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Reporter's Notebook: Bill Conroy

Cynthia McKinney assaulted by Capitol cop!

Posted by Bill Conroy - March 30, 2006 at 10:51 pm
I'd just like to voice my outrage about how the Cynthia McKinney Capitol "assault" incident is being played out so far in the mainstream media.

From an AP account:

A longtime congresswoman and a police officer scuffled after the lawmaker entered a House of Representatives office building unrecognized and refused to stop when asked, according to U.S. Capitol Police.

There were conflicting accounts about the incident Wednesday, a police official said. One version said Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat who was first elected in 1992 and represents Atlanta's suburbs, struck the officer, the official said. The officer, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident, spoke on condition of anonymity.

... McKinney normally does not wear her pin and is recognized by many officers, the police official said. The official said she had not been 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.

The story fails to mention that members of Congress do not have to go through the metal detector as they enter Capitol Hill buildings. A story posted on the Washington Post's Web site actually claims McKinney "stabbed" the police officer with her "cellphone" and attributes that sensational detail to an anonymous source. Yeah, that sure sounds like an effective weapon against a bulletproof vest.

Fox News reports it this way:

According to the sources, McKinney was walking into the building at about 2:30 p.m. EST and went around the metal detector, which is customary for lawmakers.

The police officer apparently did not recognize McKinney and asked her to stop and walk through the metal detector. McKinney ignored the officer's requests more than once, the sources said, and the officer placed his hand on McKinney's shoulder.

There sure seems to be a lot of "accounts" and anonymous sources built into the mainstream media storyline. And until the surveillance video is released, which the Capitol Police at this point appear unwilling to effect, we'll just have to do some guessing like everyone else appears to be doing on this story.

Though I don't know the particulars of the incident, I can assume this much: It was a male policeman with a gun who came after McKinney, and according to the Fox News account, initially "placed his hand" on her. So any implication that McKinney posed a real threat to the police officer seems beyond the pale on its face in my estimation.

But more importantly, McKinney is not an average citizen for the purposes of law enforcement. She is a U.S. Congresswoman. The burden of proof should be on this law enforcement officer to demonstrate that he did not assault McKinney.

Last time I checked, a threat against members of Congress is considered a serious crime, regardless of what uniform an individual happens to be wearing. I think the mainstream media has to ask themselves if they would cover the story the same way if President Bush was shaken down by cop while trying to walk into the White House, and he pushed back.

Who would be to blame in that case? We all know that cop would be picking up dog poo in the park the next day.

Hell, in real life, the vice president of the country shot someone in the face, and the victim apologized to him.

And this whole business about not wearing the appropriate "pin" to ID McKinney as a member of Congress sounds like gradeschool stuff -- as though that is some excuse for McKinney to be singled out and "assaulted."

What a load of crap.

What that tells me is the people supposedly providing security at the Capitol don't have a clue. If they don't know who the members of Congress are, how are they going to stop a real terrorist?

Are we to assume that if a real terrorist, strapped with a bomb, walked into the Capitol wearing the right "pin," then that person would get a free pass -- given that the Capitol cop on duty that day might not recognize him or her either?

It seems to me that the keystone cop in this McKinney incident needs to learn to keep his hands off of members of Congress and take some hands-on civics lessons. That way, this so-called guardian of our elected leaders might get a clue about whom he  is supposed to be protecting in the buildings he is being paid to guard.

Anyway, I know it's all political. But even down here on the border in Texas, I can smell a pile of manure being dumped out by the horses' asses in D.C. once it hits the airwaves.

About Bill Conroy

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Right-wing pundits now on attack

Submitted April 2, 2006 - 6:52 am by Stephen Peacock
And now you have right-wing nationally syndicated radio commentators like Neal Boortz weighing in on the issue, calling Rep. McKinney a "ghetto slut." How sad.

More on this from the Media Matters group.

Who's `race card' is higher?

