Public to Secret Service at White House: Don’t fence us out

Washingtonians are pushing back against suggestions that the U.S. Secret Service might make it harder for the public to get close to the White House.

Reports in recent days suggested the service might respond to a security breach at the White House by increasing the security perimeter around the White House.

But locals and tourists alike, including Washington’s nonvoting member of Congress and a prominent architecture critic, say the service charged with guarding the president shouldn’t punish the public for its own lapse.

“Under no circumstances should the Secret Service be allowed to encroach further on the public space of Washington,” wrote Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post’s art and architecture critic. “This is an institutional, organizational problem,” he wrote. “It does not require an architectural solution.”

Officials already have gone too far in pushing back the public in the name of security throughout the nation’s capital, he said. “Ill-considered, unnecessary and undemocratic security measures” already block the public from the west terrace at the U.S. Capitol and from the front doors of the Supreme Court, he said.

The service on Monday imposed what it called a “temporary buffer zone” along the public sidewalk on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the White House. The waist-high barriers – like those used for crowd control at parades – prevent the public from getting close to the fence.

A spokesman for the Secret Service said Wednesday that the temporary closure would be in effect while the service conducted a “comprehensive review” of the fence-jumping incident last Friday, in which a man with a small knife climbed over the permanent fence, bolted across the lawn and made it into the White House before being detained.

As for further restrictions, spokesman Brian Leary said the Secret Service “is not aware of any definitive plans to add increased permanent security measures around the White House.”

Reports had surfaced through the weekend that the service might react to the breach with new security measures that could make it harder for people to get to the public areas around the house, including possibly stopping people a block or two away to check for weapons.

The temporary fence – which includes yellow signs that say “Police Line Do Not Cross” – created few fans among tourists Wednesday.

“We need security, but the government tends to overreact,” said Lisa Jones, 31, a tourist from Columbus, Ohio, who was among those disappointed Wednesday that the temporary barrier prevented her from making it to the fence to get a clear picture of the White House between the bars. “You can’t keep people from taking pictures of the White House. I hope they don’t start to try.”

Australian tourist Matt Falvey, 58, has seen a widening security zone in repeat visits to Washington. He toured the White House in the 1980s with no trouble, but he said it was now next to impossible, as it required a tough-to-get appointment at the Australian embassy. He remembers zipping by in a car on Pennsylvania Avenue when the street was open to traffic.

“This openness, standing in front of the White House, is something you want to treasure, but Americans are on the list of not-so-favorite countries in the world and they’ve got a huge job to protect the president,” Falvey said. “Unfortunately, it’s part and parcel of what’s happening around the world.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2014 at 7:54 PM with the headline "Public to Secret Service at White House: Don’t fence us out."