San Diego Chargers officials investigating viral video showing sexual act on field
San Diego Chargers officials investigating viral video showing sexual act on field
Explosion outside soccer stadium in Istanbul
Reuters, 12/10/16
A suspected car bomb outside a football stadium in central Istanbul wounded at least 20 people on Saturday hours after the end of a match between two of Turkey’s top teams, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
Armed police sealed off streets around the Vodafone Arena, home to the Besiktas football team, a Reuters witness said. TV footage showed what appeared to be the wreckage of a burned out car and two separate fires on the road outside the stadium.
Soylu, speaking in parliament during a budget hearing, said around 20 people had been wounded and that initial indications were that the blast was caused by a car bomb targeting a riot police bus. (Reuters)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/explosion-outside-soccer-stadium-istanbul-slideshow-wp-201737015.html
Police Use Drone To Monitor Crowds At Aston Villa-Birmingham City Rivalry Match
Police Use Drone To Monitor Crowds At Aston Villa-Birmingham City Rivalry Match
November 2, 2016 Malika Andrews
West Midlands police officers had sky-high reinforcements at the Aston Villa-Birmingham City match on Sunday. For the first time ever, drones were used to monitor fans.
The drone used is capable of taking clear, high-definition footage that police are able to use to identify suspects and can fly up to 400 feet. Aviation rules prohibit the drone from flying over the stadium, and it must stay away from residential properties.
“This technology is fantastic and has real benefits to modern day policing,” Sergeant Keith Holliday, who is part of the West Midlands Police football policing operation, said in a statement.
According to the West Midlands Police, a professionally trained remote pilot would control the drone. Another officer observed the drone to make sure that it was safe flight and monitored the images being captured.
Despite emotions being high for the first match up between the two clubs in more than five years, the derby finished without any major incidents. There were precautions taken – like the non-sale of alcohol inside the away fan section and there were limited numbers of tickets sold to away fans – that likely affected the low number of disturbances. But the drone security also might have had something to do with it.
“Overall there was a fantastic atmosphere with two sets of great fans, the majority of fans embraced the feel-good factor of the day and were well-behaved,” match commander Chief Inspector Nick Rowe said in a statement. “Overall there was a fantastic atmosphere with two sets of great fans, the majority of fans embraced the feel-good factor of the day and were well-behaved.”
http://www.sporttechie.com/2016/11/01/sports/soccer/police-use-drone-to-monitor-crowds-at-aston-villa-birmingham-city-rivalry-match/?utm_source=SportTechie+Updates&utm_campaign=e114aabd9f-SportTechie_Weekly_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5d2e0c085b-e114aabd9f-294396349
Saudi Arabia foils plot to bomb stadium during a World Cup qualifying match after arresting members of two cells linked to ISIS Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3887870/Saudi-Arabia-foils-plot-bomb-stadium-World-Cup-qualifying-match-arresting-members-two-cells-linked-ISIS
By Harvey Day For Mailonline and Afp
Published: 17:16 EDT, 30 October 2016 | Updated: 06:07 EDT, 31 October 2016
Saudi Arabia foiled a plot to bomb a stadium during a World Cup qualifying match after arresting members of cells linked to ISIS.
Authorities said on Sunday they had also dismantled two ‘terrorist’ cells linked to the Islamic State group.
The interior ministry said in a statement that four suspects from each cell had been arrested.
Saudi Arabia foiled a plot to bomb a stadium during a World Cup qualifying match between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
One of the cells had planned to park a bomb-laden vehicle outside Al-Jawhara stadium in the Red Sea city of Jeddah during an October 11 World Cup 2018 qualifying football match between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the ministry said.
Its members were two Pakistanis, a Syrian, and a Sudanese, the ministry said, without providing further details of the plot or arrests.
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The other group had been plotting attacks against security forces and its members had received orders from an ISIS leader in Syria, the ministry said.
Its alleged members were based in Shaqra, northwest of Riyadh, and are all Saudis, the ministry statement said, adding that the suspects had all confessed.
A cell had planned to park a bomb-laden vehicle outside Al-Jawhara stadium in the Red Sea city of Jeddah
Six other Saudis were detained and were being questioned over alleged links to the cell, it said.
Since late 2014, ISIS has claimed a series of bombings and shootings against Shiites in the Sunni-majority kingdom, as well against security forces.
In another statement, the interior ministry published a list of nine suspects – eight Saudis and a Bahraini, wanted for their alleged involvement in ‘terrorist’ acts in the eastern provinces of Qatif and Dammam, home to most of the kingdom’s Shiite minority population.
