Ferryman Jon Olsen testified at the trial of Anders Behring Breivik’s that the Norwegian spree killer stepped aboard his boat dressed as a cop. At some point during the journey to Utøya island, Captain Olsen asked Breivik to hide his Ruger Mini-14 so as not to scare the children on the island’s summer camp. Breivik covered the gun in a plastic bag. The killer told Olsen he was going to the camp to protect it after a terrorist attack on Oslo; a bomb attack he’d launched just hours earlier. They landed and all hell broke loose . . .
Olsen even helped Breivik with his bags on arrival at the island of Utoeya, only to watch him unwrap the gun and shoot Olsen’s girlfriend Monica point-blank, starting a killing spree that claimed the lives of 69 people, most of them teenage campers.
The Reuters report touches on the reasons behind Breivik’s murderous mayhem and the police’s failure to arrive on scene in a timely manner. Blink and you’ll miss an important piece of information:
Olsen said he and his girlfriend had thought the summer camp an inviting target for a terrorist attack.
“We had talked about that, Monica and I, how that could happen,” he said. “Gaddafi had said he would send terrorists … I thought he (Breivik) was sent from Libya.”
Which raises a number of important questions:
– Why didn’t the Ferryman question Breivik more closely? Did he ask Breivik for ID?
– Why were all the responsible adults on the island unarmed? (No prizes for guessing.)
– Why didn’t someone call for an actual police presence on the island after the bomb attack?
– Why didn’t the island camp have some kind of lockdown drill and emergency plan in place?
As we predicted, the issue of self-defense won’t get a look in at Breivik’s trial. Truth be told, gun free zones are killing fields for active shooters. Always have been. Always will be.
– Why didn’t someone call for an actual police presence on the island after the bomb attack?
– Why didn’t the island camp have some kind of lockdown drill and emergency plan in place?
Well, to play devil’s advocate here… why would they do either of those?
The bombings were two hours earlier and 25 miles away. How far do you realistically expect people to react? When I was a Boy Scout, I spent a couple summers at Camp Daniel Boone, about 30 miles outside of Asheville, NC. If there was a bombing in Asheville, would you really expect them to lock down the Boy Scout Camp?
I mean why didn’t they have a lockdown procedure or emergency plan AFTER the shooting started?
I suppose that’s a fair question. But keep in mind that the camp’s manager (who was also the ferryman’s girlfriend) and the camp’s (only) security officer were the first two victims, and several other counselors were also killed at the very beginning, which would have hindered any plan if there was one. Also, according to wikipedia, “Shortly after the first shot was fired, nine people were leaving the island on the ferry, among them the AUF leader Eskil Pedersen.” Granted, he wasn’t the head of the camp, just a politician, but he was yet another “person in charge” who wasn’t available to activate any plans.
Even now, I’d be pretty surprised if CDB had a “lockdown plan.”
Because they think crap like that only happens in other countries… and for the most part, they’re right. There were only 29 murders in all of Norway in 2010.
They didn’t have a plan for this kind of situation because they didn’t think anyone would do such a thing.
As a fellow scout I can tell you they likely would, and if they wouldn’t, hey should. Dry summers at TMR always meant one putz in one area could have hundreds of people running through a fire drill regardless of intensity or distance. Safety. First. Sir.
Which begs the question, what would any of those things do? A cop boards with a rifle and says he’s going to protect the kids…. Why would I question that? Why would I think it would be a good idea to question him when he’s packing .223 and I’m packing a wet napkin?
Why are the adults unarmed? Because they willingly put themselves in a victim disarming zone.
Why didn’t someone call for the actual police? Because they’re on a frigging island with no credible threat! Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Why didn’t they have a lock down drill? Because all that does is make the victims sit still while they die.
Why do you think any of these questions are relevant? Hindsight is twenty twenty. Next time you go camping, imagine a gun man coming along and shooting everybody he sees. If this seems likely to you, perhaps you’re camping in the wrong place. Plan for it, fine, but know that you’re much better off planning for the rogue deer eating your shirt because it’s covered in salt. (that’s a true story btw, stole it right out of my pack…)
Rogue deer?! LMAO!
Well said
– Why didn’t the Ferryman question Breivik more closely? Did he ask Breivik for ID?
Um, the man had guns and maybe the ferryman might have felt nervous questioning a man so armed and especially asking for an ID if indeed the ferryman was suspicious at any point.
Incidents like these go to show you that a determined and intelligent attacker can only be stopped by lethal force on the part of his intended victims.
Police and security agencies operate on rules and procedures. Rules and procedures being what they are, anyone can read them. A smart SOB can read and use those procedures against the authorities. In good times police take at least 5 minutes to arrive after a notification, which is plenty of time to murder some helpless victims.A smart SOB ties up emergency services with a manufactured or actual emergency clear across the other side of the realm so that when the spree killing starts LE is a lot more than just 5 minutes away.
The only proven method which has stopped a spree killing in progress is concealed carry. Everything else is damage control after the fact.
– Why didn’t the island camp have some kind of lockdown drill and emergency plan in place?
Why should they? It’s a gun-free zone, a land of utopian bliss and rainbows where nothing bad could possibly happen because a sign out front said so.
The Leprechauns will appear and stop the tragedy and give everyone a pot of gold.
because nothing even remotely like it ever happened before in .no
people here bitch to no end about the TSA yet there is a reason we are now burdened with their existence. with no prior cause for repressive security, why would a majority of people agree to such a thing at a summer camp?
Lockdown drill?
Emergency Plan?
Hehehe…you don’t need an emergency plan to cower in the corner and pray.
Cowering in a corner and praying IS an emergency plan.
Not a very good one, but the one most people (unwittingly) choose or have chosen for them…
Hahahah, lockdown plan? I’m sure spree killers everywhere love that idea.
Do a little nasty roleplaying here. If you were trying to kill as many people as possible, would it make it easier or harder to do so if they were spread out across an entire island, or all huddled together in fear in one room?
But…but…Mayor Bloomberg has totally approved this plan!
Let’s be realistic. If I was a ferry operator, let’s say to an island off the coast of Massachusetts or Virginia, on say, the morning of 9\11\2001, and a Police Officer approaches me saying that he has been assigned the duty of protecting the people there, how likely is it that I’m going to ask him for ID, perhaps call his headquarters and confirm his assignment, etc.?
I’m not. I’m human. I’ll assume he is who he appears to be, because that makes sense under the circumstances. In fact, as a good citizen, I’d do everything I can to get him there ASAP. That’s human nature.
Later on, like Jon Olsen in the article, I may well tear myself apart with guilt, asking a lot of “what if’s” and “if only’s”, but sadly, that too is human nature.
And again, as others have pointed out, in a country where the annual murder rate is measured in the low double digits, who would think it’s necessary to have armed security personnel at a young people’s summer camp? Let alone “lock down” plans? The worst thing they ever worried about was, if a kid gets hurt, how do you get him to hospital in a hurry.
Mr. Farago; good intentions aside, I respectfully suggest that you are seriously off-base here.