16,000 booted, mounted, gun cocked, and truncheon laden police are guarding the Olympics

Vancouver Olympics Security meet street demonstration with loaded guns, shields down

Slate – Using false credentials printed from the Internet, a mentally unstable man was able to bypass several layers of security at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver this past Friday.

Canadian police announced Wednesday that the man was apprehended only 12 rows from where Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, and other dignitaries were seated. He fled and was then apprehended again.

“The vice president was never in any danger,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Darren Anderson told USA Today. “It was determined that (the suspect) had no malicious intent.”

In a somewhat conflicting report, the New York Post reported that, according to Bud Mercer, the head of the 2010 Integrated Security Unit and an assistant commissioner with the RCMP, the man “had an infatuation with the U.S. Vice President.”

The Post also reported that the man, 48, made it within 12 feet of the vice president, as opposed to within 12 rows. No charges have been filed, but the man has been committed to a psychiatric facility. Police have not identified him as of early Thursday.

Read original story in USA Today