SECURlTY AT THE COLORADO STATE CAPITOL

By Rick Johnson
May 17, 2002

The Editor
The Rocky Mountain News
100 Gene Amole Way
Denver, CO 80204

Re: Security at the Capitol

I had a recent occasion to read Sue Mencer's letter in The Rocky Mountain News of Monday, May 6, 2002, "Security measures at Capitol are prudent." The letter was much too gentle on those gentlemen and ladies of the Colorado Legislature, who think that security at the Capitol is no longer worth the trouble.

Ms. Mencer rightly points out that America has plenty of enemies, some of whom certainly learned quite a bit from and after September 11th... that a lack of major terrorist activity doesn't mean the threat has dissipated… and that our position deep within the Western heartland is no guarantee that we aren't on somebody's target list.

I don't know anyone who doesn't wish we could get back to something akin to normalcy, but wishful thinking is a dangerous pastime - although, when it comes to our illustrious legislature, any kind of thinking at all is to be given some regard.

When it comes to the likes of al Queda, Hamas, Hizballah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and dozens of other such organizations, a lack of imagination is the key to more death and destruction. Then you can roll in a host of homegrown anti-government nut groups, who may want to move beyond playing soldier in the woods on weekends.

I'm a former investigator for the Denver County and Jefferson County District Attorney's Offices. I've been in private practice as an investigator for 14 years. I admittedly have no training in terrorist fundamentals. But I do know that terrorists look for two main components - a vulnerable target and the likelihood of dramatic results.

A state Capitol reduced to a hole in the ground covered by a gold dome sounds to me like dramatic results. Sadly, legislators with short memories strike me as keenly vulnerable. Maybe somebody will pay to take them to Ground Zero, where the evidence of limited imagination and a vulnerable airline industry helped produce a glaring example.

Security comes at a price. Vigilance requires effort. Our safety and the security of our institutions require legislators willing to pay for the one and to expend the limited effort required by the other… and, of course, a little imagination.

Sincerely,

Rick Johnson