Chicago police and secret service have added more security outside Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s Hyde Park house. This comes after Obama officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
If you’re just passing through Obama’s South Side neighborhood, you may only notice a few extra police cars than normal. But once you get to his street, you run into a wall, literally. Concrete slabs, steel gates, and secret service personnel surround the intersection. So much so, you can’t drive through, you can’t park, you can’t even walk by his house. Andre Smith lives close to Obama.
SMITH: My little brother supposed to start school so I have to walk all the way around the block just to take him to the school which is right across the street from Obama’s house. Which, kind of doesn’t make sense either.
Smith says all inconveniences aside, he understands why there’s more security and, if anything, it makes him feel safer.