The suspects were allegedly involved in attacks against civilians and members of the security forces, the statement said.
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against Saudi Arabia, which belongs to the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in Syria and Iraq
It urged the suspects to surrender and offered financial rewards for those who could provide information leading to their arrests.
Eastern areas have seen repeated security incidents since 2011, when a wave of protests began among Shiites demanding reform in the Sunni-majority kingdom.
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against Saudi Arabia, which belongs to the US-led coalition bombing the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
In July authorities arrested 19 people, including 12 Pakistanis, in connection with three suicide bombings on July 4 including one near the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina in which four people died.
The result of the fixture was 3-0 to Saudi Arabia.
A quietly escalating issue for NFL: Fan violence and how to contain it
By Kent Babb and Steven Rich October 28, 2016
Earlier this month, Joe Bauer and his wife, Sharon, went to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore to watch the Ravens play the Oakland Raiders. During the second half, they were walking on an exit ramp when, according to a Baltimore police report, an argument turned into a full-blown altercation; a Raiders fan punched Bauer, a 55-year-old Ravens season ticket holder, and Bauer fell and hit his head.
Bauer suffered a brain injury and was initially given a 30 percent chance to survive. Though he has since improved, a relative said, his family is uncertain he ever will be the same.
While the National Football League is more popular than ever, expected this year to set a record by surpassing $13 billion in revenue, it faces potent threats to its dominance over the American sports landscape: declining television ratings, an inconsistent response to incidents of domestic abuse involving players and continuing worries about player safety. But an equally alarming threat is unruly fan behavior in and around NFL stadiums. It has some in the league concerned that it is driving fans to stay away.
“If you are concerned about bringing your family to a game, then that is an issue,” said Amy Trask, a former executive with the Raiders who has served on the NFL’s security committee. “It’s not just an issue for one team; it’s an issue for all 32 teams. The teams know this. The league knows this.”
The NFL has made significant efforts in recent years to improve the climate inside its stadiums by identifying trouble spots and providing its franchises with guidelines for creating a friendlier atmosphere. But it is having only limited success and may be pushing the problem of unsavory fan behavior from stadiums to the parking lots.
Although arrest totals fluctuate year to year, they have trended slightly upward on a per-game basis since 2011, according to a Washington Post examination of police data from the past five seasons. Last year, 6.34 arrests per game were reported league-wide during the 17 weeks of the regular season. In the 10th week of the season, 126 arrests were made — the second-highest total during the five-year period. That was the most since 129 arrests were made in Week 14 of 2012.
The data assembled by The Post provides a snapshot of the factors the NFL and local law enforcement see as bellwethers for fan trouble. Division contests and night games result in considerably more fan arrests, according to records collected from city, county and state police jurisdictions that oversee security at NFL stadiums. The later the kickoff, the greater the likelihood of arrests, the data shows. Of the 15 games the past five seasons with the most arrests, a combined 705, nine of those contests began at 4 p.m. or later.
When division games are played at night, arrests are twice as high as early-afternoon non-division contests; the league and its network broadcast partners often schedule these division rivalry games in prime time.
If the home team loses, no matter the opponent or scheduled kickoff time, arrests increase. The closer the loss, the more arrests tend to rise.
The Post used public records laws to obtain data from 29 of the 31 jurisdictions with a stadium (the New York Giants and New York Jets share MetLife Stadium in New Jersey). Authorities in Cleveland and New Orleans did not provide documents despite repeated requests. To provide further context, The Post visited stadiums and interviewed more than two dozen NFL and law enforcement officials.
Officials at NFL headquarters dispute that games are unsafe or any perception that stadiums are anything but family-friendly. Behind the scenes, however, the league puts a high priority on controlling fan behavior and identifying possible trouble spots. Certain venues seem to be hotbeds for police activity, particularly in parking lots, where oversight is not regulated by the league office and where alcohol consumption goes largely unmonitored.
The data shows per-game arrests over the past five seasons were highest at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, where police instituted stricter policies in 2013 following a violent parking lot brawl that involved thrown glass bottles. Following San Diego, where police made 24.58 arrests per game between 2011 and 2015, were the stadiums in New York (21.96 arrests per game), Oakland (17.78) and Pittsburgh (16.75). The NFL sees high arrest numbers at its stadiums in San Diego, New York and Pittsburgh as byproducts of those franchises’ zero-tolerance policies; Oakland, though, is continually on the league’s radar, along with San Francisco, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Philadelphia.
