Congress: Look to New York City

[acroyear]

From a comment at scienceblogs: Rep. McKinney and the police officer should apologize to each other and shake hands, and then everyone should get on with their lives. This whole incident is considerably smaller than the sum of its parts.

I'd just LOVE for that to be the case, but the shooting incident in New York City's City Hall tells me otherwise. Security at a place like the House should be *absolute*. If you don't have what credentials you're supposed to be carrying, you are pulled aside, period.

The day someone can just yell "I'm a congressman" and run past the gates without any interference is the day congress itself gets assassinated.

I hate it, but New York's incident showed us exactly what can happen and McKinney for her "I'm the race victim here" arrogance is simply asking for her own death and causing EVERYBODY to miss the real story here.

The guard did his job.  If you don't have what you're supposed to have, you don't get in.  Period.

Comments

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

She had just changed her hairstyle, which may have made it difficult to recognize her at a glance.

Um -- no. She's been wearing the same type of gold sneakers for more than twenty years -- it's as much of a trademark for her as Newt Gingrich's mop of silver hair. I haven't seen her in person in seven years, and I'd recognize her in an instant because of those stupid gold shoes.

[thatwasjen]

those stupid gold shoes

Which no one else could possibly own if they wanted to impersonate a representative, right?

I know I shouldn't open my mouth -- I've had a hate on for McKinney since, uh, October 2001 -- but she seems to be playing up the wrong facts and ignoring the rest.

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Well, you'd have to be a 5'4" black woman with fluffy hair to even try, for starters...

[thatwasjen]

Sure. But someone could. I'm just agreeing that trying to accept any member's looks as positive id is just as bad an idea as -- on the other side -- racial profiling of "Middle Eastern-looking" young males.

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

On that point, no argument. But I'll argue that Cynthia McKinney should not be the one to pay for the failures of the institution at large, if there's going to be unequal treatment. To me, more of the 493 white members of the 19th Congress look alike than one fluffy-haired, gold-sneakered black woman who has been there thirteen years, four years longer than the current average.

Once again, until someone can point out to me why, if it's not mandatory that members wear the pin as ID, and other members -- ones with less seniority -- constantly go around the checkpoint (as is their right under the current rules), and we never hear about them getting physically grabbed by the police, whereas it has happened more than once to McKinney, I'll concede that she's in the wrong.

But, until that point, and having been there, I'm holding my ground.

[thatwasjen]

and we never hear about them getting physically grabbed by the police

Probably because they don't retaliate violently -- and repeatedly.

She may be right that her race and gender made her more of a target, but couldn't she have said "please don't touch me, here's my id and let me copy down your badge number"? She loses credibility since this is, like, the fourth time she's been involved in an incident like this.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

If it really is an issue of race/sex bias, what have other African American women in Congress done about it? (FYI, I googled the demographics, and found that there are 81 women in Congress, including 12 African American women, as well as delegates from VI and DC).

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

What about African American men? Are they being harrassed, too?

Or is it just her?

Doc

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

To me, more of the 493 white members of the [current] Congress look alike than one fluffy-haired, gold-sneakered black woman who has been there thirteen years, four years longer than the current average.

well, to me too. i could barely tell, say, Richard Shelby apart from Tom DeLay in a police line-up. Both of them just look like fat, spoiled, white white-collar CEOs. :)

[sandman74.livejournal.com]

We don't hear about it because most people don't scream racism to cover up the mistake they made for not stopped when told to. How you think this is a Capital Police problem is ridiculous. Regardless if she has been there 10, 20, 30 years I don't care, she was asked to take 30 seconds out of her life to identify herself.

As to being there 13 years, she also had a two year break when she was NOT reelected. Perhaps there were some personal changes during that time. She also has a reputation for being a pain in the ass to the Captial police. Having her aides drive her up the wrong way on a one way street.

You're right, there are two sides to this, lets put it all out there...not just cherry pick convient instances.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Regarding the hair, I was just adding info.

The hairstyle comment comes from this article, which says,

An unconfirmed statement attributed to McKinney has been released on the Internet, where she allegedly claims to have been harassed by Capitol Hill Police.

The statement's writer says that she has been harassed by white police officers she says do not recognize her due to her recently changed hairstyle.

[mizjawnson.livejournal.com]

*not knowing the full story* I'd like to point out that IF this guard was in fact new (which has not been claimed and is only my own hypothetical situation) and he was consulting the Congress member book, he would have 1) seen her with the old hair style (which could potentially justify the current statements in the media) and 2) not have seen the gold sneakers. Talking about the gold sneakers only works if the guard is familiar with the gold sneakers. And truth be told, the guards may not pay that much attention to footwear initially.

That said, if she has had previous incidents, then I can agree that she may be being profiled - not for the color of her skin though as much as possibly her attitude. Think of it this way: if someone is constantly and consistently a bitch to you, would you make an effort to make their life easier? (I'm not saying she is or isn't a bitch - I'm presenting another POV.)

I should talk to Dad and see what the word is around his office. It's possible that someone there knows the guard in question.