Feds: Zero Arrests During Obama Inaugural
By James Gordon Meek
This was an Inaugural security update I posted last night on the New York Daily News' Mouth of the Potomac Blog:
Nobody got arrested during President Obama’s record-smashing Inauguration celebration, The Mouth learned tonight from a half-dozen D.C. and federal law enforcement officials.
Think about that folks.
Crowd estimates range from 1-2 million on the National Mall today. And no one left wearing bracelets.
“As of 6 p.m. no one had been arrested by any agency - unheard of for a crowd that size,” said one senior federal agent inside the Joint Information Center. “Quite a testament to the President and the people wanting change for the better.”
“There were no reports of any arrests,” confirmed a D.C. Police spokesman.
A Homeland Security Department spokesman also said no arrests were logged Tuesday by feds.
Mostly, the 20,000 National Guard troops and cops helped Obamaniacs with medical emergencies. There was only one protest from a group asking Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay terror prison.
We also reported today that there was a moment of drama early Tuesday.
U.S. Park Police dispatchers radioed a bolo - "be on the lookout" - for three vehicles belonging to a petty criminal from New York, who they warned should be treated with caution. The "person of interest" had vanity plates on each vehicle that are variations of President Obama's last name. Why he was being sought remains unclear, however.
The FBI and Homeland Security Department had also issued a law enforcement bulletin late Monday about Somali-Americans recruited by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab insurgent group in East Africa. But it appeared to be based mostly on an analytic judgment ,rather than any hard intel, that the Inauguration could be targeted, my sources told me.
All in all, Tuesday was a near perfect day in the world of security. So hats off to all involved.
