When Public Servants Attack

You can file this one under "How Not to Conduct an Emergency Drill".

Some brainiac at the Elizabethton/Carter County (Tennessee) Emergency Management Agency thought it would be a good idea to conduct a mock "terrorism" drill at the Carter County Commission meeting on Monday. From the Elizabethton Star:

Armed gunmen took two Carter County Sheriff Department deputies and the Carter County Commission hostage Monday shortly after 7 p.m. Audience members watched in disbelief as three armed men and one armed woman threatened everyone in the Carter County Courthouse with guns and a bomb that was allegedly placed in the building to deter anyone from escaping.

The four armed people, along with a few other unarmed citizens, frightened everyone who was not made aware that the mock situation was a drill, conducted by the Elizabethton/Carter County Emergency Management Agency...

One perpetrator demanded, "No more wheel tax! I am in control today! No more wheel tax!"

A man and a woman held guns to the backs of deputies stationed at the rear and side entrances of the courtroom. Another gunman waived a pistol while preventing people from exiting the back door. Fearful commissioners watched in disbelief while waiting for an official to take control of the situation.

The commission and audience members braced for the worst possible scenario while the gunmen screamed about not raising property taxes, chanting, "No wheel tax! No wheel tax!"

Audience members were unaware of the secretly planned drill, and some fought back tears while Emergency Management Director Earnest Jackson walked calmly to the podium and informed County Mayor Dale Fair, commissioners and other officials that the hostage situation was only a drill.

My first thought upon hearing this was, how did someone not suffer a heart attack during this exercise? But, as the lovely Mrs. Holmes pointed out the other night, everyone in Elizabethton packs heat. It's pretty remarkable that someone in the crowd didn't open fire on the assailants - and they would have been well within their rights to do so. Some folks were not amused by the drill and have called in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to determine whether charges can be filed.

He (County Mayor Fair) said, "As chair I was unaware of the drill. There are proper procedures of this coming about. I know drills are serious ... and this caused our meeting to be canceled." He also described the situation as "not the proper procedure for a drill" and added the chairman and the county attorney should have been notified. "I took it very seriously," Fair said.

After calling in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Henson said, "I knew about five minutes before it happened. This should have never happened. In a place like this and at a time like this it is wrong. I have called the TBI in. It should have never happened here tonight. I am not sure of charges being placed, but there will be an investigation."

Even though I did enjoy the assailants' anti-tax sloganeering, it seems to me that the Elizabethton/Carter County (Tennessee) Emergency Management Agency may need to take out an ad in the Elizabethton Star for a new, less over-zealous Director.