Rep. McKinney’s Capitol punishment

Should charges be filed against Rep. Cynthia McKinney after she struck a Capitol Hill police officer for stopping her at a security check? Absolutely. So why have they not been? Because rather than admit she was wrong in her actions, McKinney has thrown out the race/gender card. After an apparent haircut, which left her appearance altered (looking as if she had switched to Don King’s stylist), McKinney attempted to enter a House office building without her identifying lapel pin worn only by House representatives. An officer asked her to stop three times – which she completely ignored – and the officer placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her, at which time she struck him and a scuffle ensued.

According to McKinney, Capitol Hill officers are supposed to recognize every House member. But McKinney had drastically changed her hairstyle and one of the officers wanted identification. Activists are now coming forward to say it is a case of racial profiling. Of course McKinney is accepting no blame in the matter; the fact that she was not wearing her lapel pin, she states, is not an issue because they should know what she looks like. This is a woman who has had a signature hairstyle for years, decided to change it and then walked into a House office building and expected everyone to know who she was as she was rushing past.

When asked to stop, the simple fact is that she should have. Since Sept. 11 people have been coming up with new and inventive ways of breaching security in this country. Of course police are going to get jumpy when someone whom they do not recognize from behind is walking away when asked to stop repeatedly. Let’s assume the situation had been different. Suppose that someone resembling McKinney but with no identification walked past security, went into the building and opened fire on everyone in sight. Are we going to assume that these officers would not then be in a world of trouble for not realizing that the person who looked like McKinney in fact was not? Of course not. They would all be fired.

McKinney’s actions would have brought the same attention at any government office. Would she prefer that there was no security at this office? Of course not because that would open the door to every crazy person on the street. This is nothing more than a case where a government official did something wrong and now does not want to accept responsibility for it, so she is dragging out a bogus defense. What a shock: a government official who makes up an excuse for breaking the law and acting like a moron. With McKinney’s recent statement about possibly filing civil charges, one can only wonder if they are giving out handbooks on how to be a moron once you are elected. Suck it up McKinney, say you were wrong and get on with life. No government official should get away with striking a police officer. The message she has just sent to millions of young people is that you can ignore the police, hit them and then claim you were discriminated against. Not only should she face a few days in jail but she should lose her seat as well. No one with this kind of temper needs to be a representative of this country in any shape or form.