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.
50,000 in the temporal lobe might shock her brain into action. Lawd knows its in sleep mode now.
Wow, didn't see that one coming ...
This one comes close. It looks like a spear through her head!
courtesy MSNBC
Hmmm. Maybe we should start calling her "Spear Catcher".
You are correct. In 25 years of working in DC before I retired I saw a thousand with McKinney's attitude , weight and facial features. probably a Hundred at Howard alone.
I think the kids know a fake when they see one and know they are being used for this show,
What right does a Congresswoman have to hit a cop?? He is not required to remember every elected official or do Black women get special rights?
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
"She will get away with it and the only reason she will get away with it is because she is black, if she were white she would already be in jail.
I agree. AND, the video tape would have been released, too."
AND the self-hating, white liberal press would have made this front page news and kept it simmering for the next month.
Triple all of the above if the perp had been a male and octuple if a white, christian conservative. And if the cop had been any of a number of minorities, but especially black, we'd have to go to exponents.
"Is it too much to hope that some enterprising (unbiased) reporter will ask her to produce the pin?!"
I expect that you are 100% spot on, and yes, it is also WAY TOO much to ask. MSM gives the DIMS a by again.
She cerainly has some SERIES and HUGH Buckwheat/Don King action goin' on with that bad hair thang....
I haven't had this good of a laugh at a "real" article in a long long time.
This woman does not deserve to be put in Congress.
It certainly does make us all think about who the heck are these people we are electing.
To do that, the policemen would have to have her MENTAL PICTURE on their brains all the time... and that is "cruel and unusual punishment." ROFL!
Its worse.....having to imprint that image in one's brain wound cause a cognitative dissonance and severe neuron discombobulation.
The officer would not be able to recoggnize the "queen" due to supressed image and would not be able to perform his duties.
If the police don't file charges, and soon, McKinney's going to win a lot of support from those who read only the headlines.
I would think the pin's purpose is to avoid situations just like this. i.e. Provide a mechanism to allow Congress members to bypass security without jepordizing security
I can't believe the Capitol Police are expected to instantly recognize 435 congresspersons. Else why have the pin in the first place?
You are entirely right... incredible how a "little" thing like this, crytalizes the media's bias... and what they really believe deep down. With the role fo the media you can tell a lot no only by what the do, but just as much by what they don't do. The old "look the other way." Pretend you're stupid or the issue is so small, not worth talking about it :)
But they don't fool us anymore, we all know the Left media (former MSM :) would have done if the subject here were other than a black congresswoman (like a white evil male republican)
. My guess is that they are the best of the best from various PD's around the country...?
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