D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton on Thursday fired back at former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer over his suggestion that the Capitol should be fenced and roads surrounding it closed off, calling his proposal “a slap in the face” to constituents and the police.
In an interview, Gainer told the publication Roll Call that the Capitol should be encompassed by a “tasteful fence,” and that the two streets running on either side of the building are now an “attractive nuisance” and should be closed.
Gainer’s comments followed the arrest Wednesday of a man who jumped the White House fence, the second such incident in two months.
But Norton said despite the recent intrusions on the White House grounds, Gainer’s suggestion is unjustified.
“Calling the streets around the Capitol an ‘attractive nuisance’ is the same as calling the public a nuisance,” Norton said in a statement. “Gainer’s notion of a ‘tasteful fence’ would be inherently distasteful and disrespectful to D.C. residents and the millions who visit the Capitol each year. Worse, closing the streets and enclosing the Capitol within a fence would send the message that a Congress that cannot keep itself safe without fencing itself in cannot keep the country safe.”
Norton, a Democrat, is a long-time opponent of fences and barricades around federal buildings in Washington D.C. She protested the decision to close Pennsylvania Avenue in front of White House after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and lobbied to reopen the Capitol to tours following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Gainer, meanwhile, has been a longtime proponent of increasing Capitol security. He’s served as chief of the Capitol Police from 2002 until 2006 before becoming the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and was responsible for many of the security increases implemented after Sept. 11.
There are no fences or barricades preventing the public from walking onto the Capitol grounds, but all entrances are guarded by several armed police officers.