But the potential for trouble is hardly confined to those sites. Last October, a man was shot outside a Dallas Cowboys game at A&T Stadium and later died. A year earlier, a man at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of the 49ers, was beaten so badly, his attorney said, the man now suffers from permanent seizure activity. In 2013, a 30-year-old man was beaten to death in the parking lot at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.
Last November, Matthew Davis attended a Raiders game in Oakland with his girlfriend and two family members. On their way out, a Raiders fan approached Davis from behind and punched him so hard he would require a CT scan. The reason: Davis was wearing a Jets jersey.
“A jungle,” said Davis, 30, who said he was unlikely to return to Oakland Coliseum. “People are just in your ear; you’re just being harassed the whole time.”
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Those are just among the most high-profile incidents in recent years. Not all incidents lead to arrests, and much more common are verbal and physical jousting among fans, drunkenness and a general climate of boorishness.
The league’s stadiums in Seattle, Chicago, Tampa and Houston tallied the fewest arrests the past five seasons, averaging one arrest or fewer per game. FedEx Field in Landover, which averages about 2.7 arrests at each Redskins game, ranked in the middle; M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, where arrests average 1.5 per game, is in the bottom half, according to data compiled by The Post.
Three jurisdictions — Atlanta, Detroit and Minneapolis — provided arrests only for inside the stadiums. But incidents still happen at those venues, which underscores the problem as those in and around the league see it: Teams and law enforcement are largely uncertain when or where trouble might arise, often leading to a reactive approach.
“Whatever has to be done will be done,” Ravens Coach John Harbaugh told reporters after the incident in Baltimore this month. “We’re a family. It’s a family atmosphere.”
In 2008, when Jeffrey Miller traveled to Oakland to attend his first Monday night game as the NFL’s new head of security, he saw something familiar — though not at all family-friendly.
“I’ve been in actual prison riots,” said Miller, a former Pennsylvania state police commissioner who in the spring stepped down after eight years in the NFL league office to take a job with a private security firm in California. He was replaced in August by former Washington police chief Cathy L. Lanier. “I looked around me, and I saw so many people getting tased by police right outside the venue, it was unbelievable.
“I looked around and said: We have got to change this environment.”
Former Washington police chief Cathy Lanier took over as head of security for the NFL in August. Her predecessor, Jeffrey Miller, said he “saw so many people getting tased by police right outside the venue, it was unbelievable.” (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
In Miller’s first months on the job, he visited stadiums and sometimes couldn’t believe what he saw, most notably in the parking lots outside. He watched a fan punch a police officer at one facility, and at another tailgaters walked past portable toilets to relieve themselves in the woods.
Some fans, already visibly drunk upon arrival, were welcomed onto stadium property; there, they went on performing keg stands and draining shots from bowling balls. Many staggered into the stadium for the game.
“Tailgating has changed in our lifetimes,” said Lou Marciani, the director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security. “They open up so early, and by the time the game starts, [fans] are wiped out.”
Each year, the NFL invites four officials from each team, often including franchise owners, to attend the league’s security training seminar. Miller distributed his annual report of how each team handled security, issuing “grades” for each organization: a “1” was the best score, and a “4” amounted to a failing grade.
There was some fluctuation, but year after year, the same teams seemed to over- and underachieve. In an interview, Miller wouldn’t reveal how he graded teams, but one individual who saw the reports said New England, Arizona, New York and Carolina consistently received top marks; Buffalo, Cincinnati, Oakland and San Francisco often were among the teams needing improvement.
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The NFL has instituted a league-wide “code of conduct” and a list of “best practices” for stadium security over the past eight years. It also has established text messaging lines for fans to anonymously report bad behavior, leading to fewer incidents inside stadiums. Facilities paid closer attention at entry gates to inebriated fans, sometimes turning them away, and many teams instituted a zero-tolerance policy for smoking, profanity or fighting. If someone is ejected, he or she is barred from buying tickets — at least through league-approved channels — until they pass a $250 conduct exam and petition the team, in writing, for permission for return.
Fans before a game in Oakland. “Tailgating has changed in our lifetimes,” said Lou Marciani, the director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security. “They open up so early, and by the time the game starts, [fans] are wiped out.” (Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)
The NFL says arrests inside stadiums decreased by 32 percent from 2014 to 2015 and that fan ejections also were down. But fan behavior in parking lots, it acknowledges, is another matter. The NFL said there were nearly 500 arrests in stadium lots last season, a 6 percent increase over 2014. For the most part, data collected by The Post did not differentiate between arrests made inside and outside stadiums.
