Staffwriter and Obaman Jason Cherkis reports he’s been walking for two hours and is not happy about his progress. He’s at M and 19th Streets and trying to get home to Mount Pleasant. Cops and “army dudes” (going to go out on a limb here and say they were Army National Guard soldiers) are giving people bad directions “because they don’t know the city” and, at one point, one man in cammo “threatened us with pepper spray.” Cherkis said the man said, “We have cops and they have pepper spray” and also shouted, “Soldiers! Man your posts!”
Old people were stranded. People walked up and down Independence trying to find a way out.
“They dumped a lot of people in Southwest, which isn’t the easiest grid to master,” says Cherkis, who had a good spot at 3rd and Independence during the ceremony. He left right after Obama’s speech. Since then, he’s found crowds and security to be less than orderly. People are “off-roading it” wherever they can, he says.
Cherkis, losing his sense of hope, appears to be gaining a sense of crankiness.