How Prepared Are We - Security in The Field

[Holister]

Due to security lapses many hostile antagonists have been able to learn our rank & file, as well as our practices, methodology, and proceedures of handling ourselves in the field.

This has led to traps, ambushes, and hostile encounters with well prepared adversaies we were not prepared for eithet due to poor communication, a lack of intelligence on a specific threta, or simply underestimating a hostile supernatural threat.

I m am looking for ways to better improve security while in the field; How to improve communications and pass along intelligence; Better surveillance methods and technology; and improved on site regcognition methods.

Security in the field is as importnat as it is here on the boards.

[finder_fee]

I'm not sure this is something that can easily be improved upon. Realize that while people here are understandably trained to be combatants, most of them are self trained as individuals. In order to improve security in the field, you would need to start learning group tactics, and recognition codes, and even codes are not reliable as I'm sure there are enemies out there who could read your minds to find out the propper greeting and reply for any preset codes.

Surveillance methods themselves are a trained skill, and would spark a longer debate than the one we had going earlier about what would be a good gun to start off on...

Now all that being said, not every beastie you encounter is going to be able to read your mind, so once on site with your group, arranging a "greet, counter greet" code to make sure you know you are talking to who you think you are is a good idea.

As to intelligence, you learn what you can before you go in. You get who you know to feed you what they know, and hope you know enough. This isn't calculus, it's guesses based on myths and ledgends, mixed with personal accounts from scared people who are trying to forget what happened. If you happen to find out what realy hurts a beastie it's because someone managed to sift through a few hundred stories from a few hundred sources to find a kernal of truth. And remember that there are a lot of very intelligent beasties out there, who would be only too happy to spread their own stories about what can and cannot hurt them. "yeah, I was there too... saw em cut the damned things head off, and burn it to ashes. Next night it was back, and this time it was realy mad... beheading doesn't kill the fucker, and neither does fire..."

Fi

[Holister]

This is great. These are all good ideas and thoughts on this subject. Need more though.

[Ron Caliburn]

For most of us, it shouldn't be an issue. The large majority of our members are the curious or the concerned. They don't live outside the law or make enemies that will seek them out.

For those of us that step into it - well there are some books and websites I might suggest - but not on an open screen.

[Kolya]

The guys to my right and left are my security in the field. It's part of the deal although I didn't really have a choice. Not that I'm complaining, they're the best in the business.

[Holister]

This is another thread I think we should revisit due to recent events.

[Doctor Boggs]

I'd have to second this, although I think we managed pretty well under the circumstances Sheriff. Again, I appreciate your discretion on the whole background check issue.

[Holister]

Don't worry bout it Doc. Sides, you had our backs, so we have yours. You ever need anything, just drop us a line.

[Technocrat]

This is another thread I think we should revisit due to recent events.

Some of us aren't LEO's, assassins, bounty hunters, mercenaries, military or gun nuts. Some of us don't know nothing about fighting or field security or anything like that.

Most people, I think, are just regular Joes like me trying to help out the best we can. My own 'field experience' has taught me that my place is behind a computer, passing on information to others who can better use it.

But really, we're not a paramilitary organization. We're a bunch of people talking about supernatural investigations on a public forum site.

[Brutal]

Some of us aren't LEO's, assassins, bounty hunters, mercenaries, military or gun nuts. Some of us don't know nothing about fighting or field security or anything like that.

Most people, I think, are just regular Joes like me trying to help out the best we can. My own 'field experience' has taught me that my place is

You should at least learn how to fire a gun, or some self defense classes.

As you should have learned by now, one should always be prepared.

[Holister]

Thats not a bad idea. I think I'll pass that one aong to the guys over at The Annex.

[Grace]

You should at least learn how to fire a gun, or some self defense classes.

As you should have learned by now, one should always be prepared.

It wouldn't be necessary if the professionals paid to protect him did their job.

Some people just aren't suited for combat. Arming such a folks is a disaster waiting to happen. Too often a firearm provides an untrained user a false sense of security and power.

