Ariel Benjamin Mannes on Workplace Violence

The following is excerpted from a Security Magazine article in which Ariel Benjamin Mannes discusses the fight to end workplace violence.

"'Acts of violence such as active shooters aren’t random,' says A. Benjamin Mannes. 'From events such as Adam Lanza and Newtown, Nikolas Cruz and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Jin Yu Park at Virginia Tech, and even Jared Loughner, who shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, all were planned.'
Mannes, who is a subject matter expert in public safety and former enterprise security executive for the nation’s largest medical board, and who serves as a Governor on the Executive Board of InfraGard, the FBI-coordinated public-private partnership for critical infrastructure protection, and on the Peirce College Criminal Justice Advisory Board.

'The June shooting at the Capital Gazette in a suburb of Annapolis, Maryland, is the most recent example,' says Mannes, who is not connected to the case, but who advises enterprises to include schools, colleges and corporations on enterprise risk management. 'Jarrod Ramos had a long-term feud with several reporters over their coverage of a domestic harassment case against him. He repeatedly made threats to several reporters. It was a cancer that had been metastasizing for at least two years, but threats weren’t reported effectively. While the response time by police was amazing, you can’t bank on that when these issues could have been prevented.'

According to a recent FBI report, active shooter events are usually planned. The report notes that mass shooters don’t explode out of nowhere – they plan and prepare. Most have no diagnosable mental illness. And their attacks are almost always preceded by behaviors that stir apprehension in people close to them, possible warning signs that crop up over a lengthy period of time."

(For the full article, click here)

About the author

Ariel Benjamin Mannes is a Philadelphia-based subject matter expert in public safety -- as well as a former enterprise security executive. During his career, he has been featured in a variety of publications and media outlets, speaking on matters ranging from school security to emergency management