If this story is true, it is one of the most shocking things I have ever
heard attributed to the Secret Service. It was apparently first
reported by Business Insider a few days ago and then was picked up by
other outlets this weekend, including Fox News. I am just wondering
what legal recourse, if any, the owner has in this situation.
[Begin Quoted Story]
The U.S. Secret Service was forced to apologize to a Massachusetts salon
owner after using her building's bathroom without permission ahead of a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
The salon owner, Alicia Powers, says Secret Service agents put duct tape
over her security cameras and broke into her building by picking the
lock. They then allowed various people to use the salon's bathroom over
a two-hour period.
Powers told Business Insider that she was aware she had to close her
salon but was not informed about the Secret Service's other plans.
"They had a bunch of people in and out of here doing a couple of bomb
sweeps again – totally understand what they have to do, due to the
nature of the situation," Powers told Business Insider. "And at that
point, my team felt like it was a little bit chaotic, and we just made
the decision to close for Saturday."
Footage from the salon's front-door Ring security camera shows a Secret
Service agent approaching the door with a roll of tape and observing the
locked door and the camera. The agent then grabbed a nearby chair and
stood on it to tape over the security camera.
"There were several people in and out for about an hour-and-a-half –
just using my bathroom, the alarms going off, using my counter, with no permission," Powers told BI.
"And then when they were done using the bathroom for two hours, they
left, and left my building completely unlocked, and did not take the
tape off the camera," she added.
The Secret Service says it has been in contact with Powers following the incident. The business owner said she received an apology from the
Secret Service's Boston office.
"The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions. The
Secret Service has since communicated with the affected business owner,"
USSS spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie told Fox News Digital. "We hold these relationships in the highest regard and our personnel would not enter,
or instruct our partners to enter, a business without the owner’s permission."
Powers told the outlet that an EMS worker later told her the Secret
Service agent in charge of security that day "was telling people to come
in and use the bathroom." The Secret Service told BI that its agents
"would not" have used the building without permission, but they
acknowledged that an agent had taped over the camera.
"Whoever was visiting, whether it was a celebrity or not, I probably
would've opened the door and made them coffee and brought in donuts to
make it a great afternoon for them," Powers told BI. "But they didn't
even have the audacity to ask for permission. They just helped themselves."
The building's landlord, Brian Smith, says no one gave the Secret
Service officers permission to use the building or even enter it.
"Me and my dad own the building, and I have a crazy eccentric guy that
lives upstairs," Smith told BI. "And he didn't tell the Secret Service
they could use it, and I didn't tell them, and my father didn't tell
them, and they had no permission to go in there whatsoever."
Powers says a representative for the Secret Service's Boston field
office called her to apologize after BI contacted the agency about the incident.
"He said to me everything that was done was done very wrong," Powers
told the outlet. "They were not supposed to tape my camera without
permission. They were not supposed to enter the building without
permission."
[End Quoted Story]
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/secret-service-apologizes-after-breaking-massachusetts-salon-use-bathroom-before-harris-fundraiser
My question is - what recourse, if any, does the owner now have against
the federal government? It seems clear that one or more government
employees broke into her property without permission, disrupted her
security system and then proceeded to use her personal property without permission. Is this a "you can't fight City Hall" kind of thing where
her hands are essentially tied and she will not receive appropriate restitution? Aside from more bad publicity for the Secret Service, are
they really going to suffer repercussions? If she reports this to local authorities as a breaking and entering, are they going to literally try
to bring in the Secret Service for questioning? Can they even force the
SS to identify the agents involved?
I realize the owner may end up with a lot of publicity that could
actually help her business, but I still share her frustration for such a blatant invasion of property and privacy. I just don't know what she
can really do except talk to the press, as she is apparently doing.
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