Pediatric Cancer Patients And Their Parents Shut Out Of Park So President Could Attend Gala
[guest post by Dana]
Eh, talk about optics being bad and a P.R. nightmare involving the White House. This time it was not the elderly being impacted, but rather very sick children and their families:
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.”
…
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.
The Truth 365 grass-roots child-cancer advocacy group had secured the necessary permits to hold “A Night of Golden Lights” candlelight vigil from 7 – 9 pm in the park.
Due to the park’s close proximity to the White House, it is regularly cleared out when security needs arise. And according to police officers and agents, President Obama exited the White House from an “entrance near the square” to attend the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Gala.
From a statement released by the Secret Service:
“The Secret Service would like to express its regret for not communicating more effectively with this group concerning the timeline for protectee movements in the vicinity of Lafayette Park.”
But seriously, two hours??
–Dana
Hello.
Dana (86e864) — 9/21/2015 @ 6:34 amthey shoulda brought clocks
happyfeet (831175) — 9/21/2015 @ 6:35 amBut seriously, the Congressional Black Caucus? A racist group if there ever was one. So a group of complaining black congresscritters is more important than kids with cancer. That figures. The compassion of the left strikes again.
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 9/21/2015 @ 6:51 amI’m not blaming the SCOAMF. The SS used to be proud organization, but now they’re a bunch of drunken whore-chasing losers, with leaders appointed to meet affirmative action quotas and massage Democrat constituencies. Frankly, I think that Obama should relegate them to traffic and crowd control and get detachments from the elite military units for his personal security detail.
nk (dbc370) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:02 amSo TFG couldn’t take an exit that spared these little ones?
felipe (b5e0f4) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:11 amAs much as I’d like to blame this on President Obama, I can’t: it’s highly unlikely that he was aware of the cancer event. I do blame the Secret Service, which is high-handed and peremptory, for not checking on something like this, and asking the Commander-in-Chief if he couldn’t choose to use a different exit.
There might be some blame for the people who run Lafayette Park; if the Secret Service “regularly: clears out the place for things like this, shouldn’t the park supervisors routinely inform the Secret Service about scheduled events?
The realistic Dana (f6a568) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:12 amThis makes more sense than your first paragraph. I completely expect TFG to read about this in the newspaper. Nobody tells him anything.
felipe (b5e0f4) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:20 am“There might be some blame for the people who run Lafayette Park; if the Secret Service “regularly: clears out the place for things like this, shouldn’t the park supervisors routinely inform the Secret Service about scheduled events?”
It’s across from the White House. I expect Secret Service would be the ones dictating the schedule, not the other way around.
jmann (cfaec1) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:29 amThe headline is misleading, if not outright deceptive. It wasn’t necessary to clear the park for Obama to attend the Black Caucus Gala, there’s more than one gateway from the WH. Obama’s motorcade could’ve taken a different route, one that wouldn’t have thwarted an approved event for children suffering from cancer.
The option to use an alternative exit must surely have been considered and rejected, someone in authority insisted on removing the children and their parents from the park, otherwise a more humane solution could easily have avoided the ugly conflict to the benefit of all involved. That individual is now hiding behind the Secret Service expecting them to take the blame for such an arrogant and heartless act.
ropelight (398147) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:35 amJmann,
If that’s the case, then the Secret Service gets to take the blame for this. If they regularly override scheduling decisions for the park, it’s up to them to male sure they don’t make the President look like a prick while doing so.
Of course, not making an arrogant prick look like what he is may not be high on their list of priorities….
C. S. P. Schofield (a25953) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:37 amI disagree with not assigning any blame to the PotUS. When the boss is a schmuck, underlings tnd to be schmucks as well.
seeRpea (e32c56) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:46 amsomeone in authority insisted on removing the children and their parents from the park
Perhaps an underhanded attempt by those required to be around Barry to make him look bad or even worse than he already is? Well, if so, it’s rotten that in the process of doing that, the good must suffer with the bad.
Mark (3cf5c0) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:48 amnk, “elite military units” … if we still have a few they’d be wasted as security guards. Perhaps the Army’s new Gay Pride Rainbow Marching Band would do?
bobathome (a52abe) — 9/21/2015 @ 7:50 amWhat optics. This wasn’t in the news for all that the national media cared abut it. Nope! Instead all over since the 18th of September was how a horrible drug maker jacked the prices of a cancer drug for kids. http://tinyurl.com/Cancerdrugjump and now it’s unaffordable. The even more partisan hack sites for the left have it that if only we had passed the ACA that was created by Obama this never would have happened and it’s all the evil GOP fault. There was not a single story except in the conservative media and blogs abut cancer kids being kicked out of a park by the administration.
Charles (2722dd) — 9/21/2015 @ 12:59 pmImagine how this would have been reported if it was Pres Bush that caused this.
JD (34f761) — 9/21/2015 @ 1:45 pmAccording to this report, the Secret Service is profusely apologetic about the mishap.
In the post, I wondered why it took two hours to get the president into the car and on his way. This from the event organizer:
Dana (86e864) — 9/21/2015 @ 8:04 pmAnd then there is this: