Late on a drizzly Friday night, just over a week following national insurgents stormed the U.S. Capitol, I returned to the scene to observe that the safety blockades being set for Joe Biden’s inauguration. Days before, I had realised tens of thousands of National Guard troops bivouacked in the complicated and managed to operate unimpeded. Certainly, the police wish to send a message of powerful deterrence.
With magnificent efficiency, roadblocks are established about a half-mile off to all paths resulting in the Capitol, Pennsylvania Avenue, the National Mall and the White House. Virtually everything a tourist could return to see from D.C. is currently behind cement barricades and large fences, and you need to park your vehicle and walk a number of ways for into a succession of perimeters.
The Secret Service is the lead agency, and it manages each entry stage, where you’re also very likely to experience D.C. Metropoitan Police, Capitol Police and the National Guard. I managed to get on the grounds simply by demonstrating my Senate media pass.
The Capitol is surrounded by numerous layers of fencing, a few topped with concertina wire, as you would see in a military installation. The scene proceeds west across Pennsylvania Avenue to the White Housethe identical path used for inaugural parades. This part of Washington is generally pretty quiet during the night, but with this particular midnight, there was practically no one to be seen for blocks, and automobiles were nearly nonexistent.
People have contrasted Washington right now to the Green Zone in Baghdad, and having been there several times I will let you know that the comparison is apt. But I am reminded no matter how the Green Zone felt weeks after it was established, but instead in the initial weeks following the invasion. There was an eerie desolation, the jolt of violence and transition was {} , and the future was unknowable.
