Purple tunnel of doom after-action report: "survivors" offer lessons learned

Posted By Laura Rozen Wednesday, January 21, 2009 - 10:35 PM Share

Among the several thousand inauguration ticket holders who got caught in a tunnel haplessly awaiting entrance to yesterday's historic events, as my colleague Marc Lynch has described, were many foreign-policy hands and volunteers for the Obama campaign -- to say nothing of the journalists and commentators who have since taken to Facebook, newspaper and magazine pages, and blog posts to chronicle the harrowing potential stampede that was averted only by the self-control and restraint of the crowd.

"I'm gagging over these infuriating self-satisfied quotes from officials about how smoothly everything went yesterday," writes Mike Tomasky, editor of Guardian America.

"Things most assuredly did not go smoothly," Tomasky continues. "Thousands and thousands of ticket-holders were turned away at the checkpoints, along with other revelers.

"If things went smoothly on one level, it was not because of the officials and the security people," Tomasky adds. "It was because of the people themselves -- their own recognition of the beauty and solemnity of the occasion prevented them from reacting aggressively and angrily even when they had every right to do so."

"Given that there was a known, finite number of tickets, I assumed that security would be prepared for a predictable situation," the New Republic executive editor Peter Scoblic, who chronicled his experience at TNR's blog, said in an e-mail. "I mean, honestly, inaugural preparations have been in the works for months -- and there was NO crowd control??? I'm open to other explanations, but this doesn't seem like a breakdown due to unforeseeable events; it seems like pure incompetence."

"The moral is that the DC cops and inauguration committee folks screwed up," said a Washington foreign-policy hand on condition of anonymity who was caught in the tunnel for four hours and, like others, ended up missing the entire inauguration. "They knew exactly how many ticket holders there were. They knew people would show up early in massive numbers. They had months to prepare ... And their planning was clearly woefully inadequate and put thousands of people at risk of injury (not to mention, historic disappointment).

"It was kind of like ‘post-war' planning for Iraq," the foreign policy hand added. "It kinda happened on paper, but it wasn't any good."

A former Obama foreign-policy volunteer noted on condition of anonymity that the Facebook page on the group's plight (calling themselves the "survivors of the purple tunnel of doom") already has 1,000 members. As Lynch noted yesterday, their accounts forced the city police chief to reverse himself after falsely telling the Post that "there's nobody that didn't get to see the inauguration today who had a ticket."

Even a day later, those in the crowd say, city security officials are downplaying the number of people affected, as well as the potential danger posed by the situation.

"The estimate in the Washington Post of 4-5K turned away is most certainly an underestimate," the Washington foreign policy hand said. "My guess would be closer to 10K (a mile-long line of purple ticket holders were stranded in the tunnel). The really irresponsible part was the fact that there were ZERO cops, volunteers, national guard etc. to direct the crowd, which was stuffed in a tunnel. Anger or small incidents of violence (which could easily have happened since NO ONE was prescreened for weapons before being shunted into the tunnel) could have caused a stampede and produced hundreds of casualties.

"It was dumb luck and a testament to the civility of Obama supporters and the spirit of the day that a riot didn't break out," he concluded.

Several Washington vets also noted that their disappointment for themselves pales in comparison to their outrage on behalf of those in the crowd who had traveled from far away some with children at their own expense to see the historic occasion -- and missed out. "I'm talking about a father who makes $50,000 a year and somehow scored tickets and brought his two children to witness this historic moment, and then got turned away, even though they had tickets!" Tomasky writes. "This is a disgrace and should outrage people."

"I'm disappointed, but can you imagine flying across the country to attend this with your family and then being turned away, unable to even get to a television in time?" Scoblic e-mailed.

This afternoon, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies sent out an e-mail, apologizing for the situation, saying it was due to the unprecedented crowds, and promising, in typical Washington fashion, to conduct a thorough examination of what happened. The JCCIC "deeply regrets that some ticket holders to the ceremonies were not able to get to their ticketed sections," the e-mail said. "The JCCIC, U.S. Capitol Police and our federal and local partners will thoroughly examine every aspect of our planning ... to provide a foundation of lessons learned to future inaugural planners."

EXPLORE:OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

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BAILEYHAND

11:22 PM ET

January 21, 2009

Communication in Crises is Key - and we clearly are not ready.

I too was a purple ticket holder who arrived at 6:30 am and was in sight of the Purple Gate the entire morning but saw no movement and never managed to get in. What concerns me most is that this showed such a massive breakdown in preparation and communication capabilities that if something really bad had happened, the authorities clearly would have been unable to communicate to the gathered public and direct a response. After 8 years of preparation for homeland security responses, our government should have been far more capable than they performed. I commend everyone in line with me who showed dignity, compassion, and sensibility but I expect more from my government.

