As someone who's worked large events and closely with police or other big wig officials, I am consistently surprised at how people are surprised about how high profile event security works.
The amount of work that goes into keeping people safe regularly is monumental. You'd also be surprised at just how much hard targets don't get attacked when a limelight is cast on them compared to soft targets. It's violence prevention 101 and easily the most important.
Agreed, most of the responses here are ridiculous.
They bring snipers out anytime there's a big event or a major public figure. Michelle Obama visited the University of Akron when I was going there, they had snipers all over the place.
They're not bringing out snipers for some kind of perverted crowd control. It's almost definitely so if someone shows up with a gun and starts firing into the crowd all the protestors don't get shot.
Yep b3causr there's absolutely no difference in armed defense when the president or first lady is visiting and when students are protesting, none at all.
He'll might as well tell the students of tiananmen square that tanks are just a normal part of defence.
Have you considered what would happen if an active shooter, consider one that's pro-Israel, showed up in that crowd and they didn't have a sniper?
Tell me you wouldn't be over here screaming "ACAB" when the cops are unable to get to the shooter (and have to risk firing through a crowd or do nothing) because there are hundreds of college students between where the cops are standing and where the active shooter is.
Having a sniper on the roof is in no way similar to a tank running someone over in the street. There is no practical application for a tank vs a civilian population. There is 100% a valid reason to use a highly skilled marksman to increase the odds that if something bad does happen, it's stopped quickly, and you can get EMTs to the injured parties.
Your position is offensively wrong.
EDIT: Minor edit to remove a swear and switch to textual emphasis.
I'm really not sure a sniper would be super useful in that situation. Obviously, different environment than the 2017 las vegas shooting, but I don't really think that those snipers on rooftops would really be effective at all in taking out a committed shooter, which could just shack up in one of the many buildings with windows facing the crowd and fire down or into the crowd. Maybe in that case, a sniper might be able to peep out where the shooter is, or might be able to get a shooter on the way in or out, but with the level of people there and the level of surrounding buildings, I'm really not sure they'd be able to do very much. Obviously if someone just walks in off the street and opens up on everyone, then a sniper might be more effective, but I dunno.
It seems insane to me because I've only met armed police once in my life, and that was at download festival in the UK after a spree of terrorist attacks across the UK and the rest of Europe.
That was quite entertaining however as the armed police kept having to run away from drunk people who wanted pictures taken with the guns.