Interview with former U.S. Secret Service Agent Jason Wells part 1

Inside the Law

Jason is the author of Our Path to Safety: A U.S. Secret Service Agent's Guide to Creating Safe Communities. The book outlines how citizens, school and businesses can identify and assess threat-related behaviors: > What if there was a way to identify a threat to a school, a business or a community before it happened? What attackers who target innocent people have in common is not their psychological conditions nor their social upbringing, but rather their behavioral actions prior to their violence. These behaviors have been studied at length for years, and are now available to the public. The book was inspired by the firsthand experience of a close friend in the Washington Navy Yard shooting, in September, 2013. The attacker, a 34-year-old gunman named Aaron Alexis, entered the facility in the morning and began randomly shooting, with the intent to kill as many innocent people as possible. Jason Wells is also the President and Founder of the National Advancements for Proactive Safety (NAPS), an educational non-profit organization committed to providing a safe community through intervention processes. > 09:33 “The vast, vast majority of people who have any kind of a mental health condition are not violent people” > > > 10:23 There is a mental health stigma > > 12:35 If you’re feeling that way (red flag) about another person, chances are other people are too. > > 13:00 People should feel empowered to DO something when something seems off. Don’t just ignore your instincts. > > 14:00 Emergency contacts - If you notice a problem, get those family and friend contacts involved > > 15:02 Point of Jason’s book is to teach people to observe, assess and act on potentially life-threatening situations before they result in tragic outcomes. > > 18:42 “To not say anything or not do anything is the worst thing we can do.” > > 19:33 Right now. we’re not teaching what to be watching for, or how to respond. We’re teaching reactive measures (lockdown drills, etc). > > 20:00 We’re not looking for the dangers. We’re waiting for them to come to us in our schools, workplaces, etc. > > 20:13 People are under the assumption that we cannot identify the threats before they arrive, but that’s just not the case. > > 25:25 Key risk is a sudden major negative change in their life (job loss, divorce) > > 26:45 (people say to themselves) “I’m overreacting. He’ll be fine.” > > 27:56 Cliff notes for psych conditions > > 28:21 How to teach kids to be safe around guns > > 28:49 Jason was also a firearms instructor > > 34:07 on active shootings being meticulously planned and rehearsed > > 35:09 Secret Service = proactive safety, to an extreme degree > > 37:39 Every single threat is investigated, even those on social media > > 38:18 What the law actually says about threatening the President+ (it’s a federal crime - not protected by First Amendment rights) 18 USC 871 > > 39:16 Direct and veiled (implied) threats > > 45:18 The underlying conditions of the assailants in Sandy Hook, Columbine, John Lennon, etc. are very similar, even though the targets are wildly different. > > 46:27 “(All assailants) had similar behavioral conditions. They just went after different targets.” > > 47:19 “Males tend to, typically, act out against another target. Females will act internally. They’ll internalize it and attack themselves.” > > 48:20 Amanda Todd, victim of cyberbullying and blackmail. > > 50:38 When Amanda’s video- a cry for help - went viral, and there was no change… > > 51:47 - How and why Jason is so deeply affected by Amanda and others (52:00 fatherhood + Sandy Hook) > > 52:35 On a teacher who died cradling and sheltering a child at Sandy Hook > > 53:16 “I don’t know if I would’ve felt the same way (about Sandy Hook) before I was a father, but I just don’t want to see it happen again … I want to really, like, do something about it. And I hope other people do too. And I don’t think it would take a lot if we had more people to get involved. And get involved with more proactive intervention.” >