According to Malcolm Wiley of the Secret Service, this is NOT (repeat NOT) a Secret Service agent directing a riot squad in Quincy, IL yesterday:
Wiley explained that the Secret Service routinely marks a perimeter around venues like the Oakley Lindsay Civic Center before the president visits them and only directs local law enforcement to intervene when that perimeter is breached. Any suggestion that the Secret Service would interfere with a peaceful protest outside that perimeter is “inaccurate,” Wiley said.
Furthermore, the White House staff does NOT (repeat does NOT) direct law enforcement in any matters, even security. WH Midwest Communications Director Matthew Lehrich was terse and explicit on this point in his email to me.
So what did happen yesterday? Well, first of all the police in riot gear were stringers brought in from outside the area, as explained in this statement from the Quincy Police Department:
During President Obama’s address, at approximately 1530 hours, the MFFT (Mobile Field Force Team) was deployed. A group of individuals positioned themselves on the south side of York Street near 3rd Street. This was within the area that was to be kept secure at the request of the U. S. Secret Service agents in charge of the site. Prior to the event only ticketed individuals were to be in this area; during the event it was restricted to the general public completely. Secret Service personnel requested these individuals leave the area and to go back to the north side of York Street. They did not comply. Quincy Police Department personnel made the same requests and again they did not comply. At that time the MFFT was deployed to stand post between the individuals and the site and, if necessary, remove the individuals. Once the MFFT was in place, the individuals agreed to move. Once everyone complied and the site was again secure, the MFFT returned to their staging point. No physical force was used during this deployment. (Emphasis mine)
Get that? The Secret Service asked the protesters to move, the local police asked them to move, but they refused to move until an out-of-town tactical unit was marched into position. Moreover, in the videos and pictures none of the police officers has drawn a baton.
The Quincy Herald reported as much:
When the crowd didn’t move and began singing “God Bless, America” and the national anthem, Quincy Deputy Police Chief Ron Dreyer called for members of the Mobile Field Force to walk up the street.
The officers, mainly from Metro East departments near St. Louis and dressed in full body armor, marched from the east and stood on the south side of York facing the protesters.
There was no physical contact, and the officers did not come close to the crowd, but there were catcalls and more than a few upset tea party members, including a woman who shouted, “This is communism!“
That last statement says everything about the cognitive gap between the protesters on the one hand and the Secret Service, presidential staff, the newspaper, and local police — that is to say, everyone except the tea party protesters — on the other. For example:
(T)here has been a seismic shift in the nation’s political landscape…President Obama and his liberal allies are ready to threaten senior citizens, mothers with babies, military veterans and anyone else who dares exercise their First Amendment rights within a stone’s throw of an event like the one today. (Emphasis mine)
Or this:
Here’s the full video of Obama day in Quincy Wed 4-28-10. Complete with riot police who were brought in to intimidate a peaceful group of patriots. (Emphasis mine)
Or this:
So, this is what your dear leader thinks of YOU America. He doesn’t want to even see your face or know of your existence if you don’t agree with his policy. (Emphasis mine)
Or this:
Word is that Secret Service from inside the venue and the presidential team pressured local law enforcement, who were against the idea. Local cops were overruled, I’m told by various sources, including a few members of local press. Moore reported that she overheard Secret Service telling the riot squad to “push them back, out of sight.” (Emphasis mine)
Or this:
Team Obama ordered the riot police to march in and contain the violent tea party protesters. (Emphasis mine)
Or this:
President Obama was speaking nearby about Wall Street greed, and somebody obviously thought the Tea Partiers posed a major threat, because security reinforcements were brought in. (Emphasis mine)
The capstone to all this, of course, is that the tea party is more upset by the imaginary tyranny of President Obama than the actual criminal behavior of Wall Street he was talking about inside the building.
Even the protesters’ own videos show something very different from “commie tyranny.” Watch for march organizer Steve McQueen (with the bullhorn) at about the 1:40 mark telling the crowd to cross the street:
I think we can chalk this story up as a case of psychological projection. The tea party desperately wants to be oppressed, but the tyranny is all in their own minds.
Adding: I had forgotten until the comment below, but this did happen before.