“We see very few incidents, but one incident is too much,” said Brian McCarthy, a spokesman in the NFL league office. “We do recognize that, and it’s something we take very seriously.”
The NFL does not regulate when parking lots open and close, and the ability to cut loose before games is part of the appeal for many fans. Several teams allow cars through gates as early as five hours before kickoff; some franchises allow tailgaters to spend all day in the lots, regardless of whether they hold game tickets. Most lots at FedEx Field open four hours before kickoff, though its “Red Zone” tailgating lot opens five hours prior.
“You’ve created this multi-acre bar, but you don’t have any real bouncers out there,” said William Carr, a Kansas City-area attorney who in July filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Chiefs.
Three years ago, 30-year-old Kyle Van Winkle attended a game with a group before leaving Arrowhead Stadium. He wandered into the parking lot and climbed into the wrong vehicle. Carr, who in his complaint cited at least 60 violent incidents on stadium property between 2000 and 2013, said a group of tailgaters — none of whom possessed game tickets, he said — assaulted Van Winkle. Van Winkle was knocked unconscious and propped up on a nearby bus; a short time later he was found not breathing and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The lawsuit alleges the Chiefs fostered a party atmosphere without adequate security; Carr has alleged that during the altercation, onlookers went looking for help but couldn’t locate security. In an answer filed in August, the Chiefs denied responsibility.
Fans fight in the stands during a preseason game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2011. Arrests at both team’s stadiums are among the highest in the league. (Ben Margot/Associated Press)
As an early December weekend began in 2014, one matchup on the schedule had the NFL on high alert. All 32 teams were playing in Week 14 of the season, though only two of the matchups were division games.
A man at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego was arrested for urinating or defecating in public, a Cincinnati law officer was assaulted at Paul Brown Stadium, and a man at Lambeau Field in Green Bay was arrested and found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.307, a level so high it can be fatal. Washington’s FedEx Field had two arrests for disorderly conduct and another for theft.
But another scheduled contest had caused concern within the NFL for months: San Francisco at Oakland. The previous time the two Bay Area teams met, a 2011 preseason game across the bay at Candlestick Park, there had been so much violence that the league indefinitely suspended the annual exhibition between the rival franchises. A man had been beaten in the parking lot until he was unconscious, and a friend trying to rescue him was shot four times. Multiple brawls broke out inside the stadium and across its sprawling property.
“It’s rough out there,” said Bill Smith, a Bay Area attorney who has sued the 49ers on behalf of the man who suffered a brain injury in an assault at Levi’s Stadium in 2014. “It’s alcohol and bravado, and when you add gang activity, which we have, it’s a deadly combination.”
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A troubling reality for the NFL, according to arrest data provided to The Post, is that it is difficult to know when and where trouble will occur. Week 10 last year was the worst week of the 2015 season, in which an average of 9.7 arrests were made at stadiums across the NFL. One week later was the best, recording an average of 2.5 arrests. The absence of a clear pattern makes prevention largely a guessing game.
But for the 49ers-Raiders game in December 2014, the league tried to be proactive. Miller had warned months earlier that the league’s schedule makers could not, under any circumstances, allow the teams to play in a late afternoon or night game. He sent his strategic security director and two more league representatives to the West Coast and urged the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, which shares security responsibilities with the City of Oakland, to increase its presence. That would include officers on motorcycles and in golf carts, perched in lookout towers and dressed in 49ers and Raiders jerseys. Though the league typically mandates the end of alcohol sales at the conclusion of the third quarter, NFL security considered advising the Raiders to end alcohol sales at halftime. Kickoff was scheduled for 1:25 p.m. local time.
“They were not unprepared,” Miller said in a telephone interview, but no matter the planning and reinforcements, police were nonetheless called to investigate 49 incidents — the fifth-highest total in any regular season NFL game between 2011 and 2015.
A moment after Oakland quarterback Derek Carr passed for a touchdown, a woman in the upper deck stood to cheer. A man sitting behind her, a police report described, shoved her so hard she flipped over the next row, landing face-first on a seat and opening a five-inch cut on her forehead. When the woman’s boyfriend turned, the man behind him shrugged: “Sorry, bro,” he said.
[Archives: Health and safety in the NFL]
Shortly after the game, a 24-13 Raiders victory, a man was beaten in the parking lot, left bleeding from the head and “gravely disabled” from his injuries, a police report said. Another man entered the property carrying brass knuckles, a narcotics pouch went missing from a first-aid station, one BMW with a custom Raiders paint job was intentionally scratched, and another vehicle had a window broken.
