Although the technical term isn't "spikes" — it's actually a "removable anti-climb feature" — for all intents and purposes the latest security measure at the White House involves barbing an iron fence.
The measures are perhaps overdue: In September, a man carrying a knife scaled the fence, ran across the North Lawn, and entered the White House before being tackled by a Secret Service officer. Last April, in a similar incident, an individual jumped over the White House fence and was also taken into custody by the Secret Service.
As a result, over approximately the next six weeks, The New York Times reports that the U.S. Secret Service and National Park Service will be attempting to thwart potential fence-climbers with scary metal "pencil points." The spikes will be bolted to the top of the fence around the White House, facing outward. And — because apparently spikes need to be designed — the job of creating the barbs went to the Rock Island Arsenal Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center. One can only imagine how that design meeting went: "Let's make them pointy!"
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