And Techno is right. This isn't a paramilitary organization. There is no security in the field because that is not the mandate of this forum. To suggest otherwise is a lot like arming the untrained.

[Doctor Boggs]

Fair point that, yep.

[Holister]

How come everytime someone mentions gettin' our sorry act together, someone scream out " MILITARIZATION " . No one wants to do that, Hell its all but impossible round this place.

What this thread is about is a better way for us to cover our asses when out in the field. No one is holdin' a gun to ya' head and sayin'
" This is the way it done from now on or else. "

Besides, Nemmy may like gettin' caught out in the field with her britches down round her ankles, but not all of us feel that same way. Some of us are team players who consider each other actual friends who look out for each others backs.

If ya'll want to go off half cocked and shout " FACIST MILITANT " when all Im suggestin' is that we have a better trust and understandin' bout ourselves and each other, then ya'll go right ahead.

[Doctor Boggs]

Which is a good point to. It's a tricky thing, how do ya trust people you've never met before the first time ya work together? Nobody wants to walk into a trap, so what do you do?

[Holister]

Well, I never worked with ya' before Doc, but I was willin' to let things go on a lil' good will and faith in my fellow Lazlo bretheren.

Sometimes ya' just have to have faith and trust.

And access to a full background & credit check.

[Cybermancer]

How come everytime someone mentions gettin' our sorry act together, someone scream out " MILITARIZATION " . No one wants to do that, Hell its all but impossible round this place.

What this thread is about is a better way for us to cover our asses when out in the field. No one is holdin' a gun to ya' head and sayin'
" This is the way it done from now on or else. "

Besides, Nemmy may like gettin' caught out in the field with her britches down round her ankles, but not all of us feel that same way. Some of us are team players who consider each other actual friends who look out for each others backs.

If ya'll want to go off half cocked and shout " FACIST MILITANT " when all Im suggestin' is that we have a better trust and understandin' bout ourselves and each other, then ya'll go right ahead.

You are putting words into peoples mouths and to no good effect.

Nor have you offered any effective counter arguements to the points raised.

It's simple. The pro's here do not need this thread. They have skills and training from other sources. The amatuers are better served not putting themselves into situations where it would be a concern. You run the risk of instilling false confidence into those most vulnerable. The skills required for field security come from training and experience. Not forum discussions.

[Doctor Boggs]

Well, I never worked with ya' before Doc, but I was willin' to let things go on a lil' good will and faith in my fellow Lazlo bretheren.

Sometimes ya' just have to have faith and trust.

And access to a full background & credit check.

Ayup, all worked out pretty well in the end if I say so myself.

[Grace]

Most of what you've said didn't address anything actually said by anyone else as no one has cried out about "Militerization" or "Facist" anything.

But I will address this:

Besides, Nemmy may like gettin' caught out in the field with her britches down round her ankles, but not all of us feel that same way. Some of us are team players who consider each other actual friends who look out for each others backs.

My 'getting caught with my britchs down' wasn't a security issue. It was confronting something I shouldn't have. I found the nightmare, it didn't find me. It wasn't a lapse in security, it was a lapse in judgement. Two entirely different things.

And if you're referring to Hannah getting nabbed, then you're really out of line.

The only actual lapse in security I had hasn't been told on the boards. And even then, it wasn't something the bad guys were able to exploit.

[Shang Li]

Mr. Hollister, perhaps this thread is one more suited for the Lazlo Agancy than the Lazlo Society?

The society is after all, supposedly a place for the frightened to seek advice and aid from their fellows, not a combat organization. I understand that the Lazlo Agency, on the otherhand is a tight knit group of proffessionals who work together to investigate, and as needed eliminate supernatural disturbances.

If you want a militaristic group with sign, countersign, and all the trappings, I am afraid you will find very few people on the board able to perform well in such a rigid environment, and few of those able to perform the tasks interested in that degree of contact and controll.

Unlike those who work directly for the Lazlo Agency, those of us who have come together here seem to work more like old (true) friends of the family, offering advice and moral support untill such time as a member that individual cares about is placed in danger.

