Secret Service Discloses 40 Barrier-Jumping Incidents
A total of 40 people have illegally crossed into restricted areas outside the White House in fiscal years 2009 through 2014. That's more than twice as many as ex-Secret Service Director Julia Pierson intimated in testimony before Congress in late September, said a report in the Washington Examiner.
Of the 40 barrier-jumping incidents that the Secret Service says occurred, just 10 involved individuals hopping the permanent fencing outside the White House, acting Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in a letter, the Washington Examiner said. The other 30 bypassed temporary blockades surrounding the complex such as police tape or movable metal barricades.
The Examiner said most of those people were under the influence of drugs or alcohol or both. Several claimed to taking a shortcut to the D.C. Metro and a handful of others were out of towners who reportedly told police they didn't realize they were breaking the law.
Still the Secret Service arrests all but two of those individuals, the Examiner said.
A serious breach in 2010 involved a person 'rambling religious references' and having 'hallucinations' as he charged the White House, threatening to assassinate the president.
On Independence Day in 2011 a man dressed up as Uncle Sam skirted a barrier at Blair House after having proclaimed at the White House earlier that day that the president owed him a significant amount of money.
Also included in the Secret Service's report to Congress, according to the Examiner, is a February 2013 episode in which a mentally ill man ignored security measures and stormed the White House trying to validate the president's existence.
Of the 40 incidents, 30 bypassed temporary blockades surrounding the complex such as police tape or movable metal barricades, the Examiner said.
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