Posted by
RME KRNL on Friday, September 18, 2009 1:29:08 AM
[Note: I wrote the following article this past Monday and submitted it first to the Washington Times, which chose (once again, unwisely, IMNSHO) not to publish it. But that's the advantage of having your own blog -- you can publish almost anything you want almost any time you want. Of course, almost no one may read it, but you can nonetheless publish it.]
Capitol Police Conspiracy?
Now, I'm not normally much of a conspiracy theorist, whether it's being an Obama "birther" or a 9/11 "truther" or whatever, but here's at least a tongue-in-cheek "conspiracy" for you to think about.
Isn't it curious that the Capitol Police, of whom I saw plenty around the Capitol Building on 9/12 and to whom big demonstrations in DC are almost a routine part of their job, don't have an estimate of the size of this past Saturday's TEA Party/9-12ers march on, and rally at, the Capitol Building?
They normally would. In fact, I don't know of their having had much of any trouble in the past in estimating such gatherings, often while they are underway and certainly within hours afterward. What about Obama's inauguration or the so-called Million Man March of a few years ago? No problem with crowd estimates, right? Had them tabulated and ready to go during the events, correct?
Could it be that since the marchers and ralliers this time were primarily protesting big government, this 111th Congress, this president and their left-wing and profligate spending, "someone" doesn't want to give "credit" for just how large the march and rally really were?
Oh, I understand why the march and rally received so little coverage by the liberal lamestream media, which I have now redubbed the MMM (mendaciously moribund media). That's sadly come to be "expected" since, particularly in the last couple of years, our former "watchdog" media have become Obama's liberal "lapdog" media instead.
But even (and, yes, I mean even) the New York Times said it took three hours for the marchers to move from Freedom Plaza down Pennsylvania Avenue to the West Lawn of the Capitol Building -- and that doesn't even account for those of us who didn't join in the march but just went straight to the Capitol Building.
While I was there, someone standing nearby said they were in cell phone contact with a friend who was on the National Mall and who said the protesters stretched from the Capitol Building steps all the way to the Washington Monument. That's the whole National Mall, folks, and past demonstrations that large have been estimated at almost a million people.
So, I'm not saying I have any "proof," of course (after all, that's what makes it a conspiracy "theory," isn't it?), but it does seem awfully strange and "suspicious" that for this one event, the Capitol Police seem to have left their little hand-held, crowd-counting clickers at home.
[Update: After writing and initially submitting this article to the WashTimes, I decided to "reality test" my little tongue-in-cheek conspiracy theory, so Monday around lunchtime I called Verizon 411 and asked for the number for the Capitol Police headquarters in Washington, DC. However, when I called that number, I was told I had reached the DC Metro Police and was given another number for the Capitol Police. When I called that number, I was told I had the Operations Section, which was the wrong part of the Capitol Police (of course), and I was given another number for their Special Events Section. Their Special Events Section informed me that I needed to talk to someone in their Public Information Section and gave me another number. (By the way, everyone was very "polite" and seemingly wanted to be "helpful.") When I called that number, I got a voicemail saying that if I was calling during non-business hours, I could leave a message, and then I got a beep to leave the message. I was unaware that lunchtime on a Monday could be during non-business hours for the Capitol Police's Public Information Section, but I guess it was. Maybe they only had one "public informer" there on Monday and he or she was out to lunch. But, now absolutely "intrigued" by what was going on, I then found the Web site for the Capitol Police and sent them an email asking for info on the size of the 9/12 crowd. I'm still waiting for a response. Hmmm, maybe there's more to my "conspiracy theory" than I thought.]