Part of White House 'being evacuated'
Source: Reuters
White House is being evacuated after a fence jumper got over. Guards with guns drawn. pic.twitter.com/DRCP3QsIpW
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-09-20/part-of-white-house-evacuated/
Part of White House 'being evacuated'
Part of the White House has been evacuated following a reported security alert, a witness has told Reuters.
Initial media reports suggested a person managed to jump over the fence moments after President Obama departed.
Read more: http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-09-20/part-of-white-house-evacuated/
= new reply since forum marked as read
and INTO the White House?
rocktivity
Last edited Sat Sep 20, 2014, 01:24 AM - Edit history (1)
wouldn't lockdown be a smarter tactic? That would ensure that no one could get in.
ON EDIT: And it turns out that he DID get past a door!
rocktivity
...The incident occurred just minutes after President Barack Obama and his daughters left the White House on Friday evening aboard Marine One on their way to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where Obama and his family were to spend the weekend.
White House staffers and Associated Press journalists inside the West Wing were evacuated by Secret Service officers, some with their weapons drawn. A Secret Service agent at the scene said someone had jumped over the fence on the north side of the White House.
Those evacuated were later allowed back into the White House, but the area remained closed to pedestrian traffic.
Last week, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Secret Service apprehended a man who jumped over the North Fence of the White House. Officers drew their firearms and used a service dog as they took the man in custody.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/fence-jumper-white-house-sparks-evacuation-25637596
Haven't been able to get the video of the man jumping the fence to work or any pictures of the jumper.
One would have thought ...
Personally however, one is quite happy that he was not simply shot down in the casual manner in which American "law enforcement" officers are becoming known for.
Cop Shoots Dead an Unarmed, Tased and Subdued Teen, “We don’t have time for this” Bang!
... the Southport Police Officer that had instructed the other officers to use their tasers, moved between the father and the pile of people on the floor and said “We don’t have time for this” and shot Vidal Once in the chest as the other two Officers held him on the floor.
Vidal’s father then grabbed the officer as he was lining himself up for another shot... http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-shoots-dead-unarmed-tased-subdued-teen-we-time-this-bang/
In 1994 the US Congress ordered the US Attorney General to publish reports annually on the use of excessive force by police - the nation still waits for the first of these reports to be published.
"Excess is in the eyes of the beholder" says one cop ... http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/14/22293714-what-is-police-brutality-depends-on-where-you-live?lite
and still be difficult to ford. It only takes some imagination. Really, even if the person does manage to get over it, it would take more time to do so if the top were better designed (even if simply done in an artistic manner) such that the SS would have plenty of time to prevent that one even making it to the other side.
Looking for wrought iron fencing online doesn't help here. It's all mass-produced, with very little of the artistic medium represented. It's a fantastic medium for working in metal, allowing so much in the way of twisting, looping, and yes, sharp points. Just make it a little higher, twist the top points around in ways that make it difficult to get not only a good handhold, but to get one's body up and over. People might even appreciate it for the art of it, without ever recognizing any hidden security within the design 
Here's an example of artistic fencing (by Albert Paley) :
VIDEO shows intruder running to the White House, triggering security alert http://on.fb.me/1v1srvg
https://twitter.com/PzFeed/status/513117098772807681
Obama's secret service is turning into a vaudville act! There was that business in The Netherlands, and Columbia, that gate-crashing couple, the the agents who sent sexual harassment letters -- and that's just what we know about!
rocktivity
Last edited Sat Sep 20, 2014, 12:52 PM - Edit history (1)
That simply should have been locked when the guard saw him coming. Assuming, of course, that someone is guarding the all the entrances at all times.
rocktivity
A neighbor leashed my pasture and had other cattle across the road. One afternoon I noticed her bull walking up to the fence which was like the one in your picture.
The wires were cinched tight, but he walked it down. One hoof on the bottom wire, PING! Down went the supports on either side, pulling down a few spans of wire past that one. Then the next, PING! And so on. Until he brought down the last strand and began to straddle the fence, but then he stopped.
He'd been very quiet and deliberate the whole time he was doing this. He was full grown, it wasn't like I was interested in getting between him and his goal, which turned out to be a few cows who were calling to him.
He'd looked down to check his uh, equipment, for the job he planned to do and in particular, his scrotum, which was rather low. So he considered the dilemma carefully. I thought that was the end of it.
I ran to the inside to call his owner but when I got out to wait for her, he'd made it across the road to the gate, with his little group of cows right behind him. By then his owner arrived and she unlocked the gate and let him in the other pasture.
I asked, how could he do that to my fence? It's barbed wire! It was up tight, and all of that!
She just laughed and said...
'Oh, a barbed wire fence? That's just a suggestion to 'em. They can get out anytime.'
?itok=BouNB1Hg
By ABC News, CNN, Associated Press
Updated: September 19, 2014 - 11:39 pm
A Secret Service agent gives directions during an evacuation from the White House, Sept. 19, 2014, in Washington. (AP photo)
...Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said a 42-year-old man jumped the North Fence and ran toward the White House, but appeared to officers to be unarmed. He was apprehended just inside the North Portico doors of the presidential residence...
Donovan said the man was arrested and was taken by ambulance to a Washington hospital because he complained of chest pain...
Those evacuated were later allowed back into the White House, but the area remained closed to pedestrian traffic...
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/09/fence-jumper-at-white-house-sparks-evacuation-107324.html
This is the restrained and humane behavior I've come to expect of this administration in dealing with Americans.
Thanks, itsrobert and steve for keeping on this story.
Last edited Sun Sep 21, 2014, 12:35 PM - Edit history (3)
Their "tremendous restraint and discipline" are probably the reasons why someone decided to take a crack at driving through the White House gate the very next day. If the White House had been able to report that Gonzalez had literally been stopped in his tracks (but not necessarily fatally), the odds are that there wouldn't have been a second arrest in less than 24 hours.
(link)
rocktivity
I guess they didn't need to evacuate the basement, the sub-basement, the catacombs, the wine cellar and the bottomless pit beneath the Dome.