Security Awareness

ATTORNEY SHOOTS HIS TWO FELLOW ATTORNEYS AT PROMINENT LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA LAW FIRM’S HOLIDAY PARTY Updated: Jan. 8, 2018

Posted on January 10, 2018 10:15 am by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

ATTORNEY SHOOTING IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA – SHOOTER HITS TWO FELLOW
ATTORNEYS AT PROMINENT CELEBRITY LAW FIRM’S HOLIDAY PARTY

Updated: Jan. 9, 2018

The Long Beach, Calif. Police Department named John Alexander Mendoza, 58, of Redondo Beach, Calif., as the man who shot his two colleagues, one died at the scene, and other was injured at the scene, on Friday afternoon, January 5, 2018.

Attorneys at the Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin, Mendoza and Harrison firm in the Long Beach neighborhood of Bixby Knolls, were attending the firm’s holiday party, when Mendoza entered the offices shooting.

Major A. Langer, the firm’s Managing Partner, 75, was killed and Ronald Beck, 64, was wounded in what police called a workplace violence incident. After shooting Langer and Beck, Mendoza turned the gun on himself. The shooting occurred during a holiday party at the firm when others were present.

Mendoza had apparently been fired earlier in the day, but returned to the firm’s party. On a report of an active shooter, Long Beach police officers swarmed to the office building. Believing an active shooter was still at work, police formed a small team and quickly went into the office looking for the gunman and any victims, according to a police source briefed on the incident. As they scoured the building, police reportedly came upon multiple groups of screaming and crying workers still hiding or trying to flee, but eventually confirmed the gunman was dead.

The firm has eleven offices in southern California and represented clients including Motley Crue, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee.

Mendoza had worked at Perona Langer Beck for 10 years, said Michael Waks, a lawyer who also has offices in the same building where Perona Langer Beck is located in Long Beach. Mendoza specialized in workers compensation cases.

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DOD moves military bases to a higher alert status

Posted on May 8, 2015 6:37 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

In an unusual move today, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) raised the security level at
U.S. military bases because of the increasing concerns about possible attacks by ISIS (ISIL).

While the DOD cited no specific threat, they did refer to the recent attack in Garland, Texas,
(last Tuesday), after ISIS claimed responsibility for the Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest
featuring cartoons about “the Prophet”.

The threat level was raised to ‘Bravo’ level, and it’s worth noting that it’s the first time the
threat level has been that high since the anniversary of the 911 attacks on September 11,
2011, which was the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks.

A higher threat level could mean 100% ID checks at the entrance to all military bases, including
air force bases, army bases, navy and marine bases. It also puts base military police on alert
to be highly situationally aware, including investigating anything they see that might be
terms “suspicious”. The FBI will also increase surveillance of suspected pro-ISIS individuals.

Persistent stories have been focusing on the Texas border, which may be harboring an
ISIS camp, and the right wing media has reported that an ISIS camp may be sending their
soldiers into the US on specific missions. Although this has been widely discredited by
officials, some circles are reporting a link to the Army’s Operation Jade Helm, a massive
military drill across nine states, which is slated for July 15th, to September 15th, 2015.

We encourage individuals to be situationally alert AT ALL TIMES, and a increase
in military alert levels would certainly be something to note.

Putin Analyzes his Risk on Invading Crimea

Posted on March 3, 2014 9:40 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

The invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea region by Putin’s “un-labeled” troops
illustrated two major principles of a Risk Assessment.

#1 – Secure your Critical Assets First

It’s not about the citizens of Crimea, not about the Ukraine wheat fields, or
even it’s use as a pipeline pass-through area. It’s all about the Black Sea
Ports. These ports are absolutely critical to Russia (and also to PUTIN
– the EGO), because they are a critical place to ship gas and oil from,
and they also give Russia their only access to the Mediterranean,
in case Putin urgently needs a gelato!

The second principle of a risk assessment is

#2 – Analyze all the Potential Threats

I read a great article over the weekend about how Putin had sized up the
EU and the European bankers, and calculated that the threat of any interruption
of the Russian-European banking relationship was zilch – zero. Bankers are
not going to reduce their profits by refusing to do business with Putin.

The next potential threat is U.S. retaliation or sanctions. Putin correctly
calculates that the US didn’t get out of Iraq and almost out of Afghanistan
to immediately send any boots on the ground to Crimea or eastern Ukraine.
We can threaten to curtail his trips to Vegas and Disneyland, but the U.S.
is not going to start a war over this.

Putin did his risk calculation and decided that his chance of getting in any
serious trouble was VERY SMALL and his potential gain was VERY HIGH:

1. He gets to look like a tough guy again.

2. He gets lot of media attention from the whole world (doesn’t care what
media writes about him, as long as they spell P*U*T*I*N correctly and
gets him back on the world stage again.

