Apparently the case against me may be referred for prosecution. Therefore, I have been advised by my attorneys not to discuss the facts of this case.

However, let me be clear. This whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female, black, congresswoman.

I deeply regret that this incident occured and I am certain, that after a full review of the facts, I will be exonerated.

She was surrounded by people bearing signs. I couldn’t read them very well, but one or two said “Is Cynthia a Target?” I think one said “recognize our congresspeople”.

Allah has posted the video at Michelle’s

[tags]McKinney[/tags]

Cynthia [tag]McKinney[/tag], through her lawyer, has said, “just a victim of being in Congress while black.”

WSBTV has her original statement that she was going to put on her website, but didn’t.

Sadly, there are only 14 black women Members of Congress. And surely our faces are distinguishable. But why my face is continually unrecognizable can only be answered by these offending police officers. Capitol Hill Police are given face recognition instructions as a part of their official training. Capitol Hill Police are required to recognize, greet, and distinguish Members of Congress as a part of their official role and responsibilities. In fact, according to the US Capitol Police, their mission is to protect and support the Congress in meeting its Constitutional responsibilities. The US Capitol Police mission statement makes no distinction about selective application of its mission depending upon whether a Member of Congress is black, woman, or has a new hairstyle.

But, honestly, this incident is not about wearing a Congressional pin or changing my hairstyle.

It is true that I have changed my hairstyle. It is true that at the time I was not wearing my pin. But many Members of Congress aren’t wearing their pins today. Just in the last hour at least 8 Members of Congress have been spotted speaking from the well of the House without their pins and even more have been seen on the Hill today not wearing their Congressional pin. How many of them were stopped by Capitol Hill Police? Do I have to contact the police every time I change my hairstyle? How do we account for the fact that when I wore my braids every day for 11 years, I still faced this problem, primarily from certain white police officers.

Keep playing that race card Cynthia – soon it won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on. And high time for that too.

Story at No Agenda.

If members aren’t supposed to have to go through the metal detectors shouldn’t they all be wearing their ID prominently?

There are 435 members of the House, 100 members of the Senate. That’s a lot of people. Add in all the other people that have to go through security and how can you expect those responsible for security to recognize each and every one? Especially since any of the House Members may be replaced at two year intervals (as [tag]McKinney[/tag] herself was).

McKinney may think that everyone should recognize her, but frankly, most Americans probably couldn’t pick her out of a group photo.

Security should mean [tag]Security[/tag]. It shouldn’t matter whether or not someone is “recognized”. ID should have to be presented each and every time. Sure it’s a hassle for members of congress, but they should follow the same security measures as everyone else.

Update: Kim Priestap at Wizbang! has more and a quote from Tim Dees at Officer.com which mentions some of the same things that I did.

Some critics of the conduct of the police in this incident have declared that the officers of the Capitol Police should simply know what their protectees look like. There are 535 Members of Congress, and 435 of them get reshuffled every two years. Each one of these Members has a complement of staffers, and then there are the lobbyists, other government employees, and constituents that come through the Capitol on business. This makes for an unmanageable number of faces to memorize (especially if they change their appearance, as Ms. McKinney did), and the reason that Members are given those little pins to wear. Most Members don’t seem to regard the wearing of these as a burden. Ms. McKinney refuses to wear hers.

This is absolutely amazing…

Via Powerline