We were on the sidewalk, and I pointed that out to him. He told me that it was private property, property of DOI, and we had to move along. I repeated that it was a public sidewalk, and that's when he turned to BillF and pageonetoo and told them that the chain link construction fence that they were touching was property of DOI and that our bags were touching the fence, too.
So Bill and pageonetoo stopped touching the fence(sounds like a dispute with a 6 year-old, "Mom! He's touching my crayons!"). I moved the bags and noticed that the arm patch on his uniform didn't say DC Police, or US Secret Service, or US Park Police, or any other government LEO entity, and I made note of that with him. He told me he worked for DOI and we couldn't be there. I responded that the police had just been talking to us and they had no problem with us at all. Then he said, "I'm going to call Secret Service." We said, "OK, please do." We wanted it straightened out as well. He went off to the side and called somebody on his radio and left.
Nobody ever came back to remove us. So I guess the guy learned that sidewalks really are public property and that he couldn't hustle us off.
Probably a disgruntled Gore voter.