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Holder's Black Panther Stonewall on voter intimidation
Wall Street Journal ^ | 20 August 2009 | John Fund

Posted on 08/21/2009 6:23:03 PM PDT by Bob017

President Obama's Justice Department continues to stonewall inquiries about why it dropped a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party.

The episode—which Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and publisher of the left-wing Village Voice, calls "the most blatant form of voter intimidation I've ever seen"—began on Election Day 2008. Mr. Bull and others witnessed two Black Panthers in paramilitary garb at a polling place near downtown Philadelphia. (Some of this behavior is on YouTube.)

One of them, they say, brandished a nightstick at the entrance and pointed it at voters and both made racial threats. Mr. Bull says he heard one yell "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!"

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bhodoj; blackpanthers; civilrights; johnfund
In the first week of January, the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring voters with the weapon, uniforms and racial slurs. In March, Mr. Bull submitted an affidavit at Justice's request to support its lawsuit.

View Full Image fund Associated Press

Attorney General Eric Holder fund fund

When none of the defendants filed any response to the complaint or appeared in federal district court in Philadelphia to answer the suit, it appeared almost certain Justice would have prevailed by default. Instead, the department in May suddenly allowed the party and two of the three defendants to walk away. Against the third defendant, Minister King Samir Shabazz, it sought only an injunction barring him from displaying a weapon within 100 feet of a Philadelphia polling place for the next three years—action that's already illegal under existing law.

There was outrage over the decision among Congressional Republicans, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division—especially after it was learned one of the defendants who walked was Jerry Jackson, a member of Philadelphia's 14th Ward Democratic Committee and a credentialed poll watcher for the Democratic Party last Election Day.

Then the Washington Times reported on July 30 that six career lawyers at Justice who had recommended continuing to pursue the case were overruled by Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli—a top administration political appointee. One of the career attorneys, Appellate Chief Diana Flynn, had urged in an internal memo that a judgment be pressed against the defendants to "prevent the paramilitary style intimidation of voters" in the future.

Justice spokesman Alejandro Miyar says the dismissal was "based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law." But Rep. Frank Wolf (R., Va.), has been asking for more information. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch, for example, claims in a July 13 letter to Mr. Wolf that charges against the New Black Panther Party itself were dropped because there wasn't "evidentiary support" to prove they "directed" the intimidation. But Mr. Wolf notes in a letter sent to Justice that one defendant, Black Panther Party Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz, said on Fox News just after the election that his activities at the polling station were part of a nationwide effort. Mr. Shabazz added that the Black Panther activities in Philadelphia were justified due to "an emergency situation."

Mr. Wolf's demands that Justice make the career attorneys on the case available for questions have been rebuffed. He also wants the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings. A spokesman for House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers was noncommittal as to whether any hearing would be held.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted on Aug. 7 to send a letter to Justice expanding its own investigation and demanding more complete answers. "We believe the Department's defense of its actions thus far undermines respect for rule of law," its letter stated. It noted "the peculiar logic" of one Justice argument, that defendants' failure to show up in court was a reason for dismissing the case: "Such an argument sends a perverse message to wrongdoers—that attempts at voter suppression will be tolerated so long as the persons who engage in them are careful not to appear in court to answer the government's complaint."

The commission noted that it could subpoena witnesses and documents if Justice doesn't better explain its actions.

President Obama needs to clear the air. As a former law professor who specialized in voting rights, he is aware of how important even-handed application of the law is to election integrity. In 2007, then-Sen. Obama introduced a bill to protect Americans from tactics that intimidate voters. It also increased the criminal penalty for voter intimidation to five years in prison from one year.

"There is no place for politics in this debate," he testified before Mr. Conyers's committee in March, 2007. "Both parties at different periods in our history have been guilty in different regions of preventing people from voting for a tactical advantage. We should be beyond that."

One way to get there is for Mr. Obama to insist his Justice Department reinstate the Black Panther case or provide a full explanation for why it was dropped.

1 posted on 08/21/2009 6:23:03 PM PDT by Bob017
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To: Bob017

Just protecting and insulating their quasi-military shock troops.


2 posted on 08/21/2009 6:27:03 PM PDT by ntmxx (I am not so sure about this misdirection!)
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To: All

3 posted on 08/21/2009 6:28:01 PM PDT by potlatch
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To: Bob017

Is it not obvious?

This is a War on America by Obama’s Lawyers.

The terrorists become free.
Americans become suspect.
The patriots at CIA are exposed.

So what is the surprise when it is upheld that
Black Panthers can intimidate non-Obama voters?


4 posted on 08/21/2009 6:29:11 PM PDT by Diogenesis ("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
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To: ntmxx

Email them asking about this:

“Individuals who believe that a Department of Justice employee or contractor has violated their civil rights or civil liberties may contact the OIG by mail:

Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Complaints
Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Room 4706
Washington, D.C. 20530

E-mail: inspector.general@usdoj.gov

E-mails to the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General, may be sent to AskDOJ@usdoj.gov.


5 posted on 08/21/2009 6:29:48 PM PDT by Bob017
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To: potlatch
Man-o-man, just you dare show up at my polling place and threaten me. I will be in your face like ugly on a fence post!
6 posted on 08/21/2009 6:32:27 PM PDT by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: boatbums
I will be in your face like ugly on a fence post!

Fence post?

7 posted on 08/21/2009 6:36:06 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Health Care Reform has met the DEATH Panel.)
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To: boatbums

Well, the twerp with the club looks kinda small so any large man probably wouldn’t be intimidated.

As a woman, I would be leery of them even knowing they probably wouldn’t really bother a well dressed white woman.


8 posted on 08/21/2009 6:39:27 PM PDT by potlatch
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To: potlatch

As a woman, I would be leery of them even knowing they probably wouldn’t really bother a well dressed white woman.
_______________________________________________________

You better not be protestin’.....bein’ all ‘well dressed’ and all. ;-)


9 posted on 08/21/2009 7:02:03 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear ('Always love your country — but never trust your government!' ~ Robert Novak (RIP))
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

[You better not be protestin’.....bein’ all ‘well dressed’ and all. ;-)]

Lol, gotta look nice when I go to vote - I see too many people I know there!


10 posted on 08/21/2009 7:04:33 PM PDT by potlatch
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To: potlatch

Hehe! I feel that way when I go to the local ‘Ye Olde Mart of Wal’.


11 posted on 08/21/2009 7:12:09 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear ('Always love your country — but never trust your government!' ~ Robert Novak (RIP))
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear
[Hehe! I feel that way when I go to the local ‘Ye Olde Mart of Wal’.]

Lol, well, we women have to keep up appearances!!

12 posted on 08/21/2009 7:15:55 PM PDT by potlatch
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To: Jeff Chandler; boatbums
The usual "ape" might have been ....in-sens-i-tive

I guess...
13 posted on 08/21/2009 7:42:54 PM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus)
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To: Tainan

I think it’s best to keep controversy out of it and just say “Like flies on . . .”


14 posted on 08/21/2009 7:45:07 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Health Care Reform has met the DEATH Panel.)
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To: Bob017
” Justice spokesman Alejandro Miyar says the dismissal was "based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law."

Oh yeah, we’re a nation of laws. I keep forgetting that little bumper sticker platitude.

15 posted on 08/21/2009 7:54:34 PM PDT by ArchAngel1983 (Arch Angel- on guard)
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To: ntmxx

Out of Equity, they will have to give the same get out of jail card to the KKK!

Now doesn’t that make sense?


16 posted on 08/21/2009 7:58:13 PM PDT by himno hero
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To: Bob017

Oh, and one other thing… Philadelphia??? Who the hell is left in Philadelphia for black militants to intimidate?


17 posted on 08/21/2009 7:58:26 PM PDT by ArchAngel1983 (Arch Angel- on guard)
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To: Jeff Chandler

It’s a Southern sayin’...”ugly as a fence post”. Never heard of it? Like “flies on ****”, same thing. ;)


18 posted on 08/21/2009 8:06:09 PM PDT by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: boatbums
It’s a Southern sayin’...”ugly as a fence post”. Never heard of it?

I'm surprised I hadn't. I did grow up in Southern California.

19 posted on 08/21/2009 8:07:30 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Health Care Reform has met the DEATH Panel.)
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To: Bob017
"You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!"

There was no black man running, just one lonely little mulatto.

20 posted on 08/22/2009 12:14:18 PM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?" TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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