CYNTHIA MC KINNEY ISSUED A WARRANT

[bdamomma]

This is my first time posting at DU, hope this comes out all
right.

Disturbing news, a warrant is out for Rep. Cynthia McKinney,
well here we go, they are after women.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/03/mckinney.scuffle.ap/index.html

[derby378]

1. Welcome to DU!!

And here's a (hopefully) working link:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/03/mckinney.scuffle.ap/index.html

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. It's not new anymore, but Welcome to DU!!

:toast: :grouphug: :yourock:

[truebrit71]

3. The warrant has NOT been issued...the capitol police are REQUESTING one...

..the City Attorney is still reviewing the case to see if a warrant is appropriate...

[kiteinthewind]

4. Welcome to DU!!

:hi:

[havocmom]

5. "they are after women" ?

Welcome to DU, but isn't that statement a bit of hyperbole? She is one woman who took a swing at a law enforcement officer, and may have been caught on video?

I'd expect to be arrested on the spot if I did that.

[bdamomma]

6. didn't she hit back

because she was manhandled inappropriately.

[Time for change]

8. Welcome to DU alyce

My opinion is that, had this been Bill Frist, for example, there would be no question of issuing a warrant for his arrest.

I agree with you that Cynthia McKinney is being targeted here - but not because she's a woman. Rather, because she's the most vehement critic of the Bush administration in Congress. I don't doubt that, under the same circumstances, no other Congress person would be considered for an arrest warrant.

[karynnj]

10. I think if anything - they would more likely charge a man

Rather than Frist (to get politics out of it) , replace McKinney with a white Democratic male representative (or Senator, if you prefer.)

So If Senator X (D, XX) took a swing at a policeman - it would be a scandal, he would likely be charged and probably censored. You don't hit police.

[YDogg]

11. I agree with some of your reasons she might be targeted ...

... but she lost my respect as soon as she pulled the race card. According to various news reports, she was asked to stop three times, and failed to comply. So now the officer is racist because he stopped her? I don't get it.

[pnwmom]

13. There's so much we don't know. How can we judge?

We don't know where they were, in relation to each other. Did the cop speak loudly and clearly three times before he finally "body blocked" and grabbed her? If there were other people around AND she heard him but he didn't use her name, would she have known he was speaking to HER? It is easy to not hear someone speaking behind you, depending on how many other people are around you, how loudly the person speaks, how distracted you are. If she was distracted, hurrying, and didn't hear him at first,or thought he was talking to someone else, isn't it possible that she just reacted instinctively when he grabbed her?

[Ron Mexico]

15. I could have written your post.

I instinctively supported her until she played the race card. I don't now. I don't claim to have all the facts, but I've seen this sort of shit too often and no longer believe such claims of racism until I see unequivocal proof.

For the record, a lot of the arguments here seem to center around her Congressional pin, and I happen to know that not anywhere close to all members of Congress wear one - but a.) as karrynj said, "you don't hit police," b.) I have on occasion failed to recognize women I work with when they come in with a new hairstyle, c.) for all we know, she could have just tried to breeze through quickly while the cop was dealing with someone else, d.) he could have been new and simply didn't recognize her, etc. The racism thing is possible, but so are a lot of other things - and racism as a reason is no longer my default assumption.

If she can't unequivocally prove racism - which is a serious, career-destroying charge these days - she doesn't have my support on this. To me, crying racism at every turn is incredibly destructive and takes attention away from real cases of racism, and I'm really fucking tired of it. Worse still, she made some of the right wing radio wackos look correct as they said "watch, she'll cry racism before the day is over." "It's the color of my skin, it's my genitalia" - sorry, this time I'm not buying it just because it happened to someone on my side. McKinney can regain my admittedly insignificant support by showing me proof that the cop would have let a white man pass under those circumstances. If she can't, then this is one of the battles I'm just not going to get behind.

[pnwmom]

16. I don't tend to think that racism was behind the cop's behavior. However,

I think that racism may be involved now. As I said, if someone like Libby Dole had gotten involved in something like this, the incident would have been made to go away very quickly.

[Ron Mexico]

18. You're might be right about Libby Dole, but

I doubt the original incident was a case of "she's black, I'll hassle her," and I really don't think it's a case of "she's black, let's pursue this legally." As I said, it's possible, but I'm going to need proof beyond a shadow of a doubt now that she's made the accusation. Playing the race card where it's unwarranted is the quickest way to make the other side look less unreasonable than they usually are, and that happens way too often.

[pnwmom]

23. You heard about the radio guy saying her hair made her look like

a ghetto slut, right? He is obviously racist, despite his denials, but many people are in more subtle ways.

I doubt that anyone's going around saying "she's black, let's get her." But I think there are people in politics who are more than willing to play on people's unconscious racism. In her in-your-faceness, she makes a lot easier target than some "genteel" white Republican lady.

[Ron Mexico]

24. Right, that was Boortz. A bald fuckwad who critiques others' hair, LOL.

However, even if you're right about the subconscious racism, the mere possibility of it doesn't put me on McKinney's side. Racism used to be my default assumption years ago, but now it is something that needs to be more than just a possibility for me to be behind the charge, that's all I'm saying.

