| Back: Tweeter Center Behind Amphitheater |
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| Guards at Stage Door... None at Parking Lot! |
| Front: Tweeter Center Entrance |
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| Male & Female Checker Plus "Catchers" |
The Long And Winding Road
The Beatles
#1 Hit , 2 Weeks - Top 40, 10
Weeks
First Charted 05/23/70
On the Home Page, there's a picture of post 9/11 signs
stating "No Back Packs" with a rhetorical question... Is this enough? Though there are male and female security "friskers"
at the gates backed by "catchers or backstops" to prevent gate crashing, the answer is "probably not," -- based on my observations
and overheard conversations regarding how & where cameras were being stowed in crotches to pass through the gates,
for these "personal areas" are not checked.
Regarding the securing of the entire facility, the answer
is "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Compare and contrast the two photos above... "the front yard" v. "the back yard."
Behind the entire amphitheater, per se, there is a chain-link
fence, a high access road, overgrowth, a lower road (pictured top right -- overgrowth to the right) and then dense woods (to
the left). No police, or even guards, are posted at the parking lot side of these roads. THEY ARE TOTALLY
WIDE OPEN. PERIOD.
| Lower Road Left - Upper Road - Amphitheater Wall |
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| Overgrowth Exists On Both Sides Of Chain Link Fence |
THE ABOVE PICTURE WAS NOT TAKEN ON A "DARK"
DAY.
BEHIND ME ARE PARKING LOTS FILLED WITH BUFFETT
REVELLERS.
Yours truly was able to enter from the parking lot...walk
the road's entire distance without discovery. I cannot use the word, "breach" to describe my walk, for there was
nothing to breach! In truth, I could have spent the entire afternoon/evening there without discovery for there either
are 1) no cameras scanning the area... or 2) there are cameras that are not being monitored. Since I knew
that I would end up at the secured stage side, I continued until I got to that side. Stopped. Made eye contact
with security. And then walked about one third of the way back before
being challenged by a single security staff (unarmed) who was then backed
up by a second security person (also unarmed) about one minute later --
hardly a safe procedure in this the location. Read about my subsequent, evening, Buffett Concert romp
on the WRAP UP page.
Considering the isolation, the length of that road,
and the inability to see one end from another, I believe that two armed police details of two officers, not unarmed
security, should PATROL (constantly patrolling back and forth in golf-carts) the lower road, for entering from the woods
is a piece of cake! Also a patrol should be STATIONED at the parking lot side to prevent direct entrance
to the high road. There are enough security staffers and commotion
on the stage door side to make this an unattractive access to the road.
In short: Whatever the purpose of "hands up /pat down"
is at the main gate w/r/t evil doing... it is totally compromised by the exposure just behind the venue. From water
balloons launched in the dark with large elastic "beach sling shots," (below) -- which would surely cause "an
incident" with the lawn patrons -- to more serious/deadly objects being launched... one could start with an obnoxious
smell, continue to caustic laundry bleach... and get more serious thereafter (as if a caustic is not enough).
THERE IS 100% EXPOSURE!
RECOMMENDATIONS
The access road be secured by 2x2 detailed police units.
The overgrowth between the high and low access roads be
chopped.
Better lighting on the road/hill also lights directed into
the deep woods.
Scanable, zoom surveillance cameras with monitors being
watched.
Implementing these measures has nothing to do
with preventing gatecrashing fans,
but everything to do with providing total venue security.
While there may be a need to consider a
venue's security v. patrons' privacy at the front door,
there is absoultely no reason
not to expose, light, secure, and stare
at such a "blind spot" at the back
door.
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