Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

On July 13, Thomas Crooks shot at, and hit the ear of, Presidential candidate Donald Trump from a sloped roof 400 feet away. Although he failed to end the life of the former president, he murdered one rally-goer and injured multiple others. 

Multiple onlookers noticed Crooks’ presence on a nearby roof where he used a DPMS DR-15 and a rangefinder. However, the Secret Service did nothing until Crooks fired first.

This wasn’t a random failure. This wasn’t an inside job. This was one of many failures by the Secret Service to fulfill their protective duties.

History of Failure

On Aug. 18, a Secret Service agent abandoned her post without being relieved. She allegedly did so for the purpose of breastfeeding her child, but agents aren’t allowed to bring their family to work. 

A sentry abandoning their post during wartime is punishable by the death penalty. In the aftermath of an assassination attempt, similar offenses in the Secret Service should be met with something more severe than a paid vacation.

During the weekend of June 16 and 17, a Secret Service agent was robbed at gunpoint. Although he wasn’t on duty at the time, he was present to provide security for President Joe Biden. 

It’s pathetic that Secret Service agents who are trusted to protect our Commander in Chief from assassins can’t even protect themselves from a mere robber.

On July 27, during Vice President Kamala Harris’ fundraiser in Pittsfield, the Secret Service covered the cameras of Four One Three salon, a local business. They broke in and used the restroom of the salon without the owner’s consent. The Secret Service initially denied that this misconduct occurred, then apologized for it, revealing that this did in fact take place.

This isn’t a Biden problem, a Trump problem, or a Harris problem. The Secret Service’s institutional failure outlasts revolving-door presidencies.

In early April 2012, several Secret Service agents were recalled after allegedly hiring prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia during the Summit of the Americas.

On Aug. 29, 2012, a Secret Service agent left their sidearm in the restroom of Mitt Romney’s campaign jet. A CBS producer found the gun and notified the Secret Service, who recovered the pistol without further incident.

After having relations with a woman he met earlier that evening, Senior Supervisor Ignacio Zamora Jr. left a round from his P229 in a hotel room at Hay-Adams on Nov. 16, 2013.

Almost two years later, another Secret Service agent had his duty weapon stolen from his car, which was parked outside his girlfriend’s apartment.

In March 2015, two Secret Service agents – Mark Connolly and George Ogilvie – crashed a car into a White House barricade. The agents were returning from a spokesman’s farewell party. They were allowed to go home after their supervisor obstructed law enforcement’s attempt to arrest and breathalyze the drivers.

On March 10, 2017, Jonathan T. Tran carried Mace spray – an aerosolized form of CN Gas – while climbing over the fence of the White House Grounds. He spent 17 minutes in the secure zone before he was apprehended, although he did not enter the building during that time.

On Sept. 19, 2014, Omar J. Gonzales – armed with a knife – hopped the White House fence, entered the building, and ran through the East and Green Rooms before being arrested. President Obama was not there at the time.

On Nov, 11, 2011, Oscar R. Ortega-Hernandez used a rifle to fire several shots at the White House. Nobody was injured, but the bullets did damage to the building. 

A supervisor then ordered agents to stand down, claiming that the noise wasn’t gunshots. Later, the Secret Service concluded that shots were fired, but concluded that they were due to a gang shootout nearby. 

It took several days for the Secret Service to realize that the driver of a car which crashed seven blocks away, and the rifle found in that car, were related to the gunshot damage to the building. The Obama daughters were home at the time of the incident.

On May 10, 2005, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were speaking with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and First Lady Sandra Roelofs to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia. One member of the crowd bought a hand grenade concealed by a red handkerchief. Vladimir Arutyunian pulled the pin and threw the grenade at George Bush, but the handkerchief caused the grenade to malfunction. If the grenade did detonate, it would most likely have killed him.

That’s just 13 incidents that can be easily found online. Of those incidents, three were assassination attempts. Of the remaining ten, at least five were both moral and practical failures on the part of the Secret Service. The graphs below include two other incidents not on the above list.

Time for Change

The Secret Service is simply unable to regard its protective duties seriously. Whether it’s due to frat-boy culture, diversity hires, or the usual nepotism, the Secret Service does not prioritize efficacy or professionalism. There is no way to handwave away drunk driving, desertion, or disregard of basic gun safety. The Secret Service continues to have five times the NYPD’s per-personnel budget, but not even all of the money in the world can cure incompetence.

 Despite often proving itself unfit to run even a lemonade stand, the Secret Service keeps the responsibility of protecting this country’s most important officials. This is because we never consider the possibility of transferring these duties to another agency.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has sufficient manpower and equipment that would allow them to be a better protector than the Secret Service is. After all, unlike the anti-counterfeiting operations of the Secret Service, the FBI actually conducts counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations. 

The United States Marshals Service is another qualified candidate, given their history of protecting courthouses, judges, African-American students, nuclear missiles, abortion clinics, American Olympic athletes, and other targets of would-be terrorists. They have recent personal-protective experience from when they guarded Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

However, we’re stuck with a presidential protection agency which is even worse-suited for the job than Lake Forest High School would be. It’s time that we take initiative and seriously consider axing the Secret Service’s budget. If a few bills can’t threaten them into basic competence, they ought to fall into obscurity as another arm of the Treasury department.