I was on the Mall on Tuesday and as I looked around I thought about what a perfect target that crowd would have been for an attack. The only visible security were a few National Guard, a couple of Park police, and, of course, people on roof tops - but they would have been useless against a suicide bomber.
I never saw even one person from the TSA.
Inauguration spectators reciprocated with “thank you for being there” as they exited the Mall for the inaugural parade. “It was truly an honor to hear the spectators thank us,” said TSO Edward Woodall of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. “It was remarkable to see spectators and security working so well with one another.”
Few, if any, spectators, "exited the Mall" to go to the parade - the parade route was "full up" by the time the Inauguration ended.
There was security on the route from the Metro station, but basically their job was to form a human fence to herd the cattle. We were directed through a small, one-person-at-a-time opening created by Jersey barriers and there were BDO-type people there - talking amongst themselves. I caught the attention of one guy, looked him straight in the eye and he turned away.
With the weather and the amount of clothes people were wearing (my friend was carrying a huge backpack that was never searched), it would have been easy to wear a belt with explosives to get through "security."
Of course, the President must be protected, but great psychological damage could have been done through an attack on the Mall.
Makes one wonder, once again, if, in fact, there is a terrorist behind every bush as some would have us believe.
BTW,
LessO2, the cold was so dehydrating that the port-a-johns were hardly used.