Philadelphia voter intimidation case dropped by Justice Department appointees
"My teachers, my colleagues and my friends" is how Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr described Justice Department career attorneys. He further described them as the "backbone" of the department. "If I am confirmed as attorney general, I will listen to them, respect them and make them proud of the vital goals we will pursue together," he said during his January confirmation hearings.
Apparently not quite so much if the events that transpired earlier this week within the Justice Department are any indication.
Political appointees within the Justice Department overruled the career attorneys that had been working since the election on charges of voter intimidation by three members of the New Black Panthers at a Philadelphia polling place. The career Justice lawyers were on the verge of securing sanctions against the men earlier this month when their political appointed superiors ordered them to reverse course, according to interviews and documents. The court had already entered a default judgment against the men on April 20.
A little background.
Longtime readers of my blog will remember a story carried on 6 November "Random Thoughts on the Election" in which I mentioned voter intimidation by these Black Panthers.
The civil suit filed Jan. 7 identified the three men, New Black Panther Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz, Minister King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson, as members of the Panthers and said they wore military-style uniforms, black berets, combat boots, battle-dress pants, black jackets with military-style insignias and were armed with "a dangerous weapon"and used racial slurs and insults to scare would-be voters and those there to assist them at the Philadelphia polling location on Nov. 4. Malik Zulu Shabazz is a Washington, D.C., resident, not a Philadelphian. Mr. Jackson was an elected member of Philadelphia's 14th Ward Democratic Committee, and was credentialed to be at the polling place last Nov. 4 as an official Democratic Party polling observer, according to the Philadelphia City Commissioner's Office. Although I'm not convinced his elected position entitled him to wear a pseudo-military uniform or carry a nightstick.
According to the complaint, Malik Zulu Shabazz, a Howard University Law School graduate, said the placement of King Samir Shabazz and Mr. Jackson in Philadelphia was part of a nationwide effort to deploy New Black Panther Party members at polling locations on Election Day.
According to The Washington Times,
To support its evidence, the government had secured an affidavit from Bartle Bull, a longtime civil rights activist and former aide to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. Mr. Bull said in a sworn statement dated April 7 that he was serving in November as a credentialed poll watcher in Philadelphia when he saw the three uniformed Panthers confront and intimidate voters with a nightstick.
"In my opinion, the men created an intimidating presence at the entrance to a poll," he declared. "In all my experience in politics, in civil rights litigation and in my efforts in the 1960s to secure the right to vote in Mississippi ... I have never encountered or