Why all the fuss with the park police at DC's national memorials?
At the World War II memorial, they've set up barricades to keep people out "due to the government shutdown," but when government is functioning normally, the site isn't staffed 24 hours/day and visitors are free to come and go as they please.
At the Lincoln Memorial, similar barricades have been set up and park police are standing guard:
"Essential" personnel fencing in the Lincoln Memorial which is normally open to public 24/7 https://t.co/FUymf9y5lK
— Morgen (@morgenr) October 2, 2013
As Legal Insurrection points out, the same site was open to visitors during the last government shutdown in the 1990s. In those pre-9/11 days, tourists were "free to wander the halls of the Capitol, touch the walls of the Vietnam Memorial, and climb the steps of the Lincoln Memorial."
"[W]hat are they going to do next -- hang a drapery over Mt. Rushmore?" Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert wonders.
This is Shutdown Theater. This is Obama's America.
Obama's America... pic.twitter.com/P38BDsne5d
— Morgen (@morgenr) October 2, 2013
