Georgia congresswoman in scuffle with Capitol police
The Associated Press, Mar. 29, 2006
WASHINGTON
Rep. Cynthia McKinney and a police officer scuffled Wednesday after the Georgia Democrat entered a House office building unrecognized and refused to stop when asked, according to U.S. Capitol Police.
McKinney, a sixth-term congresswoman who represents suburban Atlanta, struck the officer according to one account, a police official said, adding there were conflicting accounts. The officer, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident, spoke only on condition of anonymity.
No charges were filed, police said.
Officials in McKinney's office refused two requests for comment.
Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said only that senior officials have been made aware of the incident and are investigating.
Members of Congress do not have to walk through metal detectors as they enter buildings on the Capitol complex. They wear lapel pins identifying them as members.
McKinney routinely doesn't wear her pin and is recognized by many officers, the police official said, adding that she wasn't wearing it when she entered a House office building early Wednesday.
By one police account, she walked around a metal detector and an officer asked her several times to stop. When she did not, the officer tried to stop her, and she then struck the officer, according to that account.(snip)
http://www.tkb.org/NewsStory.jsp?storyID=113453
I guess if Cynthia doesn't want to be hassled, she should wear the damn pin.
Don't you know who I am!?
Dumb policy. How easy it would be for someone to counterfeit a pin and use it to bypass the metal detectors. Everyone should have to go through a metal detector, no exceptions. Of course, a different set of rules apply to congresscritters than us common folk.