Tuesday, May 12, 2015

WTHR Gets Around To Report Indy's Loss Of Homeland Security Grant, Lies About Reason For Its Loss

A month ago, Advance Indiana exclusively reported that Indianapolis lost its federal Department of Homeland Security grant for the Urban Areas Securities Initiative, which means funding in DPS' budget will have to be shifted to make up for the loss funding that won't be available to fund the waste hole known as the Regional Operations Center. This is actually the second time Indianapolis has lost the funding. U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks boasted last year about getting the funding restored after it was pulled. Indianapolis lost the funding because it misrepresented how grant funds were used, Imagine that. WTHR's Sandra Chapman is now reporting what Advance Indiana readers already knew. Naturally, officials lie about the reason for the loss of funding.
Indianapolis will have $1 million less to work with to keep people safe at big events.
13 Investigates has learned the federal government cut the City from a federal grant designed to keep the peace at events like the Indianapolis 500. One member of Indiana's congressional delegation is questioning the decision.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles wants no speed bumps when it comes to safety at the largest one day racing event in the world.
Last year, he testified before a congressional committee, saying, "The most important thing we have is the safety of our fans and customers that come here. When the City of Indianapolis or the State of Indiana or even the Town of Speedway gets some sort of federal grant to help them prepare for any issue related to safety, it's important, not just for the venue but our entire community."
13 Investigates has learned a $1 million federal grant that could provide more training and technology to protect the Speedway and other venues has come up short.
Federal Emergency Management awarded 28 cities money. Indianapolis ranked 33rd and walked away empty handed.
"We're disappointed," said Indianapolis Homeland Security Chief Gary Coons. "It's based on current threats, critical infrastructure and cyber security is now becoming a bigger piece to it."
5th District Indiana Congresswoman Susan Brooks stepped in last year to help secure the $1 million.
"We've got the Indianapolis 500 coming up, we just hosted the Final Four, we have a lot of conventions and public safety is critical," said Rep. Brooks, who wants to know why cities like Portland, St. Louis and and Charlotte got money over Indianapolis.
Brooks and Congressman Andre Carson are now teaming up and asking the 11 other cities passed over from Sacramento to San Antonio and Orlando to New Orleans to get on board.
"I am just fighting and hoping to get other colleagues in Congress and help get their communities put back on the list," she said.
It's too late for 2015, but Brooks hopes Homeland Security will reconfigure its risk assessment to include Indianapolis next year.
One of the other cities that failed to get money this year is Cleveland, even though it's set to host the Republican National Convention.
I've got news for you, folks. There will never be a terrorist event at the Indianapolis 500 unless a staged event is conducted there with the cooperation of Speedway officials, the U.S. government and local officials who waste all of this money on counter-terrorism and emergency preparedness for terrorist events. Every terrorist event on U.S. soil has been planned, plotted, funded and executed by our government as an excuse to enact the Patriot Act and take away rights we were supposedly guaranteed by our U.S. Constitution. Indianapolis' Homeland Security director, Gary Coons, knows this to be true. Like a number of other officials, Coons traveled out to Boston to participate in Operation Urban Shield exercises where the Boston Marathon bombing was planned and practiced. A photo Coons uploaded to Facebook with Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis at the training exercise has subsequently been removed from the Internet. Many officials aware of the purpose of these exercises have declined continued participation in them because they want no part in the fraud on the American people they've become. Just like the ROC lease was a fraud on Indianapolis taxpayers so are these billions of dollars our government wastes on counter-terrorism, which have and always will be the making of our own government. You want to end terrorism? Stop funding our overseas adventures and all of these wasted expenditures on homeland security.

Homeland Security Chief Gary Coons with the City of Boston Police Commissioner during 2011 Urban Shield in Boston, Massachusetts.http://yfrog.com/h05taivj

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Susan Brooks helping the city get funding to pay for her husband's client's lease of the ROC. Thanks, Susan.