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The FOP said they will back the cop, should he decide to press charges:Ga. Congresswoman in Scuffle With Police
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Updated: 6:43 p.m. ET March 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - Rep. Cynthia McKinney and a police officer scuffled Wednesday after the Georgia Democrat entered a House office building unrecognized and refused to stop when asked, according to U.S. Capitol Police.
McKinney, a sixth-term congresswoman who represents suburban Atlanta, struck the officer according to one account, a police official said, adding there were conflicting accounts. The officer, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident, spoke only on condition of anonymity.
No charges were filed, police said.
Officials in McKinney's office refused two requests for comment.
Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said only that senior officials have been made aware of the incident and are investigating.
Members of Congress do not have to walk through metal detectors as they enter buildings on the Capitol complex. They wear lapel pins identifying them as members.
McKinney routinely doesn't wear her pin and is recognized by many officers, the police official said, adding that she wasn't wearing it when she entered a House office building early Wednesday.
By one police account, she walked around a metal detector and an officer asked her several times to stop. When she did not, the officer tried to stop her, and she then struck the officer, according to that account.
McKinney was defeated in 2002 after she implied on a talk radio program that the Bush administration might have had advance notice of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She won back the seat two years later with 64 percent of the vote.
Republicans circulated an e-mail noting that McKinney's party the same day announced an election-year "affirmation" of their commitment to shoring up the nation's security.
"On a day when the Democrats unveil their national security agenda, it's probably not a good idea to allegedly strike a police officer," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.
Kathianne said:I'm sure they do. Has it been released though?
Kathianne said:Me too, but doubt he was hurt, so not likely.
McKinney Allegedly Punches Cop
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga. 4th)
Web Editor: Michael King
Last Modified: 3/29/2006 7:37:24 PM
According to sources on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) punched a Capitol police officer on Wednesday afternoon after he mistakenly pursued her for failing to pass through a metal detector.
Members of Congress are not required to pass through metal detectors.
Sources say that the officer was at a position in the Longworth House Office Building, and did not recognize McKinney, nor saw her credentials as she went around the metal detector.
The officer called out, Maam, Maam, and walked after her in an attempt to stop her. When he caught McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm.
Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest.
McKinneys office has not responded to requests for comment.
According to the Drudge Report, the entire incident is on tape.
Drudge continues, "The cop is pressing charges, and the USCP (United States Capitol Police) are waiting until Congress adjurns to arrest her, a source claims."
Kathianne said:
True, but not total immunity.......dilloduck said:She has congressional immunity.
I think it was a breach of peace, but regardless, I heard last night the intent was to arrest her after the session is over. They should too, the woman is a loose canon. She is commonly refered to down here as the cutest lil communist in Congress.Article One of the United States Constitution provides that members of Congress shall be immune from arrest in going to and departing from sessions and while Congress is in session except for cases of "Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace".
McKinney faces arrest over security incident
By BOB KEMPER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/31/06
WASHINGTON Capitol Hill police are expected to seek an arrest warrant next week for Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, who was involved in a physical confrontation with a Capitol police officer Wednesday, police and legal authorities said Thursday.
Officially, the investigation of the incident, in which the DeKalb County Democrat allegedly struck a police officer who tried to stop her from going around a security checkpoint, is ongoing, said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, spokeswoman for Capitol Hill police.
However, police have notified the federal prosecutor's office in Washington that they will be seeking an arrest warrant after the investigation is complete next week, said police and legal authorities, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because the investigation was not yet complete.
McKinney ignored a reporter's questions Thursday as she walked into the Capitol, before word of the planned arrest warrant. She could not be reached for comment later Thursday.
In a statement released Wednesday, McKinney said, "I deeply regret that the incident occurred."
McKinney's office said she may hold a news conference today in Washington.
The U.S. attorney's office must approve any warrant before police can take it to a judge for final approval. The prosecutor's office also would have to notify the Justice Department because the warrant would involve a sitting member of Congress.
Charges could range from assault on a police officer, a felony carrying a possible five-year prison term, to simple assault, which is a misdemeanor, police and legal officials said.
Believe me, I have!theim said:Assault on a Police Officer! Uh-oh!
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/0331metmckinney.html
Yeah it's too much to hope for, but still. Brightens my day just imagining it.
Grand Jury to Hear McKinney Run-In Case
By LAURIE KELLMAN and MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago
A federal grand jury will soon begin hearing evidence about Rep. Cynthia McKinney's run-in with a Capitol Police officer, a lawyer familiar with the case said late Wednesday.
The lawyer, who declined to be identified because of grand jury secrecy, confirmed that federal prosecutors had agreed to get involved in the case in which a black lawmaker is accused of striking a white officer after he tried to stop her from entering a House office building without going through a security checkpoint.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said McKinney turned the 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-Ill. "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.
"This has become much ado about hairdo," she said Wednesday on CBS' "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's "Fox and Friends," 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-N.C., 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."
