Unit 8
Joseph Delbert
CJ407-01: Crisis Negotiation
01-07-2014

Abstract

We have not always had crisis negotiation there was a time we law enforcement relied on just the basic communicational skills of their officers. There were no set guidelines to negotiation, not formal training, and least of all a negotiation team. The Attica prison riot and the 1972 Olympic Terrorist attack both had the same things in common, hostages and demands. The following of these historical events led to a change in the application of crisis negotiation.

Unit 8

The Attica prison riot began on September 9, 1971, in Attica, New York. There were about 1,000 rebelled and seized control of the prison. The reason for the riot was based on the prisoners' wanting better living conditions as the prison was over overcrowded at the time. There were 43 staff members taken hostage during the riot, which the prisoners for hostages and negations. For 4 days the prisoners made demands and the authorities agreed. Negotiations broke down over two key points. The prisoners wanted amnesty from criminal prosecution of the riot and the authorities wanted the removal of the prison’s superintendent. Once the hostages’ lives were threatened the prison was stormed, 39 people were killed, but control was regained of Attica. In the end between the riot and the storming of the prison 43 people were dead (NYSED, 2013).
1972 Olympic in Munich, West Germany was the scene of a terrorist attack. 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, 9 were taken hostage by a group that called them self’s the Black September Organization. The BSO used the Olympic team members as hostages to demand the release of 234 prisoners that were being held in Israeli jails and others in the German prisons. Negotiations broke down in less than 24 hours,