News
Teacher
Founder’s Day
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‘The main thing I’m upset
about is that [I was on] the
sidewalk when I was pepper
sprayed so there’s really no
reason at all they can use to
justify what they did’
Hagopian posted his account of the incident along with a
photo on his Facebook page:
“I was marching for Martin Luther King day today–
amazing march! At one point after the big main march,
group of bike cops set up a line to keep us from marching.
Some people walked through the line, but I didn’t. When
my phone rang, I turned away from the cops and began
walking away to answer the phone. A cop then ran up in my
face and pepper sprayed me right in the face. The milk has
helped a lot and I’m beginning to feel better. Wish we had
a better world.”
That post to date has been shared more than 200 times on
the social media site.
“The main thing I’m upset about is that [I was on] the
sidewalk when I was pepper sprayed so there’s really no
reason at all they can use to justify what they did,” Hagopi-
an told The Skanner News.
Bible’s law office says they will release video of the
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
ers in Ferguson taking the rubber bullets,” Hagopian told
the crowd; social media posts show he also gave civic
awards to young activists with the Black Lives Matter
movement.
Following his speech Hagopian says he was heading to a
birthday party for his two-year-old son. While on the phone
with his mother—and on the sidewalk—he says he was hit
with pepper spray by a Seattle Police officer.
Members of Kappa Alpha Psi assemble for a group shot before their Founders Day celebration
Jan. 24 at the Central Area Senior Center. Keynote speaker was State Rep. Eric Pettigrew, a
distinguished member of the fraternity; the theme of the event was, “Kappa Men — Servants of the
Community.” Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is a collegiate Greek -letter fraternity with predominately-
African American membership. For more information on joining, call Ron Bennett at 253-561-9704,
or go to www.pnwkapsi.com.
spraying incident later this week. The Stranger newspaper
in Seattle reported another pepper spraying incident that
day in which video appears to show more contested action
by officers on the scene.
“At the start of the video, one demonstrator in a black
sweatshirt repeatedly advances on the downed officer, and
is repelled by other officers pushing him back,” The
Stranger’s reporter Ansel Hertz wrote on Jan. 20. “They
don’t arrest or pepper-spray him. As officers on bicycles
arrive, the protester disappears off screen.
“That’s when one officer with a bike starts pepper-spray-
ing, hitting several individuals standing in the street from a
few feet away,” The Stranger’s story continues.
Herz reports that the Seattle Police operations manual
allows pepper spraying “during ‘violent activity.’”
An extensive investigation by the US Department of Jus-
tice on the Seattle Police Department found that officers
used excessive force nearly 20 percent of the time that they
used force at all —that’s one out of every five.
Simulator
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train all levels of emergency responders
simultaneously and allow for different
emergency teams such as police, fire and
rescue and hazardous materials crews to
work within the same scenario.
Concordia spent $1 million for simulator
software and the building modifications.
According to Nairn, the FBI and the NYPD
also use the same simulator software, called
the Advanced Disaster Management Simu-
lator (ADMS), but only in discrete
stand-alone units.
“There is no other set up like this in the
country, with EOC (Emergency Operations
Center), the emergent theater, the class-
rooms and everything together,” Nairn said,
adding that the ADMS software manufac-
turer, ETC Simulation, calls Concordia’s
configuration the most advanced and
largest.
In addition to the rural scene, there are
downtown scenes, shopping malls, seaports,
airports, industrial plants and college cam-
pus environments. The software is
customizable so the instructors can add
active elements to the situations such as a
debris fire, a multi-vehicle accident; even
terrorist attacks.
Nairn said the simulator is adept at train-
ing for acts of terrorism like the Charlie
Hebdo shooting and the siege on the Lindt
Café in Sydney, Australia. These malls,
people will become more critical without
medical attention.
The simulator will injure up to 75 people
at a time and each of those people will have
a unique set of injuries determined by the
computer algorithm. In a simulation of the
Boston Marathon bombing, some runners
Nairn said the students like the simulator, but it
also stresses them out
cafés, and office buildings are considered
undefended “soft targets.”
“Soft target attacks are a concern for
Homeland Security professionals and the
simulator has many, many soft target sce-
narios that can be operated in a variety of
environments,” Nairn said.
A physics engine drives the elements
within the scenario; an unattended fire will
grow and spread, smoke will change direc-
tion according to the wind and injured
will have less critical wounds while others
need immediate attention. Instructors can
manually change the intensity of these vari-
ables as well.
Nairn said the students like the simulator,
but it also stresses them out. “All the things
you learn in theory are a lot different in
practice.”
The scenarios create a safe to fail environ-
ment where students can learn from their
mistakes without risking actual lives or
day and save their money to attend a show
or concert they are excited about or root for
their favorite team at the stadium can’t
attend the event because some large ticket
reseller has purchased all the tickets and
playing field and ensure that the cost of a
ticket remains at the rate set by the vendor.”
“Companies shouldn’t be allowed to oper-
ate in the shadows, using computer software
to artificially inflate the prices of popular
costing public money.
Construction was recently finished on the
Homeland Security Simulator and the simu-
lation lab is now reaching out to the
community to provide training opportuni-
ties. In the aftermath of the Reynolds High
School shooting, both Multnomah Educa-
tion Service District and Portland Public
Schools have visited the lab.
The unique nature of the set up has global
implications as well. According to Nairn,
the lab is working with the software manu-
facturer to become a regional center to train
people in other countries to run the software
for themselves back home.
Whether it is for the classroom, the local
businesses, or global training, the end goal
is to improve safety.
“We would hope that businesses and pub-
lic agencies would have improved
resiliency because they are able to train in a
safe-fail environment,” Nairn said. “If you
can fail safely, you can learn.”
Learn more about the simulator by visit-
ing www.homelandsecuritysimulator.com
Bots
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scalpers who use electronic trickery to game
the system.”
The Attorney General request legislation
Senate Bill 5456 is sponsored by Sen.
Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D—Seattle. The com-
panion bill, House Bill 1091, is sponsored
by Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D—Sequim.
Current law does not prohibit the use of
ticket bots in Washington.
The proposed legislation bans ticket bot
use and makes it a violation of the state
Consumer Protection Act to sell software to
circumvent, interfere with or evade any
security measure or access-control system
on a ticket seller’s website.
“It is unfair that people who work hard all
Companies shouldn’t be allowed to operate in
the shadows, using computer software to
artificially inflate the prices of popular concerts
and sporting events
then raised the cost to an outrageous price,”
said Kohl-Welles. “This bill will level the
concerts and sporting events,” said Van De
Wege. “This is a question about fairness.
When these questionable business practices
interfere with a fair market, it’s time for a
change.”
According to Ticketmaster, the nation’s
largest authorized ticket reseller, bots are
often used to buy more than 60 percent of
the most desirable tickets for shows.
Seattle Theatre Group’s Executive Direc-
tor Josh LaBelle finds 35–40 percent of
tickets for hot shows are often purchased by
bots.
Thirteen states have banned ticket bots:
California, Florida, Indiana, Maryland,
Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, New Jer-
sey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Vermont and Virginia.
January 28, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3