Rep Cynthia "Checkpoint" Mckinney has beaten the rap.

The Grand Jury has declined to indict her for the alleged assault on a police officer several months ago.

From CNN:

A grand jury has declined to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney who was accused of punching a Capitol Police officer in March.

The grand jury’s decision ends the investigation into the incident, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Wainstein.

Interesting.  Didn’t the prosecutor going after Delay have to present the charges to many grand juries before getting an indictment?

The March 29 altercation occurred at a security checkpoint in a congressional office building after officer Paul McKenna, a three-year veteran of the force, failed to recognize the six-term Georgia Democrat and tried to stop her from bypassing a metal detector.

Members of Congress are allowed to go around the detectors. However, they are supposed to wear pins that identify them as representatives or senators. McKinney acknowledged she was not wearing her pin.

According to an incident report filed by Capitol Police last month, McKinney "physically assaulted" McKenna, hitting him in the chest with a "closed fist."

After hearing testimony from at least four congressional aides who saw the incident, the grand jury declined to return an indictment, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

No further details were given. Grand jury proceedings generally are kept secret.

McKinney said Friday that she was "relieved that this unfortunate incident is behind me."

"I accept today’s grand jury finding of ‘no probable cause’ as right and just and the proper resolution of the case," she said in a statement.

Convenient in that it gets you off the hook.

Wainstein said he respected the grand jury’s decision.

"We ask the U.S. Capitol Police to protect our Capitol and to do so in a way that minimizes disruption and makes all feel welcome," Wainstein said in a statement.

"This is a tremendously difficult job, and it is one that officer McKenna and his colleagues perform with the utmost professionalism and dignity."

Capitol Police officers, however, viewed the grand jury’s decision with "extreme disappointment," said Lou Cannon, president of the District of Columbia Fraternal Order of Police, a union representing Capitol Police officers.

"I’ve already received numerous calls as this broke about people wondering why they would want to be a law enforcement officer in the nation’s Capitol anymore," he said. "We have to review this and see what kind of message it sends."

Indeed, this is the question of the hour.  Why be a cop when instead of enforcing laws, you have to drive the felon home because he is a Congressman*?  Or better yet you get assaulted by one of the people you are sowrn to protect, then get called a racists for good measure. 

Oh sign me up!

McKinney has never publicly discussed the details of what happened between her and the officer, citing the possibility of criminal charges.

After initially insisting the incident was an example of racial profiling, McKinney later apologized on the floor of the House, saying, "I am sorry this misunderstanding happened at all. I regret its escalation."

An apology that doesn’t apologize.  Sweet!

James Myart, an attorney representing McKinney, questioned the police version of the incident from the outset, saying Capitol Police initially apologized to McKinney.

He also questioned why Capitol Police didn’t arrested McKinney on the spot if she really had assaulted an officer.

Of the grand jury proceeding, Myart told reporters in April, "I would think that they would recognize that there simply is not enough evidence here to even bring an indictment."

In the midst of the controversy over her altercation with the officer, McKinney drew an opponent in the July 18 Democratic primary: Hank Johnson, an attorney and two-term member of the DeKalb County Commission.

McKinney, 51, represents Georgia’s 4th Congressional District, a majority-black, Democratic district on the east side of metro Atlanta.

First elected in 1992, she was defeated in a 2002 Democratic primary but made a comeback in 2004. She won back her seat after the candidate who had defeated her two years earlier decided to run for the U.S. Senate.

The show is over I suppose, but the investigation amd outcry is not.

Police Group Wants McKinney Scuffle Probed

Police labor officials, angry over a federal grand jury’s refusal to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney for assaulting a police officer, said Monday said they want the House ethics committee to review her conduct.

Pardon me if I don’t hold my breath.

And they said the grand jury’s decision last week sent the message that "it’s okay to hit a police officer."

"We hope that members of Congress will review her actions in light of their rules within their own ethics committee," Andrew Maybo, chairman of the U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee, told reporters Monday at a news conference in Washington.

Maybo said the Fraternal Order of Police would send a letter later this week to the ethics committee suggesting that McKinney’s behavior violated an item in the chamber’s ethics manual that calls for members to "conduct (themselves) at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives."

Such a letter would not trigger an inquiry unless a member of the House authors it, or the chairman and ranking Democrat move to review the matter.

McKinney has not disputed accounts that she hit Officer Paul McKenna May 29 when he tried to stop her from entering a House office building unrecognized. McKenna did not arrest McKinney at the scene.

"Congresswoman McKinney’s assault on Officer McKenna was not only unprofessional for her position as a member of Congress, but we believe it puts out the wrong message across America, that it’s okay to strike a police officer," said

"It’s not okay to strike a police officer, regardless of who you are," he added.

Indeed.  So be happy Cindy.  You got away with assault on a police officer and even got to call him a bigot, all because you were too stupid to wear friggin pin.

MORON!

McKinney should take a page from Rep Kennedy’s* playbook, and admit what she did and deal with it.  She assaulted a cop because she was in a hurry and so stuck on her own self importance that she felt the rules don’t apply to her.  I have no respect for such an empty headed criminal.

I hope her opponent smashes her at the polls. She is a disgrace.

Privilege and pride win the day today.

Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught. 
~Honoré de Balzac

* LSU once again salutes Rep Pat Kennedy for having the courage to do what few in politics do:  Admit your guilt and face your penalty with dignity.  He may be the son of an idiot, but he has some measure of honor.

Also at Sister Toldjah,

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