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Home » More on the security failure at the Chautauqua Institution where Rushdie was stabbed

More on the security failure at the Chautauqua Institution where Rushdie was stabbed

The New Neo Posted on by

When I heard of the attack, I immediately wondered about security there, because everyone knows – and has known for over thirty years – that a significant number of radical Muslims with Iranian sympathies are out to kill Rushdie. Therefore heightened security is not optional; it’s necessary.

But if this report is true, the venue lacked even some of the most basic security. According to anonymous sources:

The institution’s leadership had rejected recommendations for basic security measures, including bag checks and metal detectors, fearing that would create a divide between speakers and the audience, according to two sources who spoke with CNN. The leadership also feared that it would change the culture at the institution, the sources said…

The two sources have direct knowledge of the security situation at the Chautauqua Institution and past recommendations and spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly…

There were no security searches or metal detectors at the event, a person who witnessed the attack told CNN. The witness is not being identified because they expressed concerns for their personal safety…

“We assess for every event what we think the appropriate security level is, and this one was certainly one that we thought was important which is why we had a State Trooper and Sheriff presence there,” [Institution President] Hill said.

If fear of “changing the culture at the institution” was really their concern and the reason for the lax security, it certainly backfired, didn’t it? Denial of reality is not a good approach, and a single State Trooper and Sheriff are unlikely to be able to do much if the attacker is quick (this one was very quick indeed, by all reports) and if there are no metal detectors or inspection of backpacks and bags.

I suspect that the Rushdie attack has already “changed the culture” of the institution very significantly.

Comments

More on the security failure at the Chautauqua Institution where Rushdie was stabbed — 35 Comments

  1. When you see in person someone denying reality in order to preserve….something like a culture or a variant, the affect is really odd. Or maybe it’s just me wondering how anybody could be that stupid.

    In addition, stabbing like a frantic jackhammer needs either muscle memory or endless mental rehearsals. Standing there, imagining your arm going backandforthbackandforthbackandforth.
    This dude’s been serious for a long time.

  2. I would think that Rushdie would have all kinds of security requirements in his contract for any venue he is going to appear at and if they don’t want to comply then it would be a no go.

    I wonder if even Rushdie had been lulled into a little bit of complacency after living with this for so long.

  4. “The institution’s leadership had rejected recommendations for basic security measures, including bag checks and metal detectors, fearing that would create a divide between speakers and the audience, according to two sources who spoke with CNN. The leadership also feared that it would change the culture at the institution, the sources said…”

    Typical Liberal priorities, ignore a serious issue so they can feel good about themselves and superior to everyone that prioritizes the issue over the Liberals feeling.

  5. Iowan.
    T would be interesting to see what the leadership thinks, and what hey say, likely quite different.

  7. In both respects, one is the offense and the other is looking away by authorities.
    It occurs to me…likely to everybody else before I twigged–that security in this case would indicate islamophobia. But if someone were speaking who might attract MAGA guys with red hats to wear their red hats indoors, likely there’d have been considerably more security. Even if nothing happened, it would have “proven” how bad they are that you need security.

  8. Don’t worry, Joe & Co. will be right on it. After all, we cannot tolerate a Middle Eastern regime murdering outside their country. That’s why we got so tough on Saudi Arabia, and we threaten to cut aid if the Israelis look crossways at a Palestinian rock thrower.

    What? You mean this fatwa has been in place more than 20 years? How could we have negotiated with the mullahs without making a first condition that they renounce the fatwa? Mumble mumble oh look nuclear documents!

  9. Things have changed since Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and Booker T. Washington appeared there. Or maybe not. Roosevelt became president because McKinley was assassinated not so far away in Buffalo. Still, the America of a century ago didn’t want to believe that things like that happened, and many people still don’t. The town bazaar and the county fair probably don’t need metal detector yet — at least I hope they don’t — but they aren’t inviting controversial international celebrities with death sentences hanging over them.

