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Cancer-stricken children, parents ejected from park near White House

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Sep 20, 2015.

  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    No reports of Muslims among the cancer stricken kids, but also no one put in handcuffs, so just your average day of security theater:

    The U.S. Secret Service ordered hundreds of parents and their cancer-stricken children out of Lafayette Square on Saturday night, barricading the park for at least two hours and disrupting the group’s plans for a candlelight vigil to raise awareness and research funding for childhood cancer, participants said.

    Some of the parents and children expressed hurt and disappointment that the Secret Service and Park Police, citing security precautions, virtually shut down part of a two-day event called CureFest for Childhood Cancer.

    “We ended up waiting at the gates for two hours, and they never let us in,” said Natasha Gould, an 11-year-old Canadian girl who started a blog after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor this year. “And to be clear, the entire crowd was half kids. I cried last night in my hotel room because it was my first CureFest, and I couldn’t believe people were acting like they don’t care about children.”

    Public information officers for the Secret Service and the Park Police were not able to comment immediately. Closures of Lafayette Square have occurred periodically since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and security incidents at the White House.


    Cancer-stricken children, parents ejected from park near White House
     
  2. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    What, no hashtag? Weak sauce, CureFest, weak sauce ...
     
  3. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Obama saw some kids playing on his lawn, and told them to get the hell off. What's the big deal?
     
  4. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    One of the kids had a briefcase holding some breathing apparatus and they thought it was a bomb.
     
  5. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    If Obama truly was evil, he should have let them into the WH for a special signing ceremony, so they could see him sign an executive order allowing insurance companies to deny their kids coverage due to preexisting conditions.
     
  6. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Who took the more ridiculous security measures, the school officials/police in Texas, or the US Secret Service:

    But as the closure dragged on, some of the sick children, fatigued by the wait or the need to receive medication, had to return to their hotel rooms, organizers said. Others began crying, and some parents became enraged. Attendees said the group of at least 700 people were not allowed access to personal items they left behind, such as chairs and blankets.

    Police officers and agents on the scenes told some parents that the closure was necessary because President Obama had left the White House from an entrance near the square to address the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual gala.
     
  7. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    The school, obviously, since it was one kid who they knew wasn't a threat. Inarguable among the sane.
     
  8. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Do you think the US Secret Service considered the cancer kids and their parents to be any kind of threat to the President?

    Do you think the President couldn't have been moved without having to expel these kids from the park?

    I'm all for keeping the President safe, but this had nothing to do with safety.
     
  9. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    I believe they believe they did.
     
  10. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    OK, I'll bite (without taking a position on what the Secret Service did here). If it had nothing to do with safety, what did it have to do with?
     
  11. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Theater. Bureaucracy. Doing things "the way they've always been done".

    I'm not suggesting any ulterior motives. This is just how the USSS operates, but it wasn't because they thought the cancer kids were a threat to the President.
     
  12. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    lack of diversity in the childhood cancer awareness meetings. Its pretty much a white middle class thing and Obama was on his way to the COngressional Black Caucus Dinner, which is BLack New Year's Eve and Beyonce's birthday all rolled into one. Need to show the CBC that Obama is one of them, by putting whitey in his place.

    You Bite, I spit
     
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