(The latest in a series of posts on City government)
In light of an unspecified social media threat mentioning Bethlehem as well as three mass shootings across the country in a week, officials are increasing security at the festival with added cameras, traffic barriers and a visible presence of officers armed with the rifles.
Chief DiLuzio at City Council Tuesday, August 6:
“I believe that threat has been rendered unthreatable . . . We did increase security in certain instances . . . We tweak our security plan every year, basically every day . . . To ignore what goes on around you would be neglectful . . . If it can happen in an Amish schoolhouse, it can happen anywhere in the United States . . . We’re being prepared, and I will ever err on the side of caution.”
Mayor Donchez at City Council Tuesday, August 6:
“Public Safety has to be Number 1.”
It would be hard to disagree with Chief DiLuzio’s thought that he ‘will ever err on the side of caution’, but I’m not sure having police officers armed with assault rifles is the way to do that. There are at least two major problems with this misguided approach:
1. If there’s a threat in a crowd of Musikfest patrons, the assault rifle is not a useful response tool. If officers think their superior firepower will solve the problem, it is likely to delay a more constructive response.
2. It normalizes the ideas that guns make people safer and that having officers with military weapons is the best way to be safe.
‘Two thumbs down’