A Somber Washington Pauses to Pay Tribute to Two Slain Guards

July 29, 1998

A Somber Washington Pauses to Pay Tribute to Two Slain Guards

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By JAMES BENNET

ASHINGTON -- In a pocket of somber calm apart from Washington's political turmoil, President Clinton and congressional leaders gathered Tuesday under the Capitol dome to join thousands in paying tribute to democratic ideals and the two police officers who died protecting them.

Brief memorial services for the officers' families and official Washington punctuated an extraordinary day of public mourning as police officers, congressional staff and visitors from as far as Los Angeles filed through the Capitol's rotunda to pay respects by the flag-draped caskets of the two men.
Officer Jacob J. Chestnut and Detective John Gibson died Friday after a man armed with a 29-year-old revolver and apparently tormented by visions of an oppressive federal government tried to shoot his way into the Capitol. Their coffins stood at the center of the rotunda all day, in a gesture of gratitude and respect that Congress usually reserves for former presidents and military heroes.
The officers were honored more with silence than with speech. From eight o'clock Tuesday morning, thousands lined up to make a wordless, counterclockwise circle across the polished sandstone floor of the rotunda.
In T-shirts and suits, sundresses and midnight blue uniforms, they waited for hours in the July swelter to climb the steep Capitol steps and make a circuit of perhaps 90 paces and less than two minutes.
The day's official remarks lasted perhaps 20 minutes, all told. After following congressional leaders in silently laying a wreath at a half-hour service Tuesday afternoon, President Clinton said that in doing their duty, the officers saved lives and "consecrated this house of freedom."
"They remind us that what makes our democracy strong is not only what Congress may enact or a president may achieve," Clinton said. "Even more, it is the countless individual citizens who live our ideals out every day, the innumerable acts of heroism that go unnoticed, and especially, it is the quiet courage and uncommon bravery of Americans like J.J. Chestnut and John Gibson."
As the president spoke, facing the two coffins, he was flanked by dozens of members of each officer's family, some clutching handkerchiefs. Around the sitting families, hundreds of standing police officers and legislators filled the rotunda, pressing up against bronze statues of Jefferson, Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaking before the president, Speaker Newt Gingrich said that the two officers "brought together this nation."

The service was a rare tribute for men unknown beyond their own communities before Friday. One speaker, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said they "should rightly be recognized in this hall of heroes." He called them "two men who did their job, who stood the ground and defended freedom."
After entering the cool rotunda, some of the visitors crossed themselves or prayed silently; others turned to face the coffins and salute. Some held hands, others babies. A young boy in baggy shorts and T-shirt carried his blue Yankees cap in his hands. A blind man walked with his eyes straight ahead, his white cane tapping at the stones, his left hand on a friend's shoulder. One woman in a taupe suit, tortoise-shell sunglasses resting in her hair, wept silently.
"When I got inside, I just wanted to be quiet and think," said Doug Smyth, an eighth-grader who came to the Capitol with a group from a school in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Kathy Staigers of Dayton, Ohio, in Washington on vacation, brought her two grandchildren. "We decided we'd come here today so that our grandchildren could see and understand the immense support for our nation," she said.
Some said they had come not just to pay respects but to make a symbolic point. Rene Bitoun, a teacher in a Montessori school in Washington, said she wanted to demonstrate that "terrorism can't restrain the will of the people to have an open and free society." As she spoke, she stood at the back of a line that stretched about a quarter-mile east from the Capitol steps and south down First Avenue.
At the front of the line, visitors signed their names in books for the bereaved families, jotting notes like "God bless" or "You showed me what is courage." On the Capitol steps, flowers that began piling up over the weekend had become a hill of wreaths, teddy bears, candles and crayon drawings. "Heroes Forever," read one hand-lettered sign among the flora.
Their badges crossed with black bands, police officers who lined up came not only from Washington but also from Wilmington, Del., Roxbury, N.J., and New York City. There were military police officers, patrol officers, Secret Service officers and bicycle officers, some with their helmets strapped to their heads.
"I came here to show my respect for the brotherhood, one police officer for another," said Leo Flibotte of the Hampton, Va., police. "We're in the same church, different pews."
Several officers said they were pleased by the public turnout, although some wondered if the concern would be sustained.
"I feel reassured that so many people came out to show their support," said Mike Grossman, an officer from Los Angeles County. "A lot of people support what we do, but no one talks about it. Unfortunately I think interest will subside.'
At noon, the line was held up as congressmen poured into the chamber to stand silently for five minutes, almost as still as the honor guard of four Capitol Police officers around the caskets.
The senators left quickly, but the representatives lingered as an impromptu receiving line formed. Rep. Tom DeLay, the majority whip whom Gibson was assigned to guard when he was killed, stood with Gingrich, shaking hands and hugging dozens of congressmen as they filed out.
Some congressmen said they hoped that the day of shared sorrow would blunt Washington's partisan edge. In remarks Tuesday afternoon on the House floor, Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said that he hoped the city's politicians would now learn "to love each other and to be more civil."
Democrats and Republicans regularly hugged on another Tuesday. As Vice President Al Gore stood during Tuesday afternoon's memorial service, he clasped the hand of Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C. There was no public talk about the Lewinsky investigation, or about the partisan stalemate that is making this one of the least productive legislative years in recent memory.
At the service, each speaker said that the men's deaths had reminded the country of higher ideals. Gingrich said they had underscored that "while this is the center of freedom in the world, and this building is the centerpiece of freedom in our constitutional system, it only lasts as long as there is courage."
Gary Abrecht, the chief of the Capitol police, said, "the heroic actions of Officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson will become as timeless as the building in which they died."
Downstairs, Officer Eric Boggs missed the service because he was guarding DeLay's office door, which was draped in black. Chestnut was not only his colleague but also his neighbor, and Boggs said that the man he called J.J. was "one of the finest men that I've known." He said that he would have a chance later to go up and view the coffins quietly.
"That's what I'd rather do anyway," he said. "I'd rather go up myself."

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