Report: Secret Service Slow To Respond To 2011 White House Shooting

The White House is framed with the fence on the North side of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. The Secret Service is coming under renewed scrutiny after a man scaled the White House fence an... The White House is framed with the fence on the North side of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. The Secret Service is coming under renewed scrutiny after a man scaled the White House fence and made it all the way through the front door before he was apprehended. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) MORE LESS
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The Secret Service was slow to realize that shots were indeed fired at the White House in November 2011, resulting in a poorly-conducted investigation, according to an extensive Washington Post report published on Saturday.

According to the Post, when the gunman fired shots at the White House, the Secret Service rushed to respond. But agents were then told to “stand down” because the Service believed the noise came from a construction site.

The Secret Service then said that the shots were from a gang gunfight near the White House, even though at least seven bullets had actually struck the building. According to the Post, it took four days for the Secret Service to realize that bullets hit the White House after a housekeeper noticed a broken window.

The First Lady and the President were reportedly “infuriated” with the Secret Service response to the shooting. Sasha Obama was home at the time, along with Michelle Obama’s mother, Marion Robinson.

Read the Washington Post’s full investigation here.

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  1. “The Secret Service then said that the shots were from a gang gunfight near the White House, even though at least seven bullets had actually struck the building. According to the Post, it took four days for the Secret Service to realize that bullets hit the White House after a housekeeper noticed a broken window.”

    Perhaps we should bring in the Ferguson PD? At least they would have fired right back using the NYPD stop and shoot/beat policy.

  2. Avatar for imkmu3 imkmu3 says:

    Yet another “event” to distract from the real issue at hand–Benghazi.

  3. What is going on with the supervisors of the Secret Service? It reads like the on-scene officers did their jobs as trained, only to ordered to “stand down” by higher ups not on the scene. Even though this happened three years ago, but is only now being reported, I wonder if these relevant supervisors are still on the job? I also wonder if a perusal of their email accounts show certain types of Obama references?

  4. Military officers are dominated by conservatives. As Gen McChrystal showed, many have a blind, emotional, visceral hatred for liberals and especially (semi) liberal black presidents. It is not much of a jump to think that Secret Service agents share the same cultural values, and part of their negligence about protecting the president is that (maybe not so) secretly they wouldn’t mind seeing something happen to him.

  5. Avatar for DBuck DBuck says:

    Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

    Dan

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