  11. I live a couple of hours from Chautauqua and have been there several times. It’s like walking back in time. No cars are allowed in the tiny town itself, which is filled with Victorian cottages, a large Victorian era hotel, gardens and pavilions. Truly has the feel of stepping back in time. There are many older patrons, many from academia, who come for literary and music events. A liberal vibe for sure. I don’t recall any significant security measures at the entrance. It’s easy to walk in and stroll the town (tickets must be purchased for events). When I heard about the attack on Rushdie, my first thought was shock that it could happen there, given the very remote and tranquil environment. My second thought was surprise that Rushdie apparently didn’t require protection at speaking events, although I can see why he thought this particular gig was likely low risk.

  17. CV, your description sounds rather charming! Is it a sort of outdoor museum or do people actually live there? I might have to try and make it out there someday. While New England is closer to me, it would still be nice to have a reason to visit the western end of the state.

  18. Philip,

    I’m referring to the Chautauqua institution, which is one of the small communities on Lake Chautauqua. It’s not an outdoor museum and people do live there (cottages are privately owned), but it’s mainly a summer community centered around events like lectures and concerts. It’s unique and worth visiting. Website here:

    https://www.chq.org/discover-chautauqua/plan-your-visit/

  19. CV, Philip Sells:

    I first heard of Chautaqua in Robert Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” in an early passage when Pirsig was trying to explain the what and the how of his book:
    _____________________________

    What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua…that’s the only name I can think of for it…like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are now in, an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer.

    The Chautauquas were pushed aside by faster-paced radio, movies and TV, and it seems to me the change was not entirely an improvement. Perhaps because of these changes the stream of national consciousness moves faster now, and is broader, but it seems to run less deep. The old channels cannot contain it and in its search for new ones there seems to be growing havoc and destruction along its banks.

    In this Chautauqua I would like not to cut any new channels of consciousness but simply dig deeper into old ones that have become silted in with the debris of thoughts grown stale and platitudes too often repeated. “What’s new?” is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question “What is best?,” a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream.

    There are eras of human history in which the channels of thought have been too deeply cut and no change was possible, and nothing new ever happened, and “best” was a matter of dogma, but that is not the situation now. Now the stream of our common consciousness seems to be obliterating its own banks, losing its central direction and purpose, flooding the lowlands, disconnecting and isolating the highlands and to no particular purpose other than the wasteful fulfillment of its own internal momentum. Some channel deepening seems called for.
    _____________________________

    I wasn’t clear from that exactly what the original Chatauquas were, but I was thoroughly charmed by the idea.

    Great book, BTW. Note that Pirsig is reporting on the disjunction which has only grown greater since the 1970s when ZAMM was published.

  20. You can book your own vacation at the Boulder Chatauqua.
    It’s a lovely site; we used to eat in their restaurant, but eventually the drive became longer than we liked.
    https://www.chautauqua.com/
    “Well into its second century, the Colorado Chautauqua, a National Historic Landmark, remains committed to its historic purpose, offering outstanding cultural and educational programs and attracting more than a million visitors each year. Just minutes from downtown Boulder and the University of Colorado, the Colorado Chautauqua is nestled at the foot of the famous Flatirons mountains. Join us for lively events, all types of outdoor adventures, and a relaxing stay in one of our simple, but charming, private cottages or lodges. Don’t miss this uniquely Colorado experience!”

    Of course, that’s in The People’s Republic of Boulder, so the patrons are mostly very like the original one in NY in culture and ideology.

  21. “…pleads not guilty…”

    Of course he does…
    (Bet he picked up that nifty little trick from the Democrats! Besides we all know that if Rushdie hadn’t written that damned book, or if Rushdie had already died, he wouldn’t have had to be killed; so if anyone’s guilty it’s—quite clearly—the author himself! Palestinian Rules rule…gloriously!!)

    Of course, having said that, it’s hard not to feel a little sorry for “Biden”—
    “His” ally in Teheran can make life soooo difficult sometimes.

    Never fear, though. “BIDEN” will FIND A WAY!!