On this day, police recorded 21 cases of disorderly conduct and at least 25 people ended their game day in the nearby Santa Rita jail.
Tailgaters at FedEx Field before a “Monday Night Football” game between the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys in December 2015. Arrests increase at games starting at 4 p.m. or later. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
A significant problem, particularly in some locations, is that there is disagreement among the league, teams and local enforcement on who is ultimately responsible for fan safety.
Casey Nice, an assistant sheriff in California’s Alameda County, is in charge of overseeing the game-day security operation at all Raiders games at Oakland Coliseum. He said he was surprised the Coliseum ranked near the top in terms of arrests, insisting security is more of an emphasis at the stadium than it was years ago and that more arrests could reflect the team’s zero-tolerance policy.
He also defended Raiders fans and believes their reputation as aggressive is largely outdated. That conflicts with what police data suggests: The Raiders tend to increase arrests at stadiums wherever they play; at the average away game for Oakland, arrests go up by 70 percent, according to The Post’s survey, among the highest in the league for road teams. Arrests also tend to go up when the Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers play road games, according to the data.
Though Nice would not reveal how many officers are staffed for each scheduled Raiders game — teams’ security plans are not typically made public — he said it’s common to enlist more personnel for potentially volatile contests, such as division contests or night games.
Nice said he’s in occasional contact with the NFL league office, and he attends the league’s security seminar each year. But he has not received a list of the NFL’s “best practices,” though Nice said that’s just as well.
He believes local officials are better equipped to understand the needs of each NFL stadium than someone 3,000 miles away in the league office, which he said is prone to overreaction.
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“I’m in the security business,” Nice said. “They’re in the entertainment business.”
The Washington Post submitted public records requests to police departments that oversee security at each NFL stadium. Twenty-nine of the 31 jurisdictions provided at least partial data, though reporting methods differed from agency to agency; Cleveland and New Orleans did not submit data. Certain data were omitted if found to be incomplete or unreliable. Among those jurisdictions sending partial arrest figures for home games between 2011 and 2015 were Buffalo, Miami and Oakland. St. Louis provided only year-by-year arrest data, rather than game-by-game numbers. Detroit, Minneapolis and Atlanta did not provide data for arrests that took place in stadium parking lots.
View the full data.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/a-quietly-escalating-issue-for-nfl-fan-violence-and-how-to-contain-it/2016/10/28/4ec37964-9470-11e6-bb29-bf2701dbe0a3_story.html
Fan dies after falling while leaving Texans-Broncos game
- Published: Oct. 25, 2016 at 02:09 p.m.
- Updated: Oct. 26, 2016 at 10:07 a.m.
- 0 Likes | 0 Comments
DENVER — Authorities say a fan has died after falling 30 to 50 feet at the Denver Broncos‘ stadium after a game on Monday night.
Stadium Management Co., which operates Sports Authority Field at Mile High, said the fan fell over a stairwell railing.
The medical examiner’s office said Tuesday the man was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.
His name has not been released and a Denver police spokesman did not immediately provide details about the investigation.
The incident occurred near the north end of the stadium following the Broncos‘ game against the Houston Texans.
The Broncos issued the following statement:
“The Denver Broncos are extremely saddened to learn that Jason Coy, the fan who fell over a stairwell railing at Monday night’s game, has passed away. Along with Stadium Management Company, we extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to his family and friends.
“Providing a safe, enjoyable environment for guests at Sports Authority Field at Mile High is the top priority for the Broncos and SMC. We’re reviewing this tragic incident and will continue to maintain all necessary safety measures for our fans.”
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000727853/article/fan-dies-after-falling-while-leaving-texansbroncos-game
Three years after Boston bombings, marathons still hold their breath
Brent Schrotenboer , USA TODAY Sports 3:37 a.m. EDT October 6, 2016
Perhaps no sporting event in the world is harder to safeguard from terrorism than a giant footrace in a big city.
It’s practically impossible. Unlike stadiums with limited access points, major marathons spread themselves out over 26.2-mile courses near skyscrapers and subways. In Chicago and New York this month and next, they also will have at least 35,000 runners watched by more than a million spectators, all subject to countless risks during an event that lasts several hours.
“The security apparatus continues to hold its breath to get through these events,” said Jim Reese, a former U.S. Army Delta Force officer and current private security consultant.
Just last month, a pipe bomb exploded in a trash can along the course of a 5K charity race in New Jersey. No one was hurt.
And now comes the next test, on Sunday at the Chicago Marathon, where much has changed to ease the breathing since the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.
