A Nasty Little Story

Skillfully wrought...

Roman Polanski's new movie Carnage is based upon the Tony Award-winning comedy God of Carnage written by French playwright Yasmina Reza.

It takes a bitterly cynical thrill in piercing, lifting, then shredding the characters' hypocritical veneers to expose the racism, sexism, classism, and marital discord that suppurates beneath.

Powerful performances by Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet, and John C. Reilly only make the ever more vicious excoriations all the more painful.

Carnage reminds me of the similarly self-indulgent Six Degrees of Separation in that it passes as deep only to people too wrapped up in their hip urban sensibility to realize they are the characters being viciously lampooned.

Not everyone shares my dim regard for Carnage.  I passed on a chance to attend the play at the Guthrie last year because I feared it would be exactly as unpleasant as the movie turned out to be.  For some reason I entertained some hope the movie would be as engaging as it is well done.  Oh well.  When my friend asked if we could leave before it ended I was happy to go.

An Existential Threat?

To the Republic and its Citizens?

While engaging in a LinkedIn discussion at the Workplace Violence group John Byrnes invited us to visit his Aggression Management blog to review a recent post highlighting the difference between probability and predictability in workplace violence cases.

His post used the recently interrupted alleged plot by Amine El Khilifi to carry out a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol as an example for his concerns.  My initial response reads as follows:

I respectfully submit that the current Washington DC case is a poor example for your method (or any other) of aggression management. It sounds very much like most other domestic terrorism cases since 9/11 in which the alleged conspiracy was encouraged and supported by a confidential informant working under the direct control of the FBI or other agency to make certain the case contains all the elements necessary for a federal prosecution. What does your system of threat management (or anyone else's) have to say about persons who encourage others to commit unlawful violent activity for the purpose of criminal prosecution?

In his reply John issued a challenge to my perspective.  After further reflection, I wrote:

Rather than missing your point, I regret I did not make my point strongly enough.

What does your program do to detect (if not mitigate) the contribution of “Complicit Tacticians” (whether genuine or embedded by the FBI) as a potential terrorist moves through his stages of aggression?

As for your challenge “Are you prepared to absolutely guarantee that all future Islamic Radical Converts (Lone Wolves) will only approach FBI informants?” I submit that a potential terrorist who is promised cash, collaborators, guns, bombs, and missiles by FBI confidential informants is, by definition, anything but a “lone wolf.” What’s more, while the DOJ and the FBI are careful to craft cases which are resistant to the defense of entrapment, I question the wisdom and ethics of having a CI contribute to the alleged perpetrator’s ideation, encouragement to deadly action, and refinement of the plan, deliberately serving as a “Complicit Tactician,” if I understand your parlance correctly. Law enforcement plays a dangerous and potentially deadly game when it participates in terrorist conspiracies in order to prosecute them.

To that end I’ll issue a counter-challenge. Are federal law enforcement officials prepared to absolutely guarantee that a conspirator encouraged and equipped by a confidential informant will never shake his handler and engage in a murderous act which might never have seen the light of day but for the contributions made by investigators?

In closing, I added:

Finally, on closer inspection, I take issue with your opening statement:

“The greatest threat to our Nation and its Citizens is the perpetrator of murder/suicide, whether a ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorist or simply the individual who shoots his estranged wife at a local supermarket then walks out to the parking lot and kills himself; a phenomenon that we are seeing on the rise in every community.”

By what measure is lone wolf terrorism or intimate partner workplace violence an existential threat to the republic or its citizens? And by what measure do you claim that acts of either type are on the rise in every community?

UPDATE: John responded at the LinkedIn group in part:

"You ask the question, 'By what measure is lone wolf terrorism or intimate partner workplace violence an existential threat to the republic or its citizens?' I have not stated, nor suggested, that lone wolves are an existential threat to our republic. I have stated that among human aggressors, the perpetrator of murder/suicide is the most lethal."

I suppose I could have read his statement that way...maybe I'm getting too twitchy on this topic.  John responded to my other points directly at his blog.  I'm going to reflect further on this.

A Work in Progress

You are welcome to tag along as my Secure360 talk takes shape...

