Extensive measures are used to protect the White House as the official residence (Executive Residence) and office space (West Wing) of the president of the United States, and grounds. Security is primarily provided by the United States Secret Service. Despite security measures (such as a fence), there have been some people who have still managed to gain unauthorized access to the White House.
Many of the intruders were "pranksters or harmless people with mental illnesses"; however, some have entered with the intention of harming people. [1]
Until the late 19th century, the White House maintained an open door policy with the public having access to the corridors and lobbies of the building. Lobbyists for example could wait in the hallways of the building to petition the president. This became a significant problem by the time of the Lincoln administration, which saw the building regularly filled with people "on all conceivable errands, for all imaginable purposes." Some would gain access by climbing through windows. While Lincoln was, to begin with, adamant about the importance of speaking to regular people, it grew excessive and the White House began to restrict visiting hours for the public to a twice weekly slot. Lincoln had the layout of the building adjusted so he could go for meals without navigating the public hallways. [2] The general open-door policy remained until around the time of the Cleveland presidency in the 1880s, and the grounds themselves were open until the Coolidge presidency in the 1920s. [3] After the Second World War, public access to the White House grounds became increasingly restricted, with the visitor office providing scheduled tours to a limited area of the building. [4] [5]
Various barriers to prevent unwanted access to the White House have existed since the time of Thomas Jefferson, who had a wooden barrier constructed in the early 19th century. An iron fence was constructed in 1819, and portions of this early barrier still exist. During the mid-1990s, the fence was expanded by one block to move traffic farther from the White House to prevent damage from any car bomb. [6] Since the September 11 attacks, the restricted airspace above the White House has been expanded and better enforced. [7] Temporary barriers are also regularly installed during inaugurations. During the George Floyd protests and 2020 elections, a new temporary fence was installed, with concrete barriers to prevent vehicles from ramming through. The fence was 13 feet (4.0 m) tall, twice the height of the previous. [8] [3] [9]
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Note that the White House maintained a broadly open door policy until the 1880s.
Note that the grounds were usually open to the public until the 1920s.
The United States Secret Service is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security with the purpose of conducting investigations into currency and financial-payment crime, and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and visiting heads of state or government. The Secret Service was, until 2003, part of the Department of the Treasury, due to their initial mandate of combatting counterfeiting of U.S. currency. The agency has protected U.S. presidents and presidential candidates since 1901.
Francisco Martin Duran is an American criminal who is mostly known for his actions of October 29, 1994, when he fired 29 rounds from an SKS rifle at the White House. Duran was later convicted of attempting to assassinate United States president Bill Clinton and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
A ha-ha, also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond from the other side. The name comes from viewers' surprise when seeing the construction.
A suicide bridge is a bridge used frequently by people to end their lives, most typically by jumping off and into the water or ground below. A fall from the height of a tall bridge into water may be fatal, although some people have survived jumps from high bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge. However, significant injury or death is far from certain; numerous studies report minimally injured persons who died from drowning.
Gerald Bryan Gainous Jr. was a resident of Washington D.C. who climbed the fence surrounding the White House four times in 1975 and 1976 during the Ford administration.
On February 17, 1974, U.S. Army Private First Class Robert Kenneth Preston (1953–2009) took off in a stolen Bell UH-1B Iroquois "Huey" helicopter from Tipton Field, Maryland, and landed it on the South Lawn of the White House in a significant breach of security. Preston had enlisted in the Army to become a helicopter pilot. However, he did not graduate from the helicopter training course and lost his opportunity to attain the rank of warrant officer pilot. His enlistment bound him to serve four years in the Army, and he was sent to Fort Meade as a helicopter mechanic. Preston believed this situation was unfair and later said he stole the helicopter to show his skill as a pilot.
The 1985 White House intrusion occurred on 20 January 1985 when Robert Allen Latta, a 45-year-old water meter reader, successfully entered the White House uninvited.
Chester Plummer was a taxi driver in the Washington, D.C. area of the United States who attempted to invade the White House.
The Secure Fence Act of 2006, also labelled H.R. 6061, is an act of the United States Congress which authorized and partially funded the construction of 700 miles (1,125 km) of fencing along the Mexican border. The Act was signed into law on October 26, 2006, by U.S. President George W. Bush, who stated at the time that the Act would "help protect the American people", would "make our borders more secure", and was "an important step toward immigration reform".
Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, was involved in multiple security incidents, including several assassination threats and plots, starting from when he became a presidential candidate in 2007. Secret Service protection for Obama began after he received a death threat in 2007, while serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois and running for president. This marked the earliest time a candidate received such protection before being nominated. Security was increased early for Obama due to fears of possible assassination attempts by white supremacist or other racist groups or individuals against the first African American major party presidential nominee.
An intrusion of the White House occurred on September 19, 2014, when Omar J. Gonzalez, an Iraq War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, jumped over the White House's fence and entered the building's front door, overpowered a security officer, was stopped by another who was off-duty, then later by multiple security officers, and arrested. He was found to have a small knife in his pocket, and stated that the "atmosphere was collapsing" and he needed to tell the president so that he could alert the public. President Barack Obama and his family were not home at the time of the incident. As a result of this incident and other security breaches at the White House, the then-director of the United States Secret Service, Julia Pierson, resigned from her position on October 1, 2014.
On November 11, 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, an unemployed 21-year-old man, fired multiple shots at the White House using a semi-automatic rifle. At least seven bullets hit the second floor. Neither President Barack Obama nor First Lady Michelle Obama were home at the time; the president was not in Washington, D.C., having been on a trip abroad. However, the couple's youngest daughter, Sasha, and the first lady's mother, Marian Shields Robinson, were in the White House. No one was injured. It took four days for the Secret Service to realize that bullets had struck the White House. Michelle Obama learned of the shooting from an usher, then summoned Mark J. Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, to find out why the first family had not been informed.
The 1912 White House intrusion occurred on April 13, 1912, when a man who identified himself as "Michael Winter" successfully forced his way into the White House twice.
Between 1937 and 2012, an estimated 1,400 bodies were recovered of people who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge, located in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States.
On April 22, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at a Waffle House restaurant in the Antioch neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, when 29-year-old Travis Jeffrey Reinking fatally shot four people and injured two others with an AR-15 style rifle. Another two people were injured by broken glass. Reinking was rushed by an unarmed customer, James Shaw Jr., who wrestled the rifle away and stopped the shooting spree. Reinking was captured on April 23, ending a 34-hour manhunt.
The storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, raised concerns about the security of the inauguration of Joe Biden two weeks later on January 20, 2021. The inauguration, like all ceremonies since the first inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, was designated a National Special Security Event (NSSE); however, on this occasion, the week preceding it was included in preparations. Biden chose not to move the ceremony indoors, indicating that he believed a public, outdoor ceremony was necessary to demonstrate strength. Former Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco advised the Biden team on security-related matters for the ceremony.
Hurricane is a retired Special Operations canine of the United States Secret Service. He is a 15-year-old black Belgian Malinois recognized for his valor and bravery in 2014.
On May 22, 2023, a U-Haul truck crashed into the north barriers of Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. The driver, Sai Varshith Kandula, is accused of having intended to seize power.
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