Like other marathons, Chicago has significantly beefed up its defense systems, including a stronger law enforcement presence on the course, more rigorous checkpoints in populous areas and added surveillance cameras that now number more than 22,000 across the city, according to one estimate.
By those measures, marathons are safer than ever. But the threat is never zero in a free society, no matter how much of a police state these cities become on race days. It’s all still a guessing game of sorts, rooted in fear. Since Boston, the guessing at marathons now is just better organized, more focused and more expensive, according to officials and experts contacted by USA TODAY Sports.
“There’s a whole grid structure that we’ve built so we can identify any one spot that is a concern,” said Peter Ciaccia, race director of the TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 6. “It’s a big, big area. So we’ve broken this up into lots of little (parts). As you can imagine, it’s a big jigsaw puzzle. The way it’s put together, we look like Fort Wadsworth.”
Backpacks and best practices
Despite the added brains and brawn, a homegrown terrorist with no prior record still might have little trouble infiltrating the event as a spectator or runner. Some might even try buying access to sensitive areas through a private security company staffer, a scenario that was demonstrated in a troubling case at a Chicago Bears game last year.
One big difference now, since Boston, is that such possibilities are discussed and defended against in a more collaborative and organized way through the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, also known as NCS4.
Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion. (Photo: Charles Krupa, AP)
Before Boston, NCS4 director Lou Marciani primarily concerned himself with the security of sports stadiums. That was the big nightmare scenario for decades — a possible bombing in a crowded stadium, as was depicted in Black Sunday, a movie that came out in 1977.
“I didn’t even put two and two together back then,” Marciani told USA TODAY Sports. “I was worried about the other stuff (stadiums), and none of us paid really attention to marathons until it happened from that perspective.”
After Boston, NCS4 now consults with top marathon officials and has an annual summit with industry leaders to discuss best practices, this year scheduled for Dec. 12-14 in Biloxi, Miss. It also has developed a 162-page “best practices” guide for the marathon and endurance events industry, a checklist to help maximize security, including the encouragement of background checks for security personnel, the use of uniform and plainclothes officers and tightened access at the start and finish line areas.
In Chicago, one of the new initiatives since Boston is that only registered runners showing their race bibs can enter the start and finish line area in Grant Park before the start. All people entering Grant Park must go through a security screening throughout the day, and spectator access to the finish line is limited to ticketed guests only.
Similar measures are in place at other marathons. In 2013, at Boston, the bombers carried bombs in backpacks, which exploded outside a secured area near the finish line, killing three and injuring more than 260. The Boston Marathon now urges spectators to leave backpacks at home. It has enhanced screening near the finish line and added more plainclothes officers who are trained in detecting the behavior of a would-be bomber, said Lt. Mike McCarthy of the Boston Police Department. NCS4 urges marathons to consider banning backpacks, among other items.
“Certainly the implementation of best practices now associated with the start/finish line would have mitigated risk (at Boston in 2013) but could not have guaranteed that event would not have happened,” Marciani said.
Eyes in the sky
With marathons, “you just don’t ever have enough manpower” to secure them, said Reese, the security consultant at TigerSwan, based in North Carolina.
To make the most of what they have, marathon officials coordinate and plan security operations with local, state and federal authorities, who help with intelligence. Ciaccia said the security, medical and emergency management budget for the New York City Marathon has doubled since Boston to more than $1 million.
“There are a lot more resources that are put into this,” said Carey Pinkowski, race director of the Bank of American Chicago Marathon. “For us, federal agencies play a bigger role. They were involved and partners before Boston, but obviously are front and center now.”
The marathons also have access to more cameras, which helped identify the Boston bombers in 2013, as well the suspect in the recent bombings in New York and New Jersey.
The scene at the start line of the 2013 Chicago Marathon, the city’s first marathon after the Boston Marathon bombings. (Photo: Nam Y. Huh, AP)
About 150 cameras have been added to the Boston portion of the Boston Marathon, McCarthy said. Three years ago, Chicago authorities had access to an estimated 22,000 cameras. That’s increased by an unspecified number since.
Authorities “have a network of surveillance cameras that they use and can see the majority of the marathon course,” Pinkowski said.
The idea is not to just catch criminals after the crime, but to let them know they’re being watched and to locate problem spots or medical emergencies on race day.
“There are not many major cities where you don’t have cameras all over the place,” Reese said. “They help deter.”
The tradeoff for this expansion of surveillance technology is a reduction in privacy. Government is watching more and more. It’s a matter of what the public finds acceptable in exchange for safety.
