"I'll cut you...I mean it!!!"
Posted on 04/01/2006 3:35:21 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON — Rep. Cynthia McKinney on Friday declared herself the victim of a racist Capitol Hill police officer who her supporters said used excessive force when he stopped her from skirting a security checkpoint earlier this week.
"The whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me — a female, black congresswoman," McKinney said at a news conference, abandoning the apologetic tone she struck earlier in the week.
Capitol police are considering filing assault charges against the DeKalb County Democrat next week. But her lawyers said she was acting in self-defense when she struck the officer who tried to stop her.
"Cynthia McKinney, like thousands of average Americans across this country, is ... a victim of the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials because of how she looks and the color of her skin," said one of McKinney's lawyers, James Myart Jr.
McKinney spoke on the campus of predominantly black Howard University, surrounded by more than a dozen African-American children from South Georgia's Coffee County who held signs reading "Is Cynthia a Target?" and "Recognize Our Congresswoman." The children had been in town to tour Washington and visit McKinney, said their escort, Hal Pressley, president of the Coffee County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Singer and activist Harry Belafonte and actor Danny Glover also appeared with McKinney. They said they had come not in judgment of the facts of the case, but, as Glover put it, "to support our sister."
McKinney's lawyers said the white officer involved in Monday's scuffle should be investigated.
Police declined to address the racial accusations.
"We're currently investigating the matter. That's as far as it goes with us right now," said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, the police spokeswoman.
But police union officials from across the country denounced McKinney's tactics and said the officer involved — not McKinney — was the true victim.
"There was no excessive force here," said Lou Cannon, president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents Capitol officers. "If she's trying to turn this into a racial issue, people should ask, 'Why is she doing this?' This is an insult to all police officers."
The FOP's national board, meeting Friday in Nashville, unanimously approved a motion commending the Capitol Hill officer, who has not been identified, and condemning McKinney, who was stopped because the officer didn't recognize her. Bill Peacock, a former DeKalb County police officer and a delegate to the national FOP organization, introduced the motion.
"There were two avenues she could take, one being the high road — admitting her error — and the other is to use the race card simply because the officer was trying to do his job," said Peacock.
McKinney's press conference marked the first time she has spoken publicly about the incident, in which the officer, not recognizing McKinney as a member of Congress, tried to stop her from walking around a security checkpoint, which members are routinely allowed to do.
Several Capitol police officials have said the officer involved asked McKinney three times to stop. When she did not, he placed a hand on her and she hit him, they said.
McKinney, who previously had released a statement saying she "deeply regretted" the incident, avoided details Friday. She said lawyers had advised her not to because of the possibility of charges against her.
As she had previously, she acknowledged that when she was stopped, she wasn't wearing the special lapel pin given to the 435 House members to help police and staff recognize them. But she said the officer still should have recognized her because he was trained to do so.
"I do wear the pin when I remember to wear the pin," McKinney said. "But the pin is not the issue. The issue is facial recognition."
"She's a victim," said Pressley. "For Ms. McKinney not to be immediately recognized by the Capitol police was, in itself, an insult. She's recognizable from around the world, so in D.C., our capital, you would expect that almost any police officer would recognize her, with all the controversy attached to her name."
Pressley said a Capitol Hill police officer — "like someone who just came off a plantation" — once treated some black children he brought to Washington "like animals."
Michael Raffauf, one of McKinney's attorneys, suggested that powerful Republican lawmakers who run Congress may be behind the accusations and possible criminal charges against McKinney.
"I find it highly unusual that this thing has gotten so blown out of proportion," he said.
Police have said it was extraordinarily rare, and possibly unprecedented, for a member of Congress to strike a Capitol Hill police officer.
McKinney said members of the Congressional Black Caucus are backing her, though members of Congress who were supposed to attend Friday's press conference didn't show up.
However, an influential African-American lawmaker, Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.), came to McKinney's aid Wednesday night. Millender-McDonald, the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Capitol police, called the House sergeant at arms, Wilson Livingood, amid rumors that McKinney would be arrested, her spokeswoman, Denise Mixon, said Friday.