Title (nine words maximum)

Mindsets and Toolkits: Thinking Positively About Security

Summary (150 words maximum)

Security managers have personal, professional, and institutional biases that affect the way we see the world, evaluate hazards, and communicate risk.  We’re frequently conservative and hierarchical and more risk averse that the executives who rely on us to guide their business decisions.  Often we’re so focused on making sure bad things don’t happen we forget we are also responsible for making sure the right things do.  This sets us apart from peers in other business disciplines.  We’ll examine the means by which we to approach the security process with a sense of corporate responsibility, critical thinking, and resist using fear as a lever.  We’ll look behind the headlines for important clues for how our mindset is reflected in the way we approach the services we offer and look at skills we can add to our personal, professional, and institutional tool kit that make us more effective business partners.

Bio (100 words maximum)

Michael Brady is a life-long security leadership professional.  He has provided security, safety, and emergency management services at semiconductor and computer manufacturing firms, as an independent security consultant, and as an executive for security service providers.  Currently an account manager, consultant, and trainer for Hannon Security Services Inc, Michael is also an adjunct instructor in the Security Management program at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota School of Graduate and Professional Programs.  Michael recently completed his Master of Arts in Human Development degree where he focused on issues of leadership, team building, and problem solving.  

Bill Whitmore's Book Has Hit the Bookstores

I note with concern that Mr. Whitmore is still using the raw numbers to make his case...

"Every day, on average, two people are killed and 87 injured as a result of a workplace violence incident, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics."

In the mean time BLS 2010 preliminary workplace injury and fatality statistics read as follows...

There were 808 deaths due to "assaults and violent acts" (homicides, suicides, and animal attacks) at work in 2010.
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0250.pdf

506 work-related homicides in 2010 (1.38 per day, on average).
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0255.pdf

258 workplace suicides in 2010.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm

Workplace homicides 2010 were at their lowest since 1992.
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf

Workplace suicides in 2010 were at their third highest since 1992 (2009 and 2008 were first and second highest, respectively).
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm

The very thorough NCCI 2012 report Violence in the Workplace provides more details...

69% of workplace homicides are committed during robberies.
https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf

<2% of all workplace injuries are the result of assault.
https://www.ncci.com/documents/Workplace_Research.pdf

Perhaps Mr. Whitmore is using the raw numbers to shock consumers into buying his book so they have a chance to absorb his more positive and proactive leadership message.  Perhaps he is concerned that readers would not be so strongly motivated if they knew that killings perpetrated by customers, coworkers, or intimate partners represented 157 deaths in 2010 (3% of all workplace fatalities).

"Every 2.3 days one person is killed in what most people think of as a workplace violence incident." is not nearly so catchy a tagline as one taken from the aggregated statistics (which include robbery-homicides and workplace suicides).

Once Mr. Whitmore hooks his reader does he break down the numbers into the multifaceted problems they represent? Does he address workplace suicide, which accounts for about a third of all workplace deaths due to assaults and violent acts? Does Mr. Whitmore address the 61% of workplace injuries caused by healthcare patients and residents of healthcare facilities?  I'll have to buy Potential: Workplace Violence Prevention and Your Organizational Success and let you know.

Consider it added to my 2012 reading list...

UPDATE: On order 23 February 2012.

REUPDATE: In the mail 25 February 2012. 

UPDATE: Arrived 27 February 2012.  Snappy service; can't tell it was printed on demand.

REUPDATE: Submitted my review of the book to Security Management magazine for their consideration 4 March 2012.

LATEST UPDATE: Security Management had already assigned Whitmore's book to a reader - who has several months to complete it (which means you all won't see it there until later this summer sometime).  Barry Nixon asked if he could publish it in the April issue of The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport, and so he shall.

Silene Stenophylla

Time Traveler...

Ed Yong tells us in his Discover Magazine Not Exactly Rocket Science blog post that the seeds of this flowering plant have "been buried to a depth of 38 metres, and frozen for around 31,800 years" in Russian permafrost.  Reports on the methods by which which this plant was revived from its thirty millennia of slumber are recounted in many media outlets.

What amazes me is how something so hardy could also be so delicate and beautiful. 

Photo credit: Russian Academy of Sciences