Letters: Secret Service flubs White House watch
Uniformed Secret Service officers walk along the lawn on the North side of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. Credit: AP / Susan Walsh
Newsday was right to call for the firing of Secret Service director Julia Pierson, but her departure alone will be as inadequate and ineffective as the resignation of only director Eric Shinseki for all the ills of the Department of Veterans Affairs ["Fire the director of Secret Service," Editorial, Oct. 1].
Other Secret Service personnel who deserve to be fired -- if not prosecuted for endangering the life of our president -- include the agents who noticed Omar J. Gonzalez and failed to stop him; the handler who didn't release his attack dog; the person responsible for silencing the White House front-door alarm; the Atlanta detail that allowed an armed man into an elevator with President Barack Obama; those officials who failed to keep Gonzalez locked up after he was stopped and allegedly found to be carrying a sawed-off shotgun, sniper rifles and a map with a line drawn to the White House; and those who failed to jail him on Aug. 25 for allegedly carrying a hatchet near the White House.
Perhaps Pierson's successor should be the housekeeper who in November 2011 discovered -- and reported -- the bullet-pierced window.
Richard Siegelman, Plainview
The Secret Service should be called the Pink Panther Police because it acts like Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the Peter Sellers comedies. These clowns are a horror show that imperils and humiliates our president.
Dick Reif, Flushing
