Posted on 03/31/2006 8:54:36 AM PST by MikeA
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Capitol Hill police plan to issue an arrest warrant today for Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.).
The warrant is related to the incident Wednesday when McKinney allegedly slapped a Capitol Hill police officer.
Charges could range from assault on a police officer, which is a felony carrying a possible five year prison term, to simple assault, which is a misdeamenor.
McKinney has canceled a news conference that she had scheduled for this morning to discuss the incident.
McKinney issued a statement yesterday saying she "deeply regrets" the confrontation with the police officer.
The six-term congresswoman apparently struck a Capitol Police officer when he tried to stop her from entering a House office building without going through a metal detector. Members of Congress wear identifying lapel pins and routinely are waved into buildings without undergoing security checks. The officer apparently did not recognize McKinney, she said in a statement.
Asked on-camera Thursday by Channel 2 Action News whether she intended to apologize, McKinney refused to comment.
"I know that Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, and I appreciate the work that they do. I have demonstrated my support for them in the past and I continue to support them now," she said in the statement on her Web site.
Democrats and Republicans, meanwhile, engaged in a rhetorical scuffle over the incident.
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday labeled it "a mistake, an unfortunate lack of recognition of a member of Congress." She added that the police officer was not at fault.
"I would not make a big deal of this," said Pelosi, D-Calif.
Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., responded: "How many officers would have to be punched before it becomes a big deal?"
The dustup is the latest in a series of tangles for the roughly 1,200-officer Capitol Police department.
The department faces a difficult task -- protecting 535 members of Congress and the vast Capitol complex in an atmosphere thick with politics and privilege.
The safety of its members became a sensitive issue after a gunman in 1998 killed two officers outside the office of then-Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas.
More recently, police obeyed an order by an angry House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., to remove Democrats from a hearing room. Thomas later tearfully apologized on the House floor.
This year, during President Bush's State of the Union address, police drew criticism for first kicking antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan out of the House gallery, and then for evicting the wife of Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla.
Merle Black, a professor of politics at Emory University, says that while the scuffle was rare for an elected politician, it's unlikely to cost McKinney more than a few votes. Black says McKinney is in damage control -- cutting her losses by not insisting on right or wrong.
Excellent.
Some might try to make the case that she "breached the peace", but it appears to me that the burden is on the Capitol security to know who are members of Congress and who are not. They have no power to detain a member of Congress. Congress itself lacks the power to authorize the Capitol police to detain one of their members.
She could be expelled from the House, though, if Congress decided they would be better off without her. This requires a two-thirds vote of the House to expel her.
Others have commented on a recent incident when a committee chairman ordered the physical expulsion of members of Congress from a meeting. This appears to me to be a violation of this Constitutional protection. The chairman should have brought his complaints to the House itself and asked that they be punished or expelled.
February 16 is way too early for someone to be playing an April Fool's joke on her.
Apparently the thinks that is a good look for her, which proves she's insane.
Yeah, when I don't get recognized by someone I suckerpunch them. No big deal. /sarc
Show us the video. You idiots work for us, not the other way around.
Exactly, I had the same thought. Isn't it funny how the MSM whenever they on a rare occassion get around to reporting a negative story about a Democrat's misbehavior will ALWAYS try to draw some tortured moral equivalency with some Republicans supposed misdeeds. In this case, it was to remove Democrats who were violating House rules in misusing a particular room. How is that any way the same as assaulting a Capitol Cop?
The decision addressed that. They were asked not to take it because there was no constitutional issue due to Congress not being in session, but the Court thought it mattered that any criminal proceeding arising from the arrest could keep him from a session.
In any case, McKinney would be guilty even under the defendant's argument, because McKinney did indeed commit a crime that is directly under breech of the peace ("offenses involving violence or public disturbance").
"Since from the foregoing it follows that the term 'treason, felony, and breach of the peace,' as used in the constitutional provision relied upon, excepts from the operation of the privilege all criminal offenses, the conclusion results that the claim of privilege of exemption from arrest and sentence was without merit"
Even in session she's not exempt.
They cannot arrest her on a misdemeanor, they CAN arrest her on a felony.
Session has a specific meaning. It isn't the daily sessions, which are continuation of the "session" from one day to the next. There are ends of "sessions", for breaks like I think the summer break. I think any break longer than 3 business days, but I can't remember why I think that (there may be something in the constitution about it).
I am out of my league, actually, on that question. I do know it's not a 1-day thing.
Members of Congress are exempt from committing such a crime within House Office Buildings when in the lawful discharge of official duties.
Source, please, as it contradicts the precedent I've seen.
Sorry, but McKinney is solid in her district (a true cesspool). She is safe forever until someone worse comes along.
"[E]xcessive force"?!?
If the reported accounts (grabbed her arm or some such) are true, she should count herself fortunate.
The officer should have used a taser on her a nanosecond after she resisted.
I see. But I don't think you can call assaulting a police officer part of her official duties.
Let us hope.
The point is not to try to defeat McKinney for her actions. The goal is to characterize congressional Democrats as people who assault police officers. Pelosi's stupid comments helped us in this regard.
She was (or at least she will state as such) at the building in an official capacity and as a member of Congress, she is allowed to forgo the security measures.
Her next election, whether its the forthcoming term or the one after she gets out of prison, is in the bag. Her constituents are really, really dumb.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.