Submitted April 2, 2006 - 5:53 pm by Bill Conroy
U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s made the following comments to the media this week concerning her scuffle with the U.S. Capitol Police.

From the Washington Post:

“Let me be clear: This whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black congresswoman," McKinney said. "I deeply regret that this incident occurred."

Now, those who enjoy the art of a media lynching and who are looking to make political hay in the wake of the McKinney incident accuse her of playing the race card. Yet those who hide behind that deceit, and fail to see or admit that discrimination is at play in this case, cannot hide from the history of the Capitol Police on that very subject.

But suspiciously, in the mainstream media coverage of the McKinney story so far, we have yet to hear or read much about that history.

Such as this:

Black U.S. Capitol Police threaten second lawsuit

By Nisa Islam Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Aug 15, 2003, 09:22 pm

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - When the Black U.S. Capitol Police filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Government in 2001, they expected to get justice. What they say they’ve gotten is retaliation and they’re threatening a second class action suit.

The officers took their case to Capitol Hill July 30 for a press conference alleging the Capitol Police department’s pattern of filing excessive and unfounded disciplinary charges against prominent members of the class action, as well as a pattern of harassment, including exclusion of class members from the U.S. Capitol Complex and a series of auto tampering, break-ins and vandalism of class members’ automobiles.

"We suspect that such conduct by the department smacks of retaliation against the class members and is designed to undermine the momentum of current settlement negotiations," class attorney Nathaniel D. Johnson told The Final Call.

Now, ask yourself, if the Capitol Police’s own African American officers are accusing their department of racism, how can that be discounted as a factor in the McKinney case?

In reality, in this game, the “race card,” like an Ace, has a varying value, depending on who is playing it.

My wager, in this deal of the game, is that McKinney has the best hand, because she is holding the high Ace.

Lawsuit accuses Capitol cops of systematic racism

Submitted April 2, 2006 - 10:31 pm by Bill Conroy
For those who are interested, and wondering why we haven't heard more about the racial problems within the U.S. Capitol Police, here's some more fodder.

From the Web site of an attorney handling the class-action case:

African American Police Officers Launch New Class Action

Washington, DC - African American Capitol Police Officers are launching a second class action lawsuit challenging the United States Capitol Police department's systematic efforts to intimidate them and retaliate against them. The Officers are currently suing the department in United States District Court for a wide range of discriminatory practices.

The Officers are responding to the department's pattern of filing excessive and unfounded disciplinary charges against prominent members of the class action, as well as a pattern of harassment including exclusion of class members from the U.S. Capitol Complex and a series of auto tampering, break-ins and vandalism of class members' automobiles.

"We suspect that such conduct by the department smacks of retaliation against the class members, and is designed to undermine the momentum of current settlement negotiations," class attorney Nathaniel D. Johnson, declared. "Accordingly, we strongly believe that anyone initiating these frivolous and false charges should be held accountable and disciplined."

"The department is inflicting draconian punishments on African American class members, based on bogus charges and phony rationalizations after the fact," said attorney Charles W. Day, Jr., who also represents the class members....

And below is the case site on the original, still pending, case:

U.S. District Court
District of Columbia (Washington, DC)
CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:01-cv-02221-EGS-JMF

BLACKMON-MALLOY et al v. UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE BOARD
Assigned to: Judge Emmet G. Sullivan
Referred to: Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola
Demand: $100,000,000
Lead case: 1:01-cv-02221-EGS-JMF   (View Member Cases)
Related Case:
01-810
Cause: 42:2000e Job Discrimination (Employment)

Date Filed: 10/29/2001
Jury Demand: Plaintiff
Nature of Suit: 442 Civil Rights: Jobs
Jurisdiction: U.S. Government Defendant

The last order in the case was entered March 31, 2006, according to the docket sheet. That kind of makes you wonder if some of the white cops on the D.C. Capitol beat might have some beefs with their African American "fraternal brothers" that have fueled the McKinney incident. At least that's a question I'd be asking if I were in the Congresswoman's shoes.

