#CapitalDistrict #9/11 #FirstResponders #DiegoCagara #SpotlightNews
ALBANY — The 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks showcased how Americans collectively remember the tragedy and how it dramatically impacted their lives. But while the public generally gathered to pay tribute that Tuesday to the fallen heroes and victims, many had also banded together earlier this year to bring up how the constantly real danger of terrorism remains a legitimate concern.
A Pew Research Center survey, conducted from Jan. 10 to 15 this year, revealed that “73 percent of U.S. adults said defending the country against future terrorist attacks should be a top priority for President Donald Trump and Congress.” The next two top priorities were to enhance the educational system and improve the country’s economy, scoring 72 percent and 71 percent respectively.
The Pew Research Center defines itself as “a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.” While there are over 320 million people living in the U.S. today, the survey did not yield the exact number of adults who took the survey.
Terrorism itself, as a concept, can mean different things to people.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple noted that there indeed are different types of terrorism.
“Obviously, many everyday people are concerned about global terrorism, as in someone from abroad comes in to commit heinous acts and leave a significant impact on our community,” he said. “But people tend to forget about domestic terrorism. We can’t take our eye off that ball as well.”
Concerning domestic terrorism, he believed that there are many people already from and within the U.S. who are capable of being terrorists, specifically citing the example of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing where two domestic terrorists attacked the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One hundred and sixty eight people were confirmed dead while almost 700 more were injured, making it the deadliest domestic terrorist act to date.
“Terrorism is often assumed to be just foreigners coming in to attack but it’s much more broad as a term.”
Victor Asal, Chair of the Department of Public Administration and a University at Albany political science professor who focuses on political violence, among other subjects, defined terrorism as “the use of violence intentionally targeting civilians by state and non-state actors.”
Furthermore, he similarly echoed Apple’s views in that the public focuses too much on international terrorism “but we need to focus on extremism and racist groups within the country too. Certain events like 9/11 catch people’s attention, yet people don’t think about other issues because they’re not smacked in their faces, unlike when watching people die on TV.”
However, Asal personally believed that while terrorism should remain high on the government’s priority list, there are other pressing issues to address too, such as unemployment, healthcare and poverty.
Some ways Asal said the government has tried addressing terrorism include the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) maintaining airport security and how there have been investigations into extremist organizations within the nation, something which should continue.
Apple added that there is a Joint Terrorism Task Force where different task forces work together, share data, bulletins and information, which is a step forward since mainly prior to 9/11, “the federal government did not communicate as well with the local government,” in regards to attacks and terrorism.
Brian Nussbaum, an assistant professor at UAlbany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity who specializes in topics includng terrorism, risk and intelligence analysis, agreed with Apple’s last statement in that it’s much better that both federal and state governments work together.
He said that there has been much work done to address terrorism in the military, state department, risk and intelligence agencies, and in law enforcement across federal and state levels.
Nussbaum brought up that another example of how policies have changed since 2001, for example, how cockpit doors are locked on airplanes now.
“It is a very, very low cost policy which has lots of payoff,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt people’s liberty too much and it does make it much tougher for those who wanted to use airplanes as weapons.”
While there has not been any genuine terrorist threat in the Capital District, all three collectively agreed that the public should not be complacent about that.
“This is a city with a somewhat dense population so people may say it’s safe up here like, ‘I’m lucky I don’t live down in New York City where it always happens,’” said Apple. “But back in 9/11, some of those [terrorists] came through this area. That shows you that if they changed their plans or weren’t able to go to New York, they could’ve stayed and attacked here instead.”
Apple encouraged continuing with active shooter training to educate the public about what to do in such a situation, and the local law enforcement agencies participating in as much training as possible.
“We sit down, discuss and plan how to do the training, and then we try to do it and later follow up with reality-based exercises,” he said. “Examples are live drills at the airport, mall or different congregated areas. From there, that’s where you can find results and room for improvement.”
According to Nussbaum, more Americans die from heart disease and car accidents than terrorism, and “it’s important to keep various risks in perspective.”
Regarding the public, the first thing is that they should still remain cautious and follow the “See Something, Say Something” mindset.
“That mindset goes for things beyond just terrorism,” said Nussbaum. “If you see something suspicious, it’s completely appropriate to report it, even if it relates to just criminal activity.”
Apple also emphasized the importance of that mindset. “Everyone should also have a family emergency plan if,” he said. “God forbid, something happens. It’s helpful to set a rendezvous to meet up if people get split up and have like a waterproof pack that can hold Social Security cards, passports and other important documents.”
The second thing is to not resort to Islamophobia and assume that all terrorists are enacted by those who do it in the name of the Islamic faith.
“I hate when people resort to that,” said Asal. “Because it’s not all Muslims who do the attacks, it’s specific individuals. It’s the same way with racist white Christian brotherhoods like the KKK [Ku Klux Klan] who say they do what they do for God. You don’t see people blaming all Christians and Christianity itself for their actions. That type of mindset is wrong and counterproductive.”
Believing that “people need to get over that mindset,” Apple said he has a Muslim friend and “it’s heart wrenching to see people post negatively on Facebook, for example, about Muslims and she was upset at looking at them. Anybody can be a bad person, there’s no discrimination in hate.”
Nussbaum also pointed out that most Muslim communities have both rejected extremist groups’ ideologies and even given tips and assistance to local law enforcement. “While the 9/11 attackers were inspired by Islamist ideology, there are other ideologies out there. One of the things we find is that terrorism is conducted by all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons.”
The third thing the public should acknowledge is that terrorism does not necessarily have to be comprehensive like 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, where attacks required careful planning, time and coordination to execute. Terrorism can also occur in more lowkey and random situations.
Examples are having an improvised explosive device, stabbing random people in the streets or driving a vehicle through pedestrian-heavy walkways to purposely kill and even damage property, incidents of which have made the news in recent years.
“There’s always bad guys out there and with whatever easy and accessible means to do it, they’ll try,” said Apple. “It’s not that terrorism has evolved from huge to smaller attacks. It’s a matter of accessibility to means.”
While Asal believed that smaller-scale terrorist attacks are more common than larger ones, Nussbaum added that people who have no access to bombs, assault weapons or terrorist groups, are more likely to resort to readily-accessible means like knives or a vehicle to run people over.
“The fact that there are more small-scale attacks means we are winning in terms of counterterrorism,” he said. “As people are left to commit attacks that are simpler in nature, which in itself is of course tragic, it generally shows that our counterterrorism efforts to prevent large-scale ones are effective.”
While 9/11 may be almost two decades ago, its effects on the public’s mindset remains felt, and terrorism is still a hot issue. In fact, the Pew Center has found that preventing terrorist attacks has long been voted by Americans as what the government’s top priority should be in its past 17 annual surveys since January 2002 — 83 percent of Americans had voted for that that year.
“People in the entire country should always be worried,” concluded Apple. “I don’t want to say we’re fully prepared because you never know what could happen, but we’re very proud of the connections made between law enforcement and public safety. It helps to always stay alert.”
