So this congresswoman punches a Capitol policeman after he requested her to stop and ID herself. Then the woman tries to pull the race card to defend herself and say that she was stopped because she was black. Yeah lady, you better pull out every trick you got, because punching a police officer isn't a light offense... http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/05/mckinney.scuffle.ap/index.html Capitol police chief faults McKinney for escalating incident Gainer: 'Even the high and haughty' should identify themselves Wednesday, April 5, 2006; Posted: 1:21 p.m. EDT (17:21 GMT) Rep. Cynthia McKinney says racial profiling was a factor in her confrontation with Capitol Police. WASHINGTON (AP) -- U. S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said Wednesday that Rep. Cynthia McKinney turned an officer's failure to recognize her into a criminal matter when she failed to stop at his request, and then struck him. "He reached out and grabbed her and she turned around and hit him," Gainer said on CNN. "Even the high and the haughty should be able to stop and say, 'I'm a congressman' and then everybody moves on." "This is not about personality," added House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois. "It's not about racial profiling. It's about making this place safer." For her part, McKinney wasn't backing down from the argument. She charged anew that racism is behind what she said is a pattern of difficulty in clearing Hill security checkpoints. (Watch how and why McKinney evaded questions -- 10:46) "This has become much ado about hairdo," she said Wednesday on CBS's "The Early Show." McKinney, a Georgia Democrat, recently dropped her trademark cornrows in favor of a curly brown afro. The police aren't the ones who are racist, one Republican said. "Cynthia McKinney is a racist," Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said on Fox News Channel, a day after abandoning his reelection bid under a cloud of ethics charges. "She has a long history of racism. Everything is racism with her. This is incredible arrogance that sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney." Last Wednesday's incident in a House office building has caused a commotion on Capitol Hill, where security in the era of terrorist threat is tighter than ever and where authorities had to order an evacuation just Monday because of a power outage. Capitol Police have turned the case over to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Wainstein, who must decide whether to clear the way for any charges against McKinney. An official in his office said no announcement was expected Wednesday. McKinney has garnered little support among fellow Democrats in her feud with the Capitol police. No one in her party chose to join her at a news conference last Friday to discuss the situation. Republicans, meanwhile, presented a resolution commending Capitol police for professionalism toward members of Congress and visitors -- even though they "endure physical and verbal assaults in some extreme cases." "I don't think it's fair to attack the Capitol Police and I think it's time that we show our support for them," said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina, a sponsor of the measure. Ignoring a police officer's order to stop, or hitting one, "is never OK," McHenry said. Some GOP members have said the McKinney incident serves to underscore Democratic insensitivity to security concerns. Gainer said that racism, however, was not a factor. "I've seen our officers stop white members and black members, Latinos, male and females," he told CNN. "It's not an issue about what your race or gender is. It's an issue about making sure people who come into our building are recognized if they're not going through the magnetometer, and this officer at that moment didn't recognize her." "It would have been real easy, as most members of Congress do, to say here's who I am or do you know who I am?" Gainer added. Police also have said that McKinney was failing to wear a pin that lawmakers are asked to display when entering Capitol facilities. But she said Wednesday: "Face recognition is the issue .... The pin doesn't have my name on it and it doesn't have my picture on it, and so security should not be based on a pin ... People are focused on my hairdo." "Something that perhaps the average American just doesn't understand is that there is a heightened sense of a lack of appropriateness being there for members who are elected who happen to be of color," McKinney said, "and until this issue is addressed by the American public in a very substantive way, it won't be the last time." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Jon Stewart really socked it to her last night. Pretty funny stuff. Also saw her on CNN and she's a nutcase, or at least acts like it. The statement from the Police Chief makes total sense, if that's the way it happened.
Good idea to stick with the time tested line. I would pay good money to see her get tasered for sassing the police.
I'm not going to defend her because, by all indications, what she did was out of bounds. you knew there was a but... Are congressional republicans going to be as quick to praise the police for busting Doyle? just wondering
Weren't these elected officials public servents? It seems it doesn't matter if they are democrats or republicans, they all think they are so high and mighty.
This has been all over the DC news and its hilarious. DC police are pretty hardcore as they have to deal with a lot of nuts in the city, they are very cautious when approaching people because they see the worst things happen all the time. Only thing I don't get is why there is a Tom Delay quote in there, kind of has nothing to do with the article except add fuel to the fire from a guy who is already BBQ'ed himself. this is coming from the guy who said "So many minority youths had volunteered…that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like myself." - DeLay, explaining why he didn't fight in Vietnam (sounds kind of familiar to someone here in this thread).
or i prefer one punch of a police man over responsibility for deaths of 100k iraqis and 2.5k american soldiers for no legitimate reason.
While I do believe that Cynthia McKinney has a history of playing the race card, you can't deny that racial profiling does occur in many police departments. I have been personally targeted by racial profiling by the police--as has many people in this country and abroad. This is an unfortunate fact--so, I can sympathize with her in some ways. I'm in no way condoning her stupid actions against the policeman, but the police have been known to be overly physical in many cases. Also, cops can be real a*****ss sometimes... I respect the line of work they do--and I know being a cop is a real tough job to do--but they can be very unprofessional at times. Maybe...it's because I've seen some cops do some really bad things and know of many people who have had really bad experiences with them, but I can honestly say I don't trust the police in general. All of the videos of police officers beating people up and then winding up on the 6:00 news don't exactly help the reputations of police officers either... I think the correct thing for Cynthia Mckinney to do is to apologize to the police and get a large fine for her offense. Senators and Congressman shouldn't walk around thinking they such hotshots that they can push people around. As a congresswoman, she should act in a much more civilized manner rather than a complete jerk.
Well, if Capitol police have to think twice about stopping somebody the next time they don't recognize someone on the Capitol grounds, I think it does. We all need to be on the same page in defending our homeland (especially the Capitol and other high profile locations).
Comedy central usually runs each episode the next day. So last night's show will be on today at 8PM (7PM Houston). [edit] And another thing...does anyone else find it creepy when someone uses the word "homeland" to describe the US?
