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Secret Service enabled the Reagan shooting

Allegations that agents spinelessly allowed White House Public Relations to overrule their security protocols when it came to protecting the President of the United States.

iRumorMill.com Determination: Observation by Secret Service Author/Historian Ronald Kessler

According to an October 9, 2014 article by the Washington Post, the present day Secret Service corner-cutting and laxness surrounding the protection of President Obama may not be something new. Author Ronald Kessler and Secret Service historian pointed out that on "March 30, 1981, the Secret Service's actions led directly to the assassination attempt on President Reagan."

Kessler said, "Reagan's own White House staff was most at fault." Just prior to the incident, the logistical plan by the Secret Service was to have President Reagan emerge from a planned speech at the Washington Hilton from an undisclosed exit, without spectators. Kessler said, "[t]he Reagan White House staff overruled the Secret Service, though, insisting for public-relations purposes that crowds have access to the president. The Secret Service improperly backed down and let unscreened bystanders within 15 feet of Reagan. As a result, John W. Hinckley Jr. had a clear shot and almost killed the president."

Kessler said that the Secret Service tried to cover up this fact after the shooting, which he wrote about in his book "The First Family Detail." Policies at the Secret Service began to see changes about six years after the assassination attempt by Hinckley and the training assigned agent William Albracht implemented a new course for agent recruits about what the agency called the "Reagan Attempt."

From his investigation, Kessler said that after "Reagan Attempt", procedures at the Secret Service tightened up. "Today, however, that same spinelessness and corner-cutting by the Secret Service has become far worse and more prevalent, well beyond the recent headlines. That includes letting people into events without magnetometer or metal-detection screening, under pressure from White House or campaign staffs."

Recently an armed man with a criminal history was allowed to ride an elevator with President Obama.

Kessler offered a solution for the Secret Service, "[o]nly a new director from outside the agency can implement reforms necessary to protect the president and his family. "