Stay tuned...

"The highest respect for the law"

Submitted April 5, 2006 - 2:56 am by Bill Conroy
CNN interviewed Cynthia McKinney Monday concerning her run-in with the Capitol Police.

At one point during the interview, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer pointed out that there are “black” officers with the Capitol Police, as though that somehow nullified McKinney’s charges of racial profiling.

McKinney shot back that CNN needed to do its homework, indicating that there are serious issues of racial profiling within the ranks of the Capitol Police.

From an account of the McKinney interview published Tuesday on CNN.com:

"I don't understand exactly why it is that certain police officers have a problem remembering my face," McKinney said, noting that she is one of 14 black women among the 535 members of Congress. "The issue is racial profiling, and that's something that we're going to have to deal with as a country."

McKinney also said that, within the ranks of the Capitol Police, "there are problems inside with ... the respect for diversity." She did not elaborate, but Myart pointed to a discrimination suit filed by more than 250 black officers against the department.

If CNN’s elite media hounds would have done their homework, before interviewing McKinney and for the story above, they would not have to rely on McKinney to “elaborate” or Myart to point out anything. They could actually quote from the source — the actual lawsuit.

Narco News dug up the information for its recent revelations about the litigation through a simple Google search. Makes you wonder if CNN has access to the same Internet the rest of us use. (Well, no matter; the CNN story quoted above has since been written over in an update blasting the news that key Democrats are failing to rally behind McKinney -- and the reference to the lawsuit is deleted.)

No surprise there. It’s far easier to paint McKinney as “playing the race card” than it is to confront the very real problem of racial profiling that is part of this story. The reasoning seems to be that even if McKinney was profiled, it doesn’t matter, because she struck an officer of the law.

Well, that might be a supportable line for the media to take, if the issue was that black and white. But, let's assume it's not so clear, as real life tends to be in most cases. If, as McKinney claims, this officer did touch her inappropriately, would she be within her rights to slap the offender -- or at least push him away? Does the uniform excuse all such transgressions? Would it make a difference in the eyes of some people if it was a black officer inappropriately touching a white female?

The reality is that convicting McKinney of anything at this point, particularly from the sidelines in the media, is yet another form of profiling.

If you read the mainstream media’s script of the McKinney incident, almost without exception, you would come away with the impression that she has already been tried and convicted. That’s the definition of a media lynching.

And everyone likes to watch a hangin’, don’t they?

But I'm curious as to whether any other lawmakers the day of the incident, or recently, were allowed to pass around the metal detector in the Capitol office building without wearing pins identifying them as a members of Congress -- while the same officer that grabbed McKinney was on duty.

If so, were they stopped, and if not, why?

Seems to me that would be a crucial question to at least explore journalistically and otherwise. As I understand it, some folks in Congress frequently don't wear their “security” pins. It would be quite telling to have specific examples. A curious person watching some C-Span video should be able to pick out some faces quite easily -- maybe even from footage of the day McKinney had her encounter with the Capitol Police officer.

I'm surprised no one has stepped forward to date in either party to own up to such behavior -- well, not really -- but I'm sure they would be more forthcoming if forced to testify to the facts in a courtroom, which I suspect all of them would want to avoid in an election year.

After all, how would it look to the voters if a dozen or more of our elected leaders were shown to have walked passed the same police officer that day absent their pins, without being chased down and grabbed by a body part? Would that be deemed evidence of racial profiling or just a case of selective memory at work?

Are we to believe that the officer recognized every other lawmaker but McKinney? Is it possible that no other lawmaker has ever changed their hairstyle other than McKinney?

And for those folks in the mainstream media who insist on continuing to provide disproportionate emphasis to only one side of the allegations in this case (to the exclusion of fairly exploring McKinney’s claim that she is the victim of an unjust application of the law due to racial profiling) I ask you to keep in mind the following words:

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
— Martin Luther King Jr.

Stay tuned….

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