  22. Stanley Kurtz on the Fall and…Fall….
    “Salman Rushdie and the Decline of Western Civilization”—
    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/salman-rushdie-and-the-decline-of-western-civilization/
    H/T Powerline blog.
    …wistfully points out more than a few absurdities, hypocrisies and perversities…and “the road not taken”….but insists that there is hope….
    Key grafs:
    “…To put it differently, the same globalization that turns an Iranian Ayatollah’s death sentence into a proximate threat to Americans at a speaking event in Cambridge requires us to abandon our focus on the story of Western civilization — a story, as traditionally taught, of the rise of classical liberalism and the rights it nurtures and secures. The professors may not have put it in precisely that way, yet that is what their position amounted to. They could have responded differently to globalization, of course. Assimilating immigrants from across the globe by reaffirming the Western civilization narrative was the road not taken…
    “…The upshot is that globalization has made us more vulnerable to foreign threats, while our misguided response to globalization has damaged our greatest weapon against those very threats: our regard for our own tradition of liberty, and the principles that lay behind it. [Emphasis mine; Barry M.] Our horror at the assault on Rushdie is a sign that there is life in our tradition still….”

    Not entirely certain that his optimism is justified, though….

  23. the thing is most of our vaunted foreign policy establishment, since the beginning don’t understand velayat al fagih (rule by clerics) from richard falk, who practices two minute hate against israel, thought the ayatollah was just another dissident clerk, well just like sheikh rahman,

    mugniyeh, who the stabber took as his kunya or war name, was the son of a lebanese shia cleric, was the point person of the beirut bombings in the 80s, it took 25 years to bring him to ground, bob baer wrote a whole tome about it, giving him a whole other name, hayam rayyan, which proved he was obtuse,

  24. Islam is in direct and severe conflict with the American Constitution. It is NOT a religion. It very name means “Obey.” Apostates are punishable by sanctioned death, the will of Allah plus his prophet and secretary taking dictation, Mohamed.
    We must stop kidding ourselves. Would we have let Nazis in to kill American Jews? NO. We must have the same response to Islam, an ideology, not a religion.
    Worldwide Islam celebrated 9/11. DO NOT FORGET!

  25. Islam is in direct and severe conflict with the American Constitution. It is NOT a religion. Its very name means “Obey.” Apostates are punishable by sanctioned death, the will of Allah plus his prophet and secretary taking dictation, Mohamed.
    We must stop kidding ourselves. Would we have let Nazis in to kill American Jews? NO. We must have the same response to Islam, an ideology, not a religion.
    Worldwide Islam celebrated 9/11. DO NOT FORGET!

  27. My double entry is due to the fact that Neo’s server is exceedingly slow, and it is not the fault at my end. It took ten minutes to get my comment posted. I am not going to sit around for this to post!

  30. more like goat in this instance, we come back to the shooting in orlando, the bureau refused to vet him, because his father was an asset, although it’s very dubious considering events that transpired in at least the last decade, that he was of much use,

  31. Come ON, MAN, give ’em a break what’s wrong wid’ you…sweet holy MALARKEY….
    The FIBs are far too busy sniffing Melania’s intimate garments….

  32. Wiki is worth a gander on Chautauqua:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua

    The movement was decentralized and varied by time and place. I hardly recognize any of the names beyond John Philip Sousa and Bob LaFollette. It seems to have peaked in the 1920s. It represents an America that has almost entirely disappeared.

    Today the closest analog is TED talks.

    Interesting that a few Chautaqua venues continue. Sad that Rushdie was nearly murdered at one.

  33. How dare you question the most sacred election EVER!@!

    Stompy foot. Best Greta Thunberg “How Dare You” face. More stompy foot.

    I guess this goes here.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbi-alec-baldwin-pulled-trigger-rust-shooting-report

    Alec Baldwin must have pulled the trigger to fire the gun that fatally shot a cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust, according to an FBI forensic report released Friday.

    The report comes 10 months after the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie, and the conclusions contradict claims from Baldwin last year when he said he did not pull the trigger. Instead, the actor said he believed he was handling a gun that did not have live ammunition when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and injuring one of the film’s directors…”

    Whatever happens, we can rest assured that the FBI will go after Hunter Biden with the equal zeal of a MAGA hat wearer.

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