But the security details see nearly all of what goes on behind the scenes. Often even the protectees do not know that added expense they cause when they ask for special favors; "My wife needs a ride to the airport", "My nephew is looking for a store that sells ....." Far too often, the officers providing the protection feel like they are nothing more than chauffeurs and personal assistants.
Although these are requests that should be coordinated with staff members, when uttered during transportation with the protection detail, they become requests that must be dealt with. Somewhere in the system, the VIP must be rebuffed that their requests are unreasonable
Our understood orders were to comply, and then report back through channels. I can easily project that what happened in NYC began with a simple, though inappropriate, activity and then snowballed out of control. With individuals like Kerik at Rudy's beckon and call. it is likely that No One pushed back
For me, the bottom line is that Rudy is no fool, and he must have winked at what he knew was a lot of money being spent for his personal convenience. Abuse of privilege is not a good indicator of future potential.
Thanks for the realtime input.
A good & powerful leader knows the cost incurred by his requests, great and petty. Rudy obviously wasn’t concerned with this. He was willing to engage in extremely private activities that meant a lot of people would know and would be obligated to cover not just the activity and the principal, but also every action of everyone on a highly regulated and publicly monitored team. This bodes ill for a prospective leader of the free world.
Consider & compare Gore, guru of environmental protection, jetting his entire entourage around the world to attend the Bali summit (among hundreds of other such trips), thinking he can whisk away any contradictions by verbally authorizing “carbon credits”.
Contrast these yahoos with Bush, Regan, and others who were extremely aware & respectful of their security detail.
A good leader realizes he, too, is merely one of the people - entrusted with the care of others.
Interesting.
Maybe Rudy needs to be asked publicly, “If you tire of your current wife when you are President, what sort of security detail would the taxpayers need to pay for your then misstress(es)?”