Washington, D.C.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney struck a Capitol police officer in the chest last week after he attempted to stop her from going around a security checkpoint at a House office building. This week, police were seeking a warrant from prosecutors to arrest her on assault charges. Members of Congress are allowed to bypass security, but the officer apparently didn’t recognize the Georgia Democrat, who says she struck out instinctively after being grabbed. “This whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black congresswoman,” said McKinney, who has had four similar run-ins with Washington security personnel since 1993. McKinney acknowledged that she was not wearing a lapel pin that lawmakers are supposed to display for identification purposes. Still, she said, she considered herself a victim of harassment and “racial profiling.”
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