The U.S. Secret Service is getting much-deserved scrutiny for unforgivable blunders in White House security. Sometimes that scrutiny comes with unfair accusations of malicious motives:

Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, told Face the Nation that an overwhelming majority of African Americans he’s spoken to fear the Secret Service has fallen down on protecting President Barack Obama because of his race, something Cummings said he didn’t personally believe.
“Eighty-five percent of all African-Americans that come to me mention [this fear], and I don’t agree with it,” said Cummings, who was vocal about the need for former Director Julia Pierson to resign.

But it’s worth reviewing whether the precautions for protecting the president go too far in the other direction; a letter to the editor in today’s Wall Street Journal indicates how the American president increasingly is treated like an emperor:

For the president’s visit to Chicago last week to campaign for Gov. Pat Quinn, the skies around the city (more than 6,000 square miles) were effectively shutdown to nonscheduled aircraft operations. A presidential visit means that flight training, sky diving, hot-air ballooning, banner towing, sightseeing, maintenance test flights and utility/pipeline surveying operations are all canceled. Sorry to all the “regular folks” whose livelihoods depend on these activities—the $30,000 or $50,000 per plate fundraiser takes precedence. Perhaps even more concerning is that all emergency flights (including medevacs) have to call an air-traffic-control phone number before takeoff to request permission and to “avoid potential delays.”
As Mr. Ripp points out, the need for presidential security is understandable and important, but it becomes maddening when so many are inconvenienced or outright harmed for the sake of fundraising.