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.
"Wrong. This is no big deal."
I agree it would be great to see her voted out of office, but that's not likely to happen in this overwhelmingly Democratic district which is predominantly black without a major embarrassment like seeing her locked up. McKinney lost her seat in a different district before because she acted like such a clown. It's going to take another spectacle like seeing their congresswoman taken off in cuffs to convince these folks to get rid of her, if even just in the primary.
And I'm not so sure I can dismiss this as "no big deal." These Capitol Hill police officers have one hell of a difficult job. The last thing they need to is to be abused by a mental case twit. And if any of the rest of us did this we would be locked up! So what's good for the rest of us is good for this arrogant, out of control, mentally deranged congresswoman.
It really is an issue of national security. Members of Congress should not be able to walk around security screening in the Capitol any more than they can at an airport. Who is to say that someone who just looks like a member of Congress and flashes a phony badge couldn't walk through. How about using retinal scans or digital fingerprints for members of Congress?
I hope there's a frogwalk, but there won't be.
On a more serious level, I hope she gets the psychiatric help she needs.
The saddest thing about this whole incident is that her constiuancy will not hold her responsible.
My experience is, black Democrats do not punish bad behavior at the ballot box. They relect people with questionable morality over and over again.
You know, racist me reporting...Will she be issued an arrest warrant by a black or a white officer? Or will the officer have stripes and a large eye poking out of the middle of it's forehead?
Doesn't matter, here comes The Race Card for the victim.
Any terrorirsts out there please make a note..
The constituents who plagued congress with this woman will no doubt rally behind her if she's indicted. It will just make her more popular with the white-hating victim class.
On that note, if she's indicted and convicted can she still serve? She's no Marion Barry...
I seriously doubt she'd resign over this unless the tapes were really, REALLY bad and Nancy Pelosi cracked her SM whip. This could get ugly for Democrats very quickly.
Gotta love it.
correction unless it applies to conservatives or republicans.
Ping
I don't think she can be charged with a misdeamenor. Congresspeople on their way to or from work cannot be detained or charged with minor offenses. Its in the constitution.
Start chanting: We want a perp walk. We want a perp walk.
Nothing, nothing, nothing will happen to her. The poor cop will probably be suspended for racism; lose his job, and maybe wind up in court.
That's the way the world works today.
Why not? Is Cindy above the law?
Do we know if the officer she assaulted is also black?
Huh? Say what? What does that even mean?
she wouldn't need a job. Have you seen the congressional retirement program?
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