So I’m in line for the Toyota Congressional oversight hearings at the Rayburn House Office Building in my part time role as professional line stander. I’m there with about 150 others: homeless dudes, people sleeping in various positions, slumped against a wall, on rolled up mats, with bags and tents. All kinds of crap around and shady looking characters.
Anyone can enter a Congressional office building if they pass through the metal detectors, but there are no real security checks like identification or anything. Â
OK. So, amid all that line-standing clutter, FOUR Capitol Hill Police Officers zero in on ME and say can we talk to you. I’m behind a velvet rope, like in a club or movie theater that they had set up to guide the line. I say sure even though I am a little nervous since there are four of them. What else am I going to say? Plus I know a lot of these guys and they know me. I have been coming in and out of these building for years as a bike messenger.
They say, “No, over here….†(pointing) So I go over the rope and say, OK. They say “No, walk with us.â€