This morning, while reading HuffPo, I came upon a very disturbing video. This video is part of a new documentary called American Blackout by Ian Inaba of the Guerrilla News Network (GNN).
Inaba allowed several black police officers to talk at length about allegations of racism on Capitol Hill and about the now infamous altercation involving Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and a white Capitol Hill police officer.
The officers’ identities are cloaked and their voices have been altered because they fear reprisals for speaking out. Their perspectives on the McKinney incident deserve your attention.
The March 29 altercation between McKinney and the police officer, in which she allegedly refused to stop, give identification and then decked the officer for grabbing her, made the outspoken congresswoman the year’s poster child for bad behavior and bad hairdos. No doubt it has contributed to her sagging polls during her reelection campaign. Comments on this blog and others; the punditocracy, and the mainstream news media hammered her repeatedly. Going on morning news and entertainment shows did not help her cause.
Yet the black officers say that McKinney was targeted because she wrote a letter on behalf of their black officer’s association demanding the ouster of the counsel of the Capitol Police, John Caulfield, for racist remarks and for contributing to and supporting a hostile environment in the police organization.
Capitol Hill police officers are trained to recognize all congresspeople, especially black congresspeople. Yet some white police officers repeatedly stopped black congresspeople like Cleo Fields of Louisiana for identification, whether or not they were wearing business suits or casual wear. The black officers witnessed these white policemen openly speaking of ‘getting’ McKinney, and celebrating vociferously when she was caught and the incident made news. As a result, McKinney is now facing charges brought by that same counsel, John Caulfield.
You have to have QuickTime to access this video.
Whether you like or dislike Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, this video reveals that there is a much larger issue involved.