3. And, the clincher is that he can pull the troops out anytime he wants,
send them back home, and no real harm done.

But I did pay attention in my history class, and I am hoping out loud that
we are not on the precipice of another war!

3 Killed, 4 Others Injured at Columbia, MD Mall Shooting

Posted on January 26, 2014 9:42 am by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Saturday morning at the Columbia Mall, in this neat, planned community was cold and many people decided
to go to the mall! Columbia, Maryland is a large mall, situated between Washington DC and Baltimore
in the Maryland suburbs. I’ve been there frequently – in fact, last month.

Unfortunately, at 11:15 in the morning, a young man entered the mall and started shooting. Some witnesses
said he was shooting down into the Food Court from the 2nd Level. The shots were centered in a surf, skateboard
and snowboarder store called Zumiez.

Two young people were killed, store employees, Brianna Benlolo, 21, of College Park, MD; and Tyler Johnson
25, of Ellicott City, MD, and a man police identified as the shooter. He had killed himself, but was wearing more
ammo and had more ammo around him.

A bystander was shot in the foot, and others were injured in the chaos that started when the 8-10 shots
were fired and someone yelled, “There’s a man shooting”. But these injuries were judged to be minor.

ONE MORE ACTIVE SHOOTER. ONE MORE YOUNG MAN WITH NO MOTIVE. Seven families devastated
and looking for answers.

Again, we look at access control, and due to the NRA effect, making it ridiculously easy to carry a gun, even
a concealed gun almost anywhere, we have to start with what kind of access we should allow to public places,
like schools, malls and airports.

In a risk and reward calculation, it’s basically, does the right of an individual to take a loaded gun anywhere
they want, supersede my right to safely shop at the local mall on a Saturday morning? I think it does.

Now the burden is on the mall owners about how many of these shootings it’s going to take before we start
seeing armed guards at malls, and access control devices like metal detectors, at entrances to the larger malls.
Because think of what the mall owners lost – they lost their reputation as a “SAFE” place to go. They lost
almost a whole day of sales, and maybe they will lose another day.

The local police and county Executive were on TV saying police arrived within 2 minutes of the shootings.

and the SWAT team entered the Mall and did a store by
store search, while the media trucks assembled in the parking lot.

If people want to take loaded guns everywhere and society
thinks that’s great – then store owners are going to have to
increase security and be able to have tools to exclude these
people.

Guns are for hunting, not for shopping!

Terrible day for Columbia Mall and it’s customers, I guess it’s a wonderful day for the security industry that will sell
lots more metal detectors, cameras, monitoring, panic alarms and more. Because that’s what we need to keep
the public safe.

Planning an Active Shooter Drill, Why Once is Not Enough

Posted on October 17, 2013 8:25 am by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Almost every day I get a note that a hospital or corporate facility is planning to have an Active Shooter Drill. That is always good news because it is a critical part of preparedness that protects not only against an active shooter incident, but also prepares the staff for other emergencies, but it may not be enough.

I’ve found that to be really effective, drills need to be supplemented with short training sessions, and also awareness programs that teach staff to be on their toes, or “situationally aware”. Security awareness training doesn’t have to be a full time job and it doesn’t have to be expensive.

One of the best ways to create an on-going security awareness program is to make a 12-month calendar, with an activity for each month, or better yet, every two weeks. Here’s a list of activities I use:

1. Start with a one page newsletter. You can have the marketing department help, or use WordPress to design your
own newsletter and email it out to all the staff. Whether your staff is 100 people or 6000 people, it’s a great way to promote the security program.

2. Send out very short emails highlighting news items about security incidents at other companies, especially ones in your industry, for example, hospitals. If there’s a terrible incident at another hospital, cut and paste the story and email it to everyone. In fact, if you’re an IAHSS or ASIS member, their publications have great stories about different security situations.

3. Use seasonal reminders. Now that it’s late October and daylight savings time is almost over, send an email reminding staff how to stay alert when they leave the facility after dark and head for their car. How to use the escort service, if that’s available, or how to use your keys as a weapon in a potential incident.

4. Buy posters to put in the cafeteria, or in the elevators that serve as reminders about the concept of staying alert and aware of your surroundings at all time.

I have interviewed more than 8000 staff members in the last 10 years, and they welcome these reminders and feel more secure just because you are keeping awareness up. Remember, it also reminds everyone that there is a Security Department, and that is working every day to keep them safe.

The Department of Homeland Security also provides free brochures and charts you can print out and give to employees, or you can email them for the staff member to print out and put in their purse. There are wallet sized cards, and lots of other great information you can use in your own active shooter awareness program.

Check out the preliminary OIG Report, which was leaked to Time Magazine on their swampland.com site at