Profiling

Dear Indigna,

A grand jury is currently investigating the recent incident in which Representative Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., smacked a Capitol Police officer who stopped her after she entered the Capitol Building without her identification pin and bypassing a security checkpoint. McKinney, a black woman, says she’s a victim of “racial profiling” and contends that the officer had no right to touch her shoulder, an act she considers “inappropriate touching.” What’s your take?

Uncertain Democrat
Atlanta, GA

Dear Uncertain,

She is absolutely correct that she was a victim of racial profiling. If a dead white man--George Washington, say, or William Shakespeare--had tried to enter the Capitol Building without identification, I’m sure that we would never even have heard about it. And as for the touching, any woman who is tapped on the shoulder by a police officer after evading security is certainly within her rights to consider it a “bad touch” (as we call it with our children) and should have the right to protect herself from the guy with any means necessary (pepper spray, handgun, briefcase to the face, etc.) to prevent further assault. For all she knew, he only wanted her to stop so he could steal her iPod or her concealed weapons, or worse!

I mean, why do they even have “Capitol Police” in the first place? I find that extremely suspicious. The Capitol Building has got to be one of the most boring places on the planet (have you ever seen C-SPAN?) so no sane person would enter it unless they absolutely, positively had to be there for purposes of legislation or bribery. I say the so-called “officer” was clearly up to no good!

So, long story short, McKinney in 2008!