Green Arrow
09-21-2014, 11:04 PM
Via Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/white-house-checkpoints-secret-service-111190.html):
NEW YORK -- The U.S. Secret Service is having preliminary discussions about setting up security screening checkpoints near public areas around the White House, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press Sunday.
The official said the measures have been discussed by the agency previously. But the talks have taken on added urgency following an incident Friday in which a man carrying a knife jumped over a gate around the White House and made it to a building entrance.
The official insisted on anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations by name.
The Secret Service tightened security outside the White House after the embarrassing breach, in which Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, climbed the fence, ran across the lawn and entered the building before agents stopped him.
They were given the perfect excuse to try something new. They instituted cameras at every intersection (and other places), and Americans did not stop them. They instituted mandatory checkpoints, where police stop you for no reason and require that you show them your ID, not unlike the checkpoints of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, and Americans did not stop them. They have sent cops to stop people just walking down the street, demanding they show their ID, and arresting them when, bewildered, they refuse. Americans did not complain.
Now, they are going to set up "security screening" checkpoints "NEAR public areas AROUND the White House." The era of "papers, please" is here. Will Americans complain this time? Or will we continue to go quietly into open tyranny?
NEW YORK -- The U.S. Secret Service is having preliminary discussions about setting up security screening checkpoints near public areas around the White House, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press Sunday.
The official said the measures have been discussed by the agency previously. But the talks have taken on added urgency following an incident Friday in which a man carrying a knife jumped over a gate around the White House and made it to a building entrance.
The official insisted on anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations by name.
The Secret Service tightened security outside the White House after the embarrassing breach, in which Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, climbed the fence, ran across the lawn and entered the building before agents stopped him.
They were given the perfect excuse to try something new. They instituted cameras at every intersection (and other places), and Americans did not stop them. They instituted mandatory checkpoints, where police stop you for no reason and require that you show them your ID, not unlike the checkpoints of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, and Americans did not stop them. They have sent cops to stop people just walking down the street, demanding they show their ID, and arresting them when, bewildered, they refuse. Americans did not complain.
Now, they are going to set up "security screening" checkpoints "NEAR public areas AROUND the White House." The era of "papers, please" is here. Will Americans complain this time? Or will we continue to go quietly into open tyranny?