We would like to share two articles with you that are timely to what is currently happening in the United States.  This week, we remember the tragic attacks of 9/11 and those who perished in them.  These past couple of weeks have also brought to the nation’s attention to preparing for natural disasters in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.  While these events may seem worlds apart, they both have to do with response to mass casualty events.  John J. Farmer, Jr., Rutgers University professor, special counsel to the president of Rutgers, and Senior Policy Advisor to the Police Institute, reflects on these topics in two opinion articles he wrote recently on NJ.com.

The first article is titled “How to Defeat Islamist Terrorism”.  Farmer was New Jersey’s attorney general during Sept. 11, 2001, and was a former senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission.  His article discusses the past 16 years since the 9/11 attacks, and focuses on how the United States must do more than use intelligence to counter Islamist Terrorist groups.  He states that “Too often US counterterrorism efforts have focused on a specific group or threat, while doing little to prevent new generations from taking up the banner of jihad.”  Farmer lists 6 ways that an effective counter-message can be created against Islamic Extremist ideologues that was created during a forum in Brussels that was co-sponsored by Rutgers University, the Egmont Institute and the Belgium Ministry of Interior, social workers, law enforcement officials and academics.  In addition to these 6 measures, he says that “Most important, there was a consensus that any effective counter-message must emanate from within the Islamic community itself”. 

You can read the full article here: http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/09/njs_attorney_general_on_911_how_to_defeat_the_idea.html

The second article is titled “Harvey, Irma Prove the Need for More Disaster Prep”.  Farmer highlights how the first-responders to natural disasters are often not emergency services, but instead “private-sector civilians” willing to lend their neighbors a hand.  This has been seen countless times from mass casualty events including 9/11, Katrina, Sandy, and most recently Harvey and Irma.  He states that, “Given the acknowledge importance of civilian response in the wake of catastrophic storms, and the much-publicized role of the average citizen in the ‘see something, say something’ counter-terrorism program, one would think that educating the public in the rudiments of emergency response and in the identification of suspicious activity would be a priority for our local, state, and federal governments”.  The reality is that it is not, even though it is proven that people who have no emergency assistance training are often an impediment for professional first responders while those who are trained are more likely to help.  A reassessment should be done in regard to emergency preparedness that includes training civilians.  According to Farmer, “Effective civilian response during a catastrophe should no longer be a human interest story of random chance and extraordinary heroism. It should become part of the plan.”

You can read the full article here: http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/09/harvey_irma_prove_the_need_for_more_disaster_prep.html