Our greatest strength lies with our greatest weakness. We are decentralised with independant goals, talents, morals, and methods. We may be easy enough to pick of by ourselves, but as we currently are we are it is completely impossible to kill more than one or two individuals.

As much as the death of any of you would pain me, what the society has become, the network that holds what experiences were shared, will go on unchanged.

You see the Lazlo Society has become far more than a mere sum of it's members. As I believe was the intent, the society has become an infectious idea passing among those willing to listen, and attracting those with the courage to seek out the truth - combatants or not.

Though we may pass on to the next world, we have become immortal, as the society will go on, and that which we have shared may save future generations from our mistakes and give then some understanding.

[Holister]

As usual you speak with much wisdom Shang.

[Brutal]

It wouldn't be necessary if the professionals paid to protect him did their job.

I did my job but people won’t always be paid to defend them. That is why they should be able to protect themselves.

There is nothing wrong with knowing some basic self defense.

[Cybermancer]

I know two things wrong with it. Especially when combined.

Over.

&

Confidence.

[Holister]

It wouldn't be necessary if the professionals paid to protect him did their job.

I did my job but people won’t always be paid to defend them. That is why they should be able to protect themselves.

There is nothing wrong with knowing some basic self defense.

This is a valid point. People who have the possible chance of gettin' into dangerous situations, even though that is not their intention, should have some degree of capable defensive knowledge.

[Grace]

It wouldn't be necessary if the professionals paid to protect him did their job.

I did my job but people won’t always be paid to defend them. That is why they should be able to protect themselves.

There is nothing wrong with knowing some basic self defense.

I'll be quite clear about something here, Brutal. I blame you for exposing Technocrat to danger at Konthaak's place when the lot of you faced off against that demon thing. He should have been deployed a significant distance away. The only reason you didn't see your pay docked is because he wasn't harmed. He wasn't harmed because he ran away instead of trying to engage.

Non-combatants shouldn't be placed in harms way. And when they are, it is up to people like us to deal with it.

We both know what a gun or a self-defense class would have gotten Technocrat when my colleagues came looking for him. A pine box.

Technocrat is a valuable asset. Best employed miles away from danger, sitting behind a computer screen. Putting him in a combat zone is risking him unnecessarily.

[Holister]

Sound slike he shouldn't of been there in the first place.

[Grace]

Sound slike he shouldn't of been there in the first place.

Which is exactly what I was saying.

[Shang Li]

Technocrat wanted to help a friend, would you deny him this?

What one of us there would have made a better driver? I do not know how, and all the others were a bit busy. If a combatant had to drive the van, the wonder would always be there if having that one more fighter would have made the difference.

Remember that it was Technocrat and his quick thinking (and quicker driving) that accomplished our primary goal of rescuing KonThaak and his family, while the rest of us were too preoccupied with fighting.

Technocrat got to save his friend, and was an integral part of a truely heroic undertaking, and aquitted himself well, something to be proud of.

Technocrat chose, to place himself in harms way - he felt it was the right thing to do. I do not know about the others who were present, but I was glad for Technocrat's presense, and his presense of mind - it freed me to focus entirely on the foe before me.

[Holister]

For all the good it did. Josh is still dead regardless of your grand schemes.

What bothers me is that no one else is investigating his death.

I ran headlong into a brick wall, I have no more favors to pull out of my hat.

We need to stop arguing amongst ourselves and learn how to work together better regardless of our dispositions and individual ideals.

I have seen one too many of us go quietly into the night. For each one of my friends I see get taken by one of them, it saddens me, but it also strengthens my resolve. My only concern is that I can't do more than I can.

I don't expect more than that from any of you.

[Grace]

Mr. Li,

Everything you just discussed was good luck, not good planning. And everytime that good luck prevails, there are nine times it does not. It worked out once, that does not mean it will again or that it was a good idea at the time.

And Ben, who is honestly available to go check into Konthaak's death? There is only so many of us to go around. Besides, you claim he was murdered. That's a job for the police, not most of us.