Mixon denied Millender-McDonald tried to prevent an arrest.
"The congresswoman did not intervene. All she did was ask a question: 'Where are we now?' " Mixon said.
She said the conference call also included McKinney and Tad Vandermeid, legal counsel to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
Mixon said Livingood did not specifically address whether there were plans to arrest McKinney, saying, "An investigation is going on." Millender-McDonald asked to be kept abreast of any developments, and Livingood agreed to do so, Mixon said.
Staff writer Scott Shepard contributed information about Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald and The Associated Press contributed an account of what officers said occurred in the incident with McKinney.
"I'll cut you...I mean it!!!"
Cynthia is a fool. Danny Glover is a bigger fool for supporting her.
"Maybe she hit the cop because he's white. Two can play this game, bring it on! Would she gad been so aggressive if the cop had been black?"
She has been quoted as having said she resented having to show her ID to white folks, and her father is the originator of the often-used-on-FR 'blame da JOOOOOZ'. Apples don't fall far from the tree. Especially bigoted ones!
Who's dat who say "who's dat" when I say "who's dat"?
I think she must have used a coupon to get that haircut.
Every day that McKinney stands in front of the press...its a negative news item for the Demo's. Tomorrow's Sunday talk shows will carry 3 minutes of coverage on this...and make them look awful foolish. I'd be telling her to clean up the mess real quick or forget support from other folks.
I think they should release them!...and hurry up with it!
The public is sick and tired of certain folks running pellmell over others....and she has a history of it.
Run the darn tapes!
"4) McKinney thinks a hand on her shoulder is an "assault"."
What the heck, let's just call it torture. Now, McKinney knows what it's like to be a prisoner at Guantanamo.
Or she tried to cut it with a coupon...
Her dad?
Daddy?... great resemblance - LOL
Geez, those signs...
"Is Cynthia a target?"
You bet she is...a target of our jokes. And it's her own fault.
Earth to Cynthia: Because of YOUR OWN BEHAVIOR, you would have STILL been facing charges if you were white, black yellow, brown, red, green, or pink with purple polka dots! STOP TRYING TO MAKE US THINK THAT RACISM IS THE ISSUE HERE!!!!!!!!!!! Race is NOT an issue! YOUR BEHAVIOR IS!
Campbell allegedly threw a Blackberry at her maid. She didn't "beat" her.
Are you her attorney?
"Smashing her housekeeper in the head with a cellphone"
" Viciously smashed open her housekeeper's head with a cell phone"
" Ana Scolavino pointing to a gaping wound in her skull, which required five stitches to close"
July 31, 2205 -ACCUSED of attacking and bloodying a friend over clothes they were wearing.
Nov. 2004-ALLEGEDLY, attacked gofer Ami Castaldo by head butting her, biting her in the lip and pulling her hair in the model's Park Ave. apartment.
Sept 15,2001- ALLEGEDLY put a beating on personal assistant
Simone Craig, who accused Campbell of holding her hostage, hitting her in the arm and face and throwinga phone at her in a Beverly Hills hotel.
Sept. 1998- Campbell's secretary Georgina Galinas ACCUSES her hitting her with a telephone and threatening to toss her out of a car while they were on a Toronto highway.
Well, I'm not sure what it says about this idiot, but it sure as hell speaks volumes for Affirmative Action.
Talk about "social" promotion!
There you go!.. althouth the tought of the two together is terrifying!!!
No one accuse me of being a racist, cause I feel same about "Helen."
Ok, let's make a contest of the "beauties of the Left," LOL
There is another congress woman with black short hair... Ay ayyyyy!... she is another one, I am sure guys know whom I am talking about, she is just "unforgetable," ROFL! :)
5) The "normal" reaction when being stopped by a police officer is to strike them.
How can you expect anything but an assinine comment from an assinine woman? People who demand respect and give none are Shitheads.
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