Jo Freeman writes: The Wall that Trump Built

There were a few stores still open for business, mostly places to eat. Starbucks had customers in it; CVS did not. Buildings were heavily boarded, even inside the security zone. A lot of windows were broken during the BLM protests last June. In November, anticipating election violence, the windows were boarded up. After the Trump rally on November 8, the Mayor asked building owners to remove the boards. Those that did, started putting them back up on January 7.

Union station was between these two security perimeters. Bus transportation to DC simply ceased because they couldn’t get in to discharge or pick up passengers. Some trains were running, since they came in underneath. I visited Union Station on two of my trips, as it had the only public bathroom still open to the public within the security zone.

The escalators were running even if the busses were not. I took one to the top parking lot, to see what I could see. Got a nice view of the train tracks. There were no cars. I saw exactly one bus on the bus level and it wasn’t running. I saw no people, not even a security guard.

The main floor had one woman meditating right in the middle of a lot of empty space. A few people with bags were waiting for their train. They couldn’t take a Metro, or bus, or cab into the station so they had to walk their bags in. There were lots of Amtrack Police, some with dogs, just hanging around talking to each other. They didn’t have anything else to do.

The only protestors I saw in four days were a few Jesus hippies. They are still using the same signs I’ve seen time and time again. They didn’t have much of an audience for their spiel, but they gave it anyway.

The press said there were 25,000 members of the National Guard in town. I believe it. They were everywhere. The day before the inauguration, chartered busses were bringing them in in droves. Some individuals were friendly. Some just wanted me to scoot.

I’ve been to half a dozen inaugurations, though I only had press credentials for 1993. Usually you can find someplace from which to watch the parade. This year I watched it all on TV. Overall, law enforcement went from under-response to the January 6 riot to over-reaction. They closed things down as though they were expecting an armed invasion and not just a few hundred cult fanatics.

Trump told us he was going to build a "big, beautiful wall." We just didn’t know that it would be in Washington, D.C.　

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Jo Freeman writes: The Wall that Trump Built

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