Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Some young outlaws last winter brought the issue to the forefront – since 1876, it has been illegal to sled down Capitol Hill. The ban started getting regularly enforced after 9/11, until a group of kids larger than Capitol Police could handle invaded the Hill last winter.
“We found that the Capitol Police, for reasons they never disclosed, were on the slope with the notion that no sledding would go on,” D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told WMAL. “So many kids came anyway with their parents, that they allowed the sledding to go on, for which I give them a lot of credit. What are you going to do, arrest them? Make a scene?
“They were following the letter of the law. Well, I’ve changed the letter of the law.”
Norton wanted to make sure legal sledding could take place as soon as possible, so she inserted a provision into the latest omnibus spending bill.
“It said that the Capitol Police cannot enforce an old ban that dates back to the 19th century, and got that easily passed,” she said. “This was the quickest way to ensure there would be sledding if there was snow this season.”
Norton said the optics of cops arresting kids or parents for sledding “on the best slope in the Capital” would not be favorable. “How does that make the Congress look? In D.C., this is our hill. It may belong to the Congress, but when it comes to its use, it’s for kids.”
But when asked if she’ll be seen on a sled this weekend, she declined. “I’m not among the kids. I’m just their Congresswoman.”
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