[mmonk]

29. I agree.

Exploitation of this is on the way.

[martymar64]

30. You deny there is racism in this country?

Go to Jasper, TX and talk to the family of Terry Jackson.
The police are generally racist by nature, that's part of why they join the force. Don't believe me? Go to Los Angeles and look at how many settlements they pay for wrongful deaths against minorities every year.
Racism is alive and well, unfortunately even on DU.

[YDogg]

31. You must have missed my point.

Of course I understand that racism exists. I never said it doesn't. But the television coverage I have seen includes her videotaped statements pointedly accusing the officer of racist behavior because he stopped her / touched her. I don't understand how that makes him racist, and it would seem to diminish the effectiveness of calls against genuinely racist incidents. Boy who cried wolf, anyone?

There may be more to the incident than has been reported, but has anyone disputed that she was not following security protocols? She should have stopped, or known to stop if she didn't hear several requests to stop. It is her responsibility to follow the protocols (wearing lapel ID pin, or any other identification), and if she failed to do so, she is partly responsible for what happened. Crying "racist" seems like an easy way to avoid personal responsibility in this case.

[Time for change]

32. I don't have enough details about that, so I don't want to judge her on

that particular issue at this time.

What I do know for certain is that she was more aggressive than any other person in Congress in questioning the Bush administration about its handling of 9-11. For that she has my ever-lasting respect, regardless of whether she might be over-sensitive or paranoid about racial profiling on occassion.

I also know for certain that her stance on this has made her a MAJOR target, and that has nothing to do with race. Consequently I'm going to be very very skeptical about any bad thing I hear about her for a long time to come. I'ts going to take a lot of evidence to convince me otherwise.

[rman]

14. It remains to be seen how much of a "hit" it actually was.

And whether or not it was justified.
Security cams recorded the whole thing.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. yep, you got it alyce

and i bet that 2 oz. plastic cell phone hurt a lot!

[AtomicKitten]

28. naomi campbell's housekeeper received 4 stitches

from a cellphone lobbed at her head.

[RebelOne]

9. Not caught on video.

"A security video shows McKinney entering the building and moving around the metal detector and X-ray machine.

It does not show her encounter with the police officer, according to officials familiar with it."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/0404metmckinney.html

[Karenina]

27. BINGO!!! There's your 18 minute gap!!!

Someone needs to check how many cameras are in the area. I KNEW when they set the Mighty Wurlitzer loose on this one, if they'd had tape to confirm the accusations EVERYONE in Amurikkka would have seen it by now. Simple solution, insist the encounter was beyond the range of the cameras and keep cranking that organ.

[pnwmom]

12. If Libby Dole had pushed a cop off her, would they ever have considered

arresting her?

[enough already]

21. I don't care what she did

She's a hero and we need to support her.

[OzarkDem]

33. Not hyperbole

The facts aren't in, we don't know what happened, but we do know McKinney is being treated very unfairly.

Yes, women are taking a lot of hits these days and we need to stand up for each other and fight.

[On the Road]

7. Big, Big Mistake

if this goes through it will backfire.

[Double T]

17. there is a rovian stench in the air

[Jeffersons Ghost]

19. They probably invented the term DWB (Driving While Black) in Georgia

In Atlanta African Americans are sick and tired of being treated like criminals because of the color of their skin. You people just hide and watch this lady get more votes in Nov. than she has EVER gotten before.

If she was a white vice president she could have shot the cop and gotten away with it! I bet that her 2 oz. plastic cell-phone was a pretty devastating weapon... Did they charge her with assault with a deadly weapon?

[lukasahero]

22. "If she was a white vice president she could have shot the cop..."

"and gotten away with it!" Damn straight.

I'd add "male" to your description of "a" vice president but that would be redundant.

[KansDem]

25. Man! Imagine if they worked this quickly when Bush broke the law...

It would have worked wonders in restoring this country's dignity and self-respect

[Tsiyu]

26. Well, if Cynthia were Dick Cheney she could have shot the cop

and he would be apologizing for getting shot.

This is ludicrous. The cop is a wimp and doesn't need to be protecting a Federal Building if he is so skewid of a Congresswoman. She obviously reacted to being grabbed/blocked/what-have-you in her own self-defense.

She is not now and never has been a threat to security in DC or elsewhere. This cop is wasting tax money to smear someone.

We are not safer when our Federal Law Enforcement is wasting time on this cowardly bullshit.

But our money is used to help buy the tar and feathers.

[OzarkDem]

34. Agree

She's being treated very unfairly and its incredibly disappointing to see the sexism coming out in relation to this incident.

[Neil Lisst]

35. they're trying to keep the story "fresh" for maintaining public attention

hey look! now they're thinking about arresting her!

the pukes will milk this story as long as they can

udder nonsense, they've milked it dry

[Chiyo-chichi]

36. FREE CYNTHIA MCKINNEY!

That is all.