Secret Service Agent’s Comment May Explain Lapse in Protection

While the story behind the firing of Kenneth Tate does give you pause and make you wonder why so many others did not lose theirs, it also may just explain why there has been quite a few lapse in protection of this nation’s first Black President.

The article titled “One Day in an Elevator With Obama, Then Out of a Job” by Michael S. Schmidt for the NY Times reports “Kenneth Tate toiled for years as a construction worker and corrections officer, and he has no doubt that his last job — working as a $42,000-a-year private security guard at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — was the best he ever had. 

The high point was an afternoon seven weeks ago when he was assigned to accompany President Obama, who was visiting the agency’s headquarters here for a briefing on the Ebola epidemic. It was not only that Mr. Tate’s bosses had entrusted him with staying close to such an important dignitary. It was that, as an African-American born in Chicago, he was going to meet the nation’s first black president, a man he deeply admired.  But by the time Mr. Obama’s visit was over, Mr. Tate was on the way to losing his job.  The Washington Examiner revealed that Mr. Obama had been on an elevator with a C.D.C. security guard who was carrying a gun in violation of Secret Service protocols.  The story added to a growing debate over whether the Secret Service was failing in its most basic duties. Some news media organizations, as well as Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, said — erroneously — that the security guard had been convicted of felonies. Mr. Tate had been arrested several times, including on charges of robbery and assault, but never convicted.”

With all of the focus upon Mr. Tate and now his son losing their jobs as well as the lapse in protection seeming to permeate through this once pristine organization, few have ever attempted to find a reason why so many mistakes are made during President Obama time in office than other presidents.  The answer ma =y be because not too many paid much attention to the lapse of protection of previous presidents and that there were as many or more mistakes by this agency before he was elected or the answer could lie in a comment by one of the Secret Service Agents who is reported to have said to Mr. Tate that “He said one of the Secret Service agents had told him that it was remarkable that Mr. Obama had talked to him, considering it had taken the president two years to acknowledge the agent.”  Imagine spending two years guarding someone who does not acknowledge you.  Could that attitude be rampant among those assigned to protect one of the most powerful men in the world?  I know that in such a high profile job, one of the most important task is to stay somewhat distant from the people you are guarding because when you get too close you can easily lose focus and spot trouble before it can reveal itself but maybe those who were feeling some way about him not acknowledging or talking to them felt that they were more than capable in having a budding relationship with those whose lives are entrusted into their hands.