After President Donald Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House, the administration is now looking at 17 other sites it hopes to bulldoze to the ground. According to The Washington Post and The Daily Beast, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem invoked a national emergency to justify the move.
Just two days before Christmas, the General Services Administration (GSA) told the city of Washington, D.C., "it was planning an emergency demolition of 17 historic buildings because they constitute a present risk to life and property,” the Post said.
Noem says the buildings constitute “a present risk to life and property” because some of them sit on the DHS’ West Campus complex. The area is a vast achoridge with tall mature trees and a small pond.
The vacant buildings being torn down would give the government a “tactical advantage” in any possible “active shooter scenarios.” ALICE's Active Shooter Response Training clocks that the average mass shooting ends in just five minutes. Far fewer mass shootings happen in or around law enforcement agencies compared to schools. Still, the Dec. 19 memo from Noem fantasized about a "malicious insider" or "disgruntled DHS employee or contractor" who could enter the complex and use the empty buildings to carry out a sniper-style shooting.
The building Noem wants to see gone is St. Elizabeths, which was a first government psychiatric hospital. It was built in 1855. It became a national landmark in 1990.
President Trump stated during the campaign that he supported reopening state-run mental health institutions. In fact, Trump's "crime" executive order goes so far as to direct federal agencies to encourage states to use "civil commitments" to put the severely mentally ill into a long-term institutional setting.
As NPR reported, "In the mid-to-late 20th century, America closed most of the country's mental hospitals."
GSA spokesperson Marianne Copenhaver told The Post via email that Homeland Security alerted the agency about “a present security risk to life and property” at St. Elizabeths “that may require us to demolish buildings.”
“Accordingly, we are following all applicable laws and regulations to address those issues,” she said.
"If these buildings are considered such a security threat, DHS should first reevaluate the location of its perimeter security fence, as suggested in early consultation meetings," wrote Elizabeth Merritt, the deputy general counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Rebecca Miller, the executive director of the D.C. Preservation League, in a statement to the Daily Mail.
"If the space within these vacant buildings is accessible, that’s because DHS and GSA have failed to effectively secure them," Merritt and Miller said.
Among the buildings are four Allison buildings, the East lodge, the greenhouses, the creamery staff house and residence, and the Linden and Holly wards.
The Allison group of buildings was established as a home for disabled veterans. The Linden and Holly wards housed white female epileptics, a condition that, in many, can now be treated with medication. The East Lodge segregated female African-American patients, the Daily Mail said, citing St. Elizabeths, A History, a 2013 document by the GSA.