Surveillance cameras “are part of a larger and growing system of electronic surveillance that increasingly turns our private lives into open books,” said Adam Schwartz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends civil liberties in the digital age.
Soft spots
In 2013, USA TODAY Sports published an investigation about the private security companies hired to screen bags and search spectators at stadium entrance points. The investigation found the private security industry is loosely regulated and that workers for such companies sometimes have criminal backgrounds and are classified as “event staff” instead of security guards to avoid licensing and training requirements.
Last November, Chicago police arrested two private security company workers at a Bears game, accusing them of conspiring to sell access to the stadium to two undercover officers for $80. Neither of the employees for Monterrey Security had a security guard license, and both had records for drug arrests, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“The possibility of a massive tragedy is not lost upon the court,” Judge Anthony John Calabrese said at the trial of one of the employees this year. “By giving these wristbands or selling those bands to any individual for profit, it allows any dangerous individual to gain access and puts the citizens of this community at danger, and it has to be viewed in the context of this dangerous world.”
The CEO of the company, Juan Gaytan, said those employees didn’t need to be licensed because they were not guards but instead were involved in “guest services,” the Sun-Times reported. A stadium official said the situation was rectified to prevent this from happening again, and Gaytan said the employees were fired.
The judge still acquitted one of the workers, saying there wasn’t enough evidence against him. A warrant was issued earlier this year for the other worker, the one who allegedly sold the cops access.
That same security company is involved in securing the Chicago Marathon. It issued a statement to USA TODAY Sports about the Bears game incident:
“No one got in the stadium that day who wasn’t supposed to. No one,” the statement said. “Our layers of security were tested that day and they were proven to work. Unfortunately, every company has employees who fail to meet expectations. But, like most companies, Monterrey has far more employees who exceed expectations — including those Monterrey employees who were challenged at the gates, but who never allowed security to be breached.”
Though it may have been an isolated incident with no harm done, it demonstrates the soft spots that might be out there for exploitation. NCS4 urges background screening on all staff and contractors. Its goal is to mitigate risk, even though it can’t eliminate it completely.
“I can’t tell you something can’t happen in the New York Marathon this year,” said Marciani of the NCS4. “It could be a truck coming off the Brooklyn Bridge or something and crash into 150 spectators. We have to think like that all the time, and they are.”
Reese, the former Delta Force officer, said marathons and triathlons “are probably the hardest sporting event to secure in a free society.”
They’ve still come a long way in the three years since Boston. There were no arrests at the past two Boston Marathons, McCarthy said, “Not even for public drinking.” Likewise, officials for the New York and Chicago Marathons credited law enforcement for their enhanced safety.
“We have participants from all 50 states that are coming to Chicago and 130 countries,” said Pinkowksi of the Chicago Marathon. “It’s a special day, but it’s like every other day. So attention to detail, vigilance, focus and staying on top of it is what drives the confidence I have, and our organization has, that we’ll have a safe and secure event.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2016/10/05/chicago-marathon-security-boston-bombings/91557970/
Ravens Fan Showing Signs Of Improvement After Stadium Fight With Raiders Fans (UPDATED)
Ravens Fan Showing Signs Of Improvement After Stadium Fight With Raiders Fans (UPDATED)
Suspects charged with first- and second-degree assault.
UPDATE 3:25 p.m. ― The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday afternoon that Joseph Bauer had showed signs of improvement, giving doctors a thumbs up at their request. “We have been encouraged by some signs we believe indicate he recognizes his wife,” his sister told the Sun.
PREVIOUSLY:
Joseph Bauer, a 55-year-old Baltimore Ravens fan, remained “unresponsive” Monday after a stadium fight in Baltimore Sunday with two Oakland Raiders supporters, according to reports. The two suspects, Scott Smith, 30, of Mount Vernon, New York, and Andrew Nappi, 31, of Eastchester, New York, were charged with first- and second-degree assault and released on bond.
Bauer, a former Marine from the Baltimore suburb of Jessup, has been unconscious since the incident during the Ravens-Raiders game at M&T Bank Stadium.
“We’re clinging to hope,” Susan Bauer, his sister, told the Baltimore Sun. “He’s still not responsive and not awake, and we don’t know the extent of his brain damage. The doctors said it was consistent with a major stroke.”
According to a police report cited by the Sun, Nappi said an argument started, then Bauer threw a bottle at Smith’s head and Nappi punched Bauer in the face. Bauer’s wife, Sharon, said Smith pushed her husband to the ground where he hit his head.
Scott Smith and Andrew Nappi face first- and second-degree assault charges for a stadium fight that left Joseph Bauer with a severe brain injury.
“Two individuals had become involved in a verbal altercation with our victim,” Lt. Jarron Jackson of Baltimore Police Department said in a CBS Baltimore news segment. “That verbal altercation became physical. And at some point, the victim was pushed on the ground where he struck his head.”
CBS reported that the encounter may have been the result of a good deed by Bauer. His sister told the station that he let someone cut in line at a concession stand, which sparked an argument with the two suspects.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh offered “sympathies and condolences” to Bauer and his family.
“Here’s a man and a family that have been longtime season ticket holders, that know the people here that work in the building, that love the Ravens and have been to countless numbers of games at M&T Bank Stadium without incident,” Harbaugh said. “Then all of a sudden, there’s an incident where a gentleman is assaulted by somebody. That’s just not what we’re about. We’re a family. It’s a family atmosphere.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ravens-fan-unreponsive-after-stadium-fight-two-men-charged_us_57f39a0ce4b01b16aafecd74
Man wielding machete killed after entering Colorado athletic department (Updated)
Graham Watson, 10/5/16
The man wielding a machete in the Colorado athletic department was shot and killed by police, according to a statement by the CU Boulder Police Department.
Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre told the Jim Rome Show his team was on the practice field when the incident occurred.
“We were on the practice field, fortunately,” MacIntyre said. “He was in our building. I don’t know all the details of it at all. I’m still on lockdown as I talk to you. We’re not allowed to go up into our building. I’m on the first floor. We were at practice. It didn’t affect any of that. Our young men have just left the room, and we can leave here in a little bit. It’s still in the middle of it, so to speak.
“But our protocol and everything worked exactly like it should. All of our athletes, all of our employees are safe. It was really a scary situation, no doubt.”
MacIntyre said there were other football employees in the building when the man entered. He said the coaches were made aware of the incident and to stay where they were.
“The first thing that went through my mind when I heard, I was in the middle of practice, they called down and said we couldn’t leave practice and just to keep going,” MacIntyre said. “All the ambulances and stuff were going by. My first reaction was that I hope everyone’s safe in our building. We still had employees in the building, especially the football employees working our recruiting, all the different aspects.
“All of them are OK. I was very concerned and made sure everyone was safe and OK. Everyone is, so that’s very good.”
Athletic director Rick George announced shortly after the incident that no one other than the machete-wielding man was injured.
** Original Story **
Police shot a man Wednesday who entered the Colorado athletic department offices wielding a machete.
According to reports and tweets from University of Colorado Police, a text came into the police department a little after 9 a.m. alerting authorities to come to the Champions Center, a facility near Folsom Field that houses the Colorado athletic department, including the school’s football coaches. By 9:23 a.m., police had cornered the man in a stairwell and, according to the police scanner, he was shot in the lower back and taken into custody.
CU police officials would not reveal the condition of the suspect or whether anyone was injured. It also would not confirm whether shots were fired.
We will update this post when more is known about the condition of those involved.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/man-wielding-machete-shot-after-entering-colorado-athletic-department-163932643.html
Homegrown terrorists to target concerts, sporting events, Homeland Security warns
Homegrown terrorists to target concerts, sporting events, Homeland Security warns
Top counterterrorism official says Islamic State’s ability to strike in U.S. not ‘significantly diminished’
The nation’s top counterterrorism official testified Tuesday that the world’s army of terrorists is “broader, wider and deeper than any point since 9/11,” the day al Qaeda attacked America.
Nicholas Rasmussen, who directs the National Counterterrorism Center, said the Islamic State may be losing ground in Iraq and Syria but its ability to strike abroad, including in the U.S., “has not thus far been significantly diminished.”
The nation is facing a phase in which people quickly radicalize and launch simple but deadly attacks before authorities have time to detect them, he said.
His testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee conflicts with upbeat reports from the White House, which has focused on territorial losses in Syria and Iraq as signs that the Islamic State is being defeated.
“Even ISIL’s leaders know they’re going to keep losing,” President Obama said in August. “In their message to followers, they’re increasingly acknowledging that they may lose Mosul and Raqqa, and ISIL is right … they will lose them. And we’ll keep hitting them and pushing them back and driving them out until they do.”
The Islamic State group, also known as ISIL, ISIS and Daesh, has set up its so-called capital in Raqqa, Syria, and controls Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/sep/27/homegrown-terrorists-target-concerts-sporting-even/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_source=socialnetwork