LEEP

1:36 AM ET

January 22, 2009

It's more than just the "purple tunnel"

I hope that they examine more than just the purple tunnel situation. There were horrible situations all over the place that bore similarity to the 3rd street tunnel situation.

I knew it was going to be bad when I arrived at Federal Triangle and at 7:30am there was a mob unsure of where to go at the corner of 14th Street. We couldn't cross and everybody had to turn around and go in a different direction without getting trampled. People were confused and furious. There wasn't a single cop or anybody else in sight with information or directing foot traffic. What exactly was the purpose of the huge fence blocking off Constitution so people could not walk in the street?

Then, after the ceremony, I was on the Death March to Farragut West. They herded me and a huge long line of people into a confusing maze of gates and barriers all the way from the Mall all the way up 18th Street (and ONLY 18th Street) to Farragut West where the mob to get into the station was huge. I walked up to Farragut North, which was not very busy at all. What amazed me was that except for one group of silent mounted police near the American History Museum there were no cops in sight. The few soldiers en route had no bullhorns. There was no information. Kids were getting crushed. There were a lot of out of shape people who found themselves having to climb over Jersey barriers. At one point the crowd threw some gates over and, to their credit, the soldiers there got the message and moved some gates. Some kids climbed
on top of the porto-potties and walked on top of them. Big groups of people (myself included) would walk in one direction only to find themselves facing a big fence and would have to turn around and go back. A mistake like that would add another 45 minutes to the trip.

This could have all been prevented if Smithsonian Metro station had been open. Why is Smithsonian so much more of a "security threat" than Capitol South, which is 12 blocks away? To add insult to injury, the Jumbotrons said the parade route was all full. Then I saw later that only one checkpoint on the route had been closed down and there was plenty of space. So a lot of these people who were being forced to the Metro could conceivably have seen the parade. That would have also eased the situation.

I've been in many huge crowds in the decades I've been in DC, but I have never been in such a dangerous situation. The "security" people need to learn that they are not "protecting" us when they treat people like animals. To the contrary, they are setting up a real potential tragedy.

JOECIRINCIONE

2:19 AM ET

January 22, 2009

Blue Cattle Pen

It was a great day for America, but it could have been so much better if the Committee and the Capitol Police had shared President Obama's desire to communicate--say with those of us penned in, ignored and abused at several sites around the Capitol.

I was herded in with thousands of others at the Blue ticket site. I had been fortunate enough to have two tickets from my wonderful Member of Congress, Representative Chris Van Hollen. We had arrived early, passing through the chilling Purple Tunnel of Doom. I felt fortunate that our line was so much shorter. Fool! We waited for hours, barely moving. No guard, police, official or volunteer ever came to tell any of us what was happening and why. We all had tickets, many had come hundreds of miles to attend.

I am insulted by the callous remarks of the Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance W. Gainer. "Four to 5,000 people were discombobulated. There were another 236,000 who were very happy with the service." Wonder how the good sergeant would have felt if he or his mother had been penned up for hours, unable to move forward, backwards, right or left.

When we finally realized that we were silently shut out, we hoofed it down the Mall, unable to get in anywhere save the very near the Washington Monument. There, we were in the "Brown Ticket" zone near the Porta-Potties. But we felt lucky to at least be able to hear. The speech moved me and all those around me. It was a wonderful moment.

Then we, too, were herded again into the 18th Street Death March. Why one street? Why couldn't we take the cross streets over to 19th? 20th? This is a large city. What idiot decided that only one street was made for walking?

Despite all, I am glad I tried, I feel fortunate to have even had the chance to stand in front of the Capitol, I am proud of my country, my congressman and my president. I will never forget the people I met during this long day and the universal good will they exhibited, even when abused by the incompetence of the event organizers.

I just can't take the self-serving congratulations and the back patting. Like Chief Justice Roberts, those responsible for the mistakes should apologize.

DATROY

4:39 AM ET

January 22, 2009

I;m sure it's somehow Bush's

I;m sure it's somehow Bush's fault.

RENEGADE

4:03 PM ET

January 22, 2009

There weren't too many purple tickets

I was a purple ticket holder and was surprised, when I finally made it in (through sheer luck), to see the area full even though there were thousands and thousands of people outside. However, then a friend told me that about 10.40am, they opened up the purple zone to the sections behind so the extra numbers were silver, not purple. This means that it wasn't a bad estimate on the number of ticket issuances but a complete screw up outside.