AMU Homeland Security

Aircraft Attack against the IRS

By William Tucker
Echelon Building Austin, TX.jpgEarly this morning a software engineer disgruntled with the IRS set his house ablaze before flying his personal plane into the Echelon building in Austin, Texas. The Echelon building is host to several federal agencies in the Austin area, but in this case the target was the Internal Revenue Service. Incidents involving people expressing discontent with employers or authority figures through violence is hardly new; however it does show that some people will use extraordinary measures to drive home their point. In the U.S., situations involving workplace attacks using firearms has nearly become commonplace, but methods are available to mitigate these occurrences.
While it may seem impossible to predict the use of aircraft in the type of violent attack that was witnessed today, it could have been prevented. An individual making the final decision to resort to violence against their coworkers, or even the government, exhibit behavioral signs that indicate something is wrong. We often tend to focus too much on the style of violence while ignoring the process. In the coming days we will see, as we always do, that warning signs were either ignored or not taken seriously. You don’t have to be a psychologist or work in law enforcement to report suspicious behavior, and you can never be wrong in doing so.
Photo credit: Reuters

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