The Last Plantation

McKinney-Capitol Police incident part of systemic racism of Capitol Police force says African American officers

Capitol Hill is ‘Last Plantation’ according to officers

Atlanta, GA – Cynthia McKinney was deliberately targeted by white U.S. Capitol Police Officers, part of the systemic racism of the U.S. Capitol Police Force say four African American Capitol Officers. The startling revelation, coming a week before her primary run-off against Hank Johnson, came in a video released by Ian Inaba, director of the Sundance award winning American Blackout (which will open early in an exclusive engagement this Friday in Atlanta).

The video shows four anonymous African American officers discussing what they see as the systemic racism of the U.S. Capitol Police Force. In particular, they say, is a double standard that exists for both black officers and Members of Congress – something that leaves the U.S. Capitol as what they term the “last plantation.”

“I know the black members are disrespected, I’ve seen instances where black members are disrespected,” said one officer in the video. “They’ll do things to black Members that they don’t do to white Members.”

Another officer in the video recalls white U.S. Capitol Officers actually preparing to confront African American Members of Congress.

“I’ve heard them say, ‘Well when certain members come through here, in particular Cynthia McKinney, she ain’t just gonna run up these steps. I’m gonna stop her,” said the officer. “It’s almost like they be waiting … want confrontation.”

The McKinney incident was just the latest in a long line of questionable situations and occurrences that are part of what the officers call the “good old boy system” in the Capitol Police Force. They term the Capitol the “last plantation”

Black officers suffer from a separate, but not equal, disciplinary and termination system, they say. And African American officers have been historically passed over for promotions in favor of less qualified white officers.

One officer recalls a behind-the-scenes embarrassment for the force when its general counsel, John Caulfield, was investigated for using the N-word with a Washington, DC, cab driver. McKinney, they say, stood up for the black officers.

Another remembers the time when Nelson Mandela visited the Capitol and black officers heard their white counterparts joking that they “hope somebody assassinates him.”

Capitol Hill Police did not respond to GNN’s request for comment.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and hailed as “powerful” and “engrossing,” American Blackout chronicles the recurring patterns of voter disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 while following the story of Rep. McKinney, who first loses, and then regains, her Congressional seat in the film.

American Blackout will be released later this year in a theatrical and grassroots campaign to screen the film for voters across the nation. It serves as an alarming wakeup call for minority voters that forces are actively conspiring to co-opt and even steal their votes.

The film features interviews with: US Congressional Representatives, John Lewis, Cynthia McKinney, John Conyers, Bernie Sanders, and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones; former US Civil Rights Commissioner & Dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Christopher Edley; BBC journalist Greg Palast; and, Van Jones, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center.

Read a full transcript of the interview

Credits

Director/Interviewer: Ian Inaba

Posted by ian
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