Unfulfilled hopes and expectations met thousands of people as freezing temperatures, mismanaged security lines, unruly crowds, limited supplies of toilet paper, and pushed-over port-a-pots became the reality of those attending the 2009 Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama.
And, that was if a ticket holder was lucky to get past the security gate.
The pain and misery of more than 30,000 ticket holders locked out of the ceremony was widely ignored by the media, who were too busy fawning over the who’s who list of upper-echelon politicians and celebrities attending the $150 million to $170 million gala.
While the monies were used to provide a lavish window dressing and expanded coverage on the event, the real story of desperation and despair was happening outside the scope of their camera lens, as panicked crowds, disrespectful behavior and dashed dreams of witnessing the inauguration became the fare of the day.
Despite thousands of police officers and military personnel assigned to the areas nearest the U.S. Capitol, it became apparent they were there to guard one man — President-elect Obama. None seemed willing or interested in assisting the throngs of visitors, numbering in the millions, who braved hours of subfreezing temperatures to attend the historic ceremony.
Chaotic situation ensues
Potentially safe passages were often blocked by metal fences or barricades, causing thousands of people to become log-jammed, with no place to go.
As the crowds converged in the dead-end spaces, dangerous situations of pushing, shoving, and crushing were created with police and military officials often looking on without reaction to the pleas and screams of the trapped people who were afraid for their lives.
Ticket holders to the event, especially those with the blue and purple passes to the ceremony, fared the worst. Each gate was responsible for filtering in 20,000 separate ticket holders, but, in reality, they could not process that many people in the two-and-a-half hours planned before the ceremony.
The slow pace of the lines gave way to pushing and crushing shoves from the back as anxious ticket holders tried to get in the gates before Obama’s arrival. Once he arrived, however, the gates were shut tight and tens of thousands turned away from the festivities.
These same people had braved standing in the cold for hours the day before to get into their senators’ and House members’ offices to secure their tickets.
There were no respecters of persons on those who did or didn’t make it in. It didn’t matter whether the bearer of the ticket was a celebrity, doctor, lawyer, college president, or politician, it’s estimated that 30,000 people or more were turned away from the event without apology.
Greensboro mayor left out
Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson was one of those unable to make it pass the security checkpoint into her section.
“It was something else,” she said. “I was a blue ticket holder and I didn’t get in. We were just pure stuck. We weren’t moving. I think if they had done a better job of planning that this would not have happened.”
Greensboro resident and business owner Barbara Maddox was ecstatic after receiving six purple tickets from U.S. Rep. Howard Coble’s, R-N.C., office and four from another source. The proud African-American woman was excited to bring close friends and family members to the Capitol to be eyewitnesses to history in the making.
Although they were staying near Dulles Airport, the group had dutifully come to town Monday to pick up their tickets, and then made a dry run for the next day.
“We knew exactly what we needed to do,” Maddox said. “We knew exactly where we needed to come in. We were very familiar with the area.”
They had made a plan and a contingent plan in case something went wrong, but they never considered they would be locked out for the event.
Because of the large crowds, Maddox’s entourage decided to leave their hotel at 5:15 a.m., earlier than they had originally scheduled. They drove to West Falls Church, where they hopped on the metro without any major delay. They arrived at the Judiciary Stop at 7:20 a.m., relying on the alerts and updates the group was receiving via email.
They arrived at the purple ticket gate with plenty of time to spare. Maddox noticed there was no presence of any sort of officials connected with the event. There was no line, only a “sea of people.”
“My expectation was that they had issued a certain number of tickets for a certain number of gates and there would be an orderly line,” she said. “There was none of that. There was only a street filled with people with nowhere to go.”
Although she wasn’t afraid, Maddox was worried about a potential stampede of anxious people. She also tried to stay focused and alert to her surroundings, in order not to fall and be trampled by the maddening rush. “It didn’t take very long for it to become a chore for us just to stay upright and maintain our footing,” she said.
With the crowd pushing and jostling, Maddox became separated from most of her group. When 8 a.m. came and went without the mass of people moving forward, she began to wonder what was going on. “We saw another line to another gate start moving, but we never moved,” she said. “There was no one there who told us what to do.”
By this time, the subfreezing temperatures were affecting Maddox’s group. Maddox’s niece tried to pull some hand warmers out of her pocket, but the crowd was so tight she couldn’t get to them. “That’s how congested we were,” she said. “We were like Vienna sausages in a can.”
Some people were trying to get into the purple gate without tickets, Maddox said. Instead of corralling the offenders and making them wait, officials at the security gate sent them back through the already compacted crowd.
As people suffered physical problems from standing for hours in the crowd, some called 911. Instead of sending ambulances on the nearby empty boulevard, rescue workers pushed the vehicles through the crowd, causing further chaos and panic.
“Evidently two or three people went down,” Maddox said. “But, the crowd was so thick that I couldn’t see. The emergency vehicles came through all the people. I had to brace my feet in just to stand, it was so tightly compressed.”
Ten police officers finally arrived on the scene, but the time for the inauguration drew near, Maddox said. Instead of informing the anxious gathering about what was going on, the police simply locked themselves together and began moving through the crowd toward the security gate.
“They did not talk or communicate with us at all,” she said. “There was no bullhorn to communicate with such a massive crowd. Why didn’t they send someone to tell us what was going on? I was extremely ticked.”
By 10:20 a.m. the crowd appeared to be making small increments of progress, However, Maddox and the two remaining members of her party realized they didn’t have time to get in the gate. Through cell-phone communication Maddox learned that a man in the crowd had inappropriately groped her adult daughter.
“She didn’t want to make a fuss because of the dangerous situation, but that’s when we decided to get out,” she said. “We at least wanted to make an attempt to see the inauguration from somewhere.”
Maddox locked arms with her husband and niece and finally broke free of the pack, quickly heading away from the area. They tried to find a restaurant or another place to watch the inauguration. After two failed attempts, they found an establishment that allowed them entry in enough time to see Vice President Joe Biden take his oath of office.
When the ceremony was complete, Maddox left downtown with bittersweet memories. “I was glad that I was there,” she said. “There was nowhere else I would rather be. I knew there would be variables that could keep us from getting in, but it never occurred to me that the people running the inauguration would keep us from going in. That’s what hurts so much. We had guaranteed spaces. We were shut out.
“We’ve done our crying and everything. Thinking about all the money we spent and the time we spent. We did everything we were supposed to do. We were at the right gate. I was there, but I wasn’t on the mall. I was there, but I wasn’t there. Now the inaugural committee downplaying the whole thing as a security breach is ridiculous. There should be some restitution.”
Ticketholders demand investigation
Similar to Maddox, many thwarted ticket holders have written or called their congressional delegates demanding an investigation into the matter.
Thomasville resident Eric Bebber, also stuck in the chaos at the purple ticket gate, wrote to Coble of his plight.
“I was one of those purple ticket holders who was turned away, along with my wife and our friends,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I, along with about 30,000 other people, felt the disappointment of neither seeing nor hearing the events at the ceremony (not even on the big screen) because of the incompetence of those managing security and entrance. As a constituent, I wanted you to be informed of the mess.”
Many members of Congress already have signed a document calling on answers from Sen. Diane Feinstein, Sen. Bob Bennett, and other members of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
Feinstein and Bennett have apologized and offered a selection of collectible inauguration memorabilia, but most attendees do not think that is enough.
“There has to be some restitution,” Maddox said. “There isn’t anything they can do to replace me being on that mall at that moment. Any sort of amends is going to be a consolation prize.”
Karen Welsh is a contributor to Carolina Journal.