#Roommates, after months of 2020 being populated with endless amounts of election coverage, things will finally come to an end tomorrow—but the White House is preparing for the outcome in an interesting way. Several fences and barricades are currently being constructed outside the White House.
@CNN reports, at the instruction of federal authorities, a “non-scalable” fence (along with other barriers) has been placed around the entire perimeter of the White House as law enforcement prepares for possible protests surrounding the heavily hostile 2020 election. The fence, which is the same type that was constructed during the protesting this past summer following the murder of George Floyd, encompasses the Ellipse and Lafayette Square and goes down 15th Street to Constitution Avenue and then over to 17th Street. The fence also goes up to H Street and across by Lafayette, and then come down 15th Street, a White House source confirmed.
The extra layer of security marks the most high-profile example to date of authorities preparing for unrest following this year’s election, especially if there is no clear winner between Joe Biden and Donald Trump as election results are counted on November 3rd. Additionally, DC Metro police have been preparing its officers for well over a year, as it does ahead of every general election, ensuring that they are prepared to handle everything from civil disturbance to crowd control to potential disruptions to metro transit, Patrick Burke, executive director of the Washington, DC, Police Foundation, said.
“If there’s no winner, you will see significant deployments of officers at all levels across the capital,” Burke said. “Officers will get cancellations of days off, extensions of shifts and full deployments of officers across the city.”
Washington, DC, Metro Police Chief Peter Newsham warned the District’s City Council last month there was wide expectation of some type of civil unrest following the election. In response, several local businesses in the downtown DC area in the proximity of the White House have boarded up doors and windows in the last couple of days in anticipation of possible protests.
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