More problems on the horizon for the Obama misAdministration, as the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights begins poking its nose into the near-complete non-action by Eric Holder’s DoJ regarding several blatant, obvious cases of civil and voting rights violations perpetrated by the New Black Panthers against white voters trying to vote in Philadelphia last November,
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights sent a letter in August to Attorney General Eric Holder, issuing a stinging rebuke to the Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ).
A footnote in the letter criticized the DOJ’s dismissal of a Philadelphia voter intimidation case against a group called the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBP). The footnote called the DOJ’s voluntary dismissal of the case “even more corrosive to the rule of law than the dismissal without comment.”
The DOJ filed a lawsuit in January under the Voting Rights Act against the NBP and three of its members alleging the defendants intimidated voters last election day. The complaint, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, alleged that NBP members Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were standing at a polling location wearing a military-style NBP uniform while Mr. Shabazz repeatedly brandished a “police-style baton weapon.”
The complaint said NBP Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz confirmed that the placement of Mr. Shabazz and Mr. Jackson was part of a nationwide effort to deploy members at polling locations. The Justice Department initially sought an injunction to prevent any similar future actions.
None of the defendants responded to the lawsuit. However, instead of immediately filing for a routine default judgment, the DOJ voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit for two of the defendants – including Mr. Jackson, who was a Democratic Party poll watcher.
The DOJ only obtained an injunction against Samir Shabazz, which was granted on May 18. However, this has been criticized because it contained none of the usual conditions for such a case.
As noted in the letter from the Commission on Civil Rights, the injunction prevents Mr. Shabazz from brandishing a weapon at a polling place in Philadelphia. The Commission thought it unusual that such an injunction in a voting rights case only would prohibit something so specific, and limit it to a specific area.
The Commission’s six-page letter was sent following two inquiries sent in June to Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King, of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division (CRD). These letters wanted more information about what they said was the “unusual dismissal of the government’s case against most of the defendants in United States v. New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.” Commission chair Gerald A. Reynolds and Vice-Chair Abigail Thernstrom signed the letter.
The Commission also noted that an earlier reply from Portia Robertson, director of the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison was “non-responsive to our questions,” adding that “to the extent it is responsive, it paints the [DOJ] in a poor light.”
[snip]
Other government officials are also demanding answers about this case and speculating that the DOJ has been politicized.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R–Virginia, said in a July 31 letter to Holder that he could only conclude that the decision to overrule the career attorneys in the CRD and DOJ who argued in favor of continuing the case was “politically motivated.”
Kudos to the USCCR for making noise about what appears to be a definite case of malfeasance on the part of the DoJ, headed up by the left-wing fanatic Eric Holder. Kudos also to Rep. Wolf for getting involved. This needs to get a lot more air time than it has to date, if for no other reason than for how destructive this matter is to the freedom and fairness of the American electoral system. Groups like the New Black Panthers need to be made to understood that stationing armed, paramilitary-looking personnel outside of polling places and using them to discourage white voters is no more acceptable than racist white sheriffs using police dogs and fire hoses to keep blacks from the voting booth. There are some NBP members who need to see the inside of a jail cell for a long, long time.
Notice also, the apparent collusion between Democrat Party personnel and the NBPs in this.
Tags: Democrats, Election 2008, Leftists, new black panthers
