Obama inauguration crowds overwhelmed police, panel told

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress scolded federal law enforcement officials Wednesday over why thousands of their constituents didn't get to see Barack Obama sworn in as president in January despite holding coveted tickets to the ceremony.
A classified congressional report, part of which was released this week, found that visitors overwhelmed an understaffed cadre of law enforcement officers on Inauguration Day. Crowds knocked down barriers, crowded security zones and forced many ticket-holding spectators away from their coveted viewing areas nearest the Capitol.

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Among the problems, according to Wednesday's testimony: Spectators arrived before law enforcement officers. Signage was poor, and visitors without tickets mingled among those carrying tickets, breaking down any hope of orderly queues. Security maps conflicted.
Police tried to funnel 100,000 carriers of silver tickets through a single checkpoint and had turned down offers of help from the District of Columbia Army National Guard.

Also, just more than 300 police officers were dispatched to manage a crowd of 250,000.
Thousands were caught underground for hours in the so-called "Purple Tunnel of Doom" as emergency vehicles whizzed by and police officers did nothing to disperse the crowd.

-snip-
The chaos marred an otherwise calm day in which jubilant Obama supporters cheered for the new president and sang in the streets afterward. Police agencies reported no arrests among the estimated crowd of 1.8 million people.
Thousands of people who'd traveled from across the country with tickets from their members of Congress couldn't get close enough to see the swearing-in, however.



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It still amazes me that there were no arrests.

This is amazing: "I want to go back to the Purple of Tunnel of Doom," Wasserman Schultz said.
Police officers knew about the crowds in the tunnel, which was supposed to be off-limits to pedestrians, but they did nothing because the group stood peacefully.

The purple tunnel of doom sounded oh so pleasant.

they refused assistance from another department and were understaffed. They wanted to be able to say, "see how they are." The crowd didn't take the bait and the day was virtually violence free.

If they wanted something bad to happen, they would have been out in force provoking the crowd. It may have just been pure incompetence in the area of crowd control and poor planning.

I was amazed how positive both sides were, especially given the cold and the mass of people. I was also impressed with how orderly the exit was planned given that we were all leaving at the same time but came at different times.

Those of us with tickets (I was in the blue section right in front of the capitol directly behind the seated section) had maps of where to go. I never saw the tunnel as a choice. I would need to recheck my materials, but what may have happened is that some in the know thought that the tunnel would be a better way to enter. Those of us who were not DC savvy simply followed the map that was distributed with our tickets.

I will say that all that was asked for us to do was hold up our tickets so that someone with a piece of paper about the size of the ticket with (in my case since I was in the blue section) a blue border could go right in. Given the size of the crowd, to check each ticket would have been impossible. I am sure that the bold and the desperate were able to get in without tickets but if someone was that eager to take the risk, I with a valid ticket say, "God bless you...welcome!"

I feel bad for those who could not see, but even with my prime location, my lack of height (I'm short) meant that I couldn't see much. However, I simply wanted to be there. If I had wanted to see what was going on, I would have stayed home, saved a few thousand dollars, and been comfy and warm. Believe me, I think that Depends made a killing that day as did those pocket warmer companies!

Being there was amazing and worth all the effort and cold and chafing Depends and hunger and thirst (were afraid to eat or drink for fear there would be no handy restroom facilities but there was no portapotty crisis--even I used one with no wait or problems).

I felt that the police and National Guard and other security units did an unbelievable job. I am so sorry that there have been complaints. As for the 1.8 million estimate--on the Mall I think there were over 2 million at least. We couldn't bend over. We moved like one huge single being. It was incredible!

We had silver tickets, I think, but they were never taken. We more or less made it to the standing area designated for us. The official presence was so minimal as to really not constitute a presence. The worst example I saw was this - shortly after the inauguration, one of the subway stations nearest the Capitol was closed due to safety concerns, but there was no sign posted to announce that it was closed, and thus a crowd massed of dangerous size with no idea of where they should wait for trains or how to get out of the compressing crowd. We managed to talk to a volunteer who happened to be stuck in the crowd, waiting in a car, and she said to walk in a direction opposite the crowd and perhaps get to a subway station further east. That's what we did, and we found a church with open doors for our first bathroom or sitting break in 12 hours.

It still was an amazing experience, beyond amazing, but the official presence was basically invisible. Thank goodness for the love for humanity of progressive Americans!

The Federal Court Metro station which was nearest to us was supposedly closed, but what they were doing was clearing out the disabled and elderly first as well as opening the metro stations along the route in a certain order as to prevent serious injuries from the crowds being too great on the platforms as already overcrowded trains were unable to let more people on. It was actually genius, but to us in the Silver and Blue sections it seemed otherwise. The fact that there were no serious accidents (or any at all that I heard of) in the metro stations despite the crowds only attests to how well everything was actually planned. Yes, it seemed confused and it was a bit frustrating, but we all got back safely.

Friends who drove to DC for the day and took the Metro in, finally just gave up and walked from the Mall across the bridge back into Virginia where they got their car. It was a few miles but they said that being there was worth it.

If they wanted something bad to happen, the police could have incited violence very easily.

I think they just refused to believe the estimates.

it really was an overwhelming crowd in quite a small place. I'm just sooo vary happy there were no problems, at least none that I heard about, because if there had been, you know it would have been "Those damn violent and unrully Dems" on the media forever!

It was so funny because the mealy mouthed cable bobble heads gave their bland blah blah and Alice was saying, "We have to make sure that someone like Bush never occupies the White House again."

She was such a great color man. lol

good to be one of the anonymous masses.

And we had made reservations almost a year before. Cancelled them a few weeks before.

No regrets.

Not that I'm arguing; sometimes I like having the hell stunned out of me.

The mood was totally jubilant. We overwhelmed the vote rigging. Imagine how high Obama's total would have been, had we been able to see the real results.

People were looking out for each other and going out of their way to thank the police and other security people, even offering them their hand warmers and big smiles.

But I think that it was the positive energy that made the difference.

Arrest totals for the peace marches were very, very low.

and maybe use of the National Guard to back up the police would've sent the wrong message.

...sometimes NOTHING can overcome a crowd of 2 Million.

Shit happens...why are we looking to BLAME someone for an event that was of historical proportions???

Let's be amazed how well EVERYTHING ELSE went!!! We elected a good man for a tough job and over 2 Million people turned out to celebrate. No one was hurt, no arrests and no violence of any kind happened.

Considering everything that COULD have gone wrong...having a couple thousand folks inconvenienced is a minuscule price to pay.