Not In My Job Description

I used to install security systems for Brinks, as a sub-contractor.  My friend Danny J. got me started doing it and I would do two installs a day.  I'd begin about 7:30 in the morning and finish up ten or twelve hours later.  

I'd eat a sack lunch in my van while driving between jobs.  I worked by myself .  Brinks paid me $100 per system install and $10 to $20 per extra sensor beyond the basic package.  The basic package was three door sensors, one motion detector, one siren, one keypad, the alarm panel, and power transformer and a telephone connection.  

Sandy Hook, part three, possible outcomes

Prior to the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut,  the Sandy Hook Elementary School installed some new security measures:  an electric lock, intercom and video camera at the front door.  After students arrive the door locks at 9:30 AM and thereafter, a person seeking admittance will have to talk to the officemarm and be buzzed in. 

Such equipment might keep out the mild-mannered Fred Rogers but what if the person huffing and puffing at the door is more like the Big Bad Wolf?  What then little pig?  Is your house made of bricks, or straw?

The Curse of Noone's Garage

I set up a booby-trap once to surprise the kid sneaking into my garage.  This was years before I got into the security system business.  I lived in a rented house in south-east Portland and kept my supplies and tools in the back of the garage. 

At that time I did repairs for property owners.  The garage was separate from the house, and old and made of wood.  There were windows on the west side and east side, about three feet off the ground.  A lot of the glass was missing so the windows were boarded up.

One afternoon, I noticed sunlight sniggering at me through the pried-off boards of one of the windows.  Someone had entered and skulked about my paint cans and glazing putty.  Nothing was missing, but I was still angry.  I felt desecrated—the ghost of Tutankhamen could not have felt more desecrated, than I.  He had a curse protecting his property, though.  Being not as well versed in the supernatural as he, I had to make do with available materials.

Sandy Hook, part two, 20 seconds

I figure the adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School had twenty seconds to respond to the armed intruder on December 14th, if they were going to save any of the children in their care.  That's all the time it would have taken Mr. Adam Lanza to step through the shattered front door and walk to the nearest classroom and start firing and killing first-graders. 

It took him a little longer than that because Principal Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach got in his way...but not for long.  He just shot them dead and continued on.  

Sandy Hook, part one

WHO IS TO BLAME?

Some Thoughts on the Sandy Hook School Deaths

Part One

If someone kicked in your front door and went room to room shooting people what would you do about it?  More importantly, what could you do about it?

Most people would run away or hide; every man for himself.  That’s about all they could do.

But what if you feel some responsibility for the other people in the house, or business?  What would you do then?