The Washington Post reported a new Secret Service scandal on Tuesday. They kicked out a bunch of kids with cancer from a candlelight vigil in Lafayette Square across from the White House on Saturday night, allegedly to protect the president from...dangerous kids with cancer?
While the Obama staff celebrated the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage within hours by lighting up the People’s House like a rainbow -- which Obama called "a moment worth savoring" -- the children with cancer were protesting in part the failure of the White House to light the presidential mansion with gold light in solidarity with their cancer fight. Late in the article, reporters Dana Hedgpeth and Fredrick Kunkle relayed:
The candlelight vigil came about partly because of the group’s inability to persuade the White House to light up the mansion in gold as a symbol of support for the cause, as it has done for other causes, organizers said. So they decided to hold a candlelight vigil of their own. Last year was the first.
The story’s headline on the front of the Metro section was incredibly bland: "Apology follows incident at park: Secret Service contacts childhood cancer group."
That's apparently more objective than "Crying kids with cancer kicked out by Secret Service." It began:
The head of the Secret Service apologized for how a group of children suffering from cancer and their supporters were treated after they said they were pushed out of Lafayette Square on Saturday night. [Said they were pushed out?]
Joseph Clancy, director of the Secret Service, called one of the organizers on Monday after CureFest for Childhood Cancer said that about 700 parents and children were ordered out of the park in front of the White House for at least two hours. The move disrupted their plans for a candlelight vigil to raise awareness and research funding for childhood cancer.
In response, the Secret Service suggested some of the kids could tour a Secret Service training facility. So Ahmed the Clockmaker gets inside the White House, and these children don’t?
Where are the networks on this story, exploiting the emotional appeal? NBC's Today had a story from Chris Jansing Tuesday morning, which barely mentioned "the president." Heather Nauert reported the story on Fox & Friends with no mention of Obama. It's a heart-tugger:
“We ended up waiting at the gates for two hours, and they never let us in,” said Natasha Gould, an 11-year-old from Canada 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.”
....Organizers, aligned with the Truth 365 grass-roots child-cancer advocacy program, said they had obtained the necessary permit a year ago to hold “A Night of Golden Lights,” in which participants would light about 100 battery-operated candles.
Gillette said the group was asked to leave Lafayette Park on Saturday afternoon.
“We were told that it was related to movement from within the White House,” he said.
The group left the area, he said, and they were let back onto the grounds after about 40 minutes.
Gillette said a ranger with the Park Service had told them earlier in the day that there was a chance that the president was going to go back out again.
“She said, ‘We want you to know that,’ ” Gillette said. The ranger also told him that “if he uses one of the different exits, it would not impact your event.”
....About 7:15 p.m., just as the group was about to kick off the centerpiece of their event — with music, speakers and more guests coming from the nearby JW Marriott hotel — they were told that they had to get off the grounds again....
The group — which had drawn people from 40 states, along with Scotland, Canada and Australia — complied.
Gillette said they waited “and waited and waited” outside the barricaded area. He said the Secret Service agents on the scene were “professional and polite.”
“They couldn’t provide us with much information but kept saying it shouldn’t be much longer,” Gillette said.
He said some people in the group had close friends and family in the Secret Service, and, after roughly 90 minutes, they started to make calls and found out that the Secret Service had decided that it would close the park for “however long it took for the president to return.”
But as the closure continued, 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 was not allowed access to personal items they left behind, such as chairs and blankets.
Police officers and agents at the scene 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.
“At first, we were patient. I mean, we’re a peaceful community; we’re fighting for kids’ lives,” said Anthony Stoddard of New Hampshire, who, after the death of his 5-year-old son, started an initiative to light public buildings in gold as a show of support for children who have cancer. “But after about an hour, or hour and a half, it started getting a little angry, some of the fathers.”
Some parents considered the park closure excessive, perhaps driven by the agency’s embarrassment over previous high-profile security lapses. Others read into it signs of a White House snub of their cause.
Since the Secret Service kept the park closed for more than three hours, the kids eventually had a lame 20-minute event outside the "danger zone."
Around 9:15 p.m., the crowd started to dwindle because it was apparent that there was “no end in sight” to the waiting, Gillette said. Organizers started to do a makeshift program outside the security perimeter near H and 16th streets NW.
The event lasted about 20 minutes.
“It was disheartening,” Gillette said. “There were families who came from all over the country to honor their children, and this moment meant a lot to them.”
He said there were also kids — who did not have cancer but who were “looking forward to performing.”
“It was very disappointing to see the looks on their faces,” he said.
Many of the kids ended up performing on the street, illuminated by cellphone flashlights instead of being on a professional stage with lights.
By the time the group got back into Lafayette Square around 10:30 p.m., organizers said, only a handful of supporters were left.
So how would a story like this be covered by the liberal media if the President was a Republican, and his security was so tight that a kids-with-cancer demonstration was ruined by the Secret Service because he or she had to make a speech at a partisan political event?
Ironically, Obama used that speech before the Black Caucus activists to attack Fox News for ignoring his devout love and appreciation for police officers.
