d said Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, on CNN\u2019s \u201cNew Day\u201d on Wednesday morning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah, well, how would that have prevented Alexis from walking into the Navy Yard with his access card? <\/p>\n To his credit, General Martin Dempsey told the media today that this tragedy shouldn’t stigmatize veterans when they’re looking for work and require a security clearance;<\/p>\n Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, says those who have served in the military should not be stigmatized by having to answer questions about their mental health status on security clearance forms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’m pretty sure that Alexis wouldn’t have been truthful about that question anyway. And if you scare military people away from the jobs that require a clearance, you won’t have anyone to fill those jobs, speaking generally.<\/p>\n You know what else caused the shooting, as long as we’re looking for politically expedient answers that are easy to understand and specious? Sequestration<\/a>. <\/p>\n A Pentagon inspector general\u2019s report on Tuesday said the Navy Commercial Access Control System (NCACS) is flawed in screening contractors because it uses only commercially available databases, not government lists such as the FBI National Criminal Intelligence System or the Terrorist Screening Database.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah, in order for the screening process to work, there has to be information there. In Alexis’ case there was nothing, because no one wanted to do anything about him. Just like no one wanted to do anything about Jared Loughner, James Holmes, Adam Lanza and Nidal Hasan. Everyone knew that there were problems in each of those five cases, but no one wanted to say anything – well, until after the fact, then you can’t keep them away from the TV cameras or force them to shut up. Is that too simple? Is that too easy to understand? Is that not complicated enough for the people who have a string of letters and periods after their names?<\/p>\n What needs to change is the culture, and the government can’t do that for us. So nothing will get done except a bunch of stupid laws and regulations that wouldn’t have prevented this tragedy or any of the others. But the politicians will feel better about themselves and those who think that government actually does something will sleep better thinking the government is on the job. The rest of us, firmly rooted in reality, will sleep with a gun under our pillows.<\/p>\n Thanks to Twitchy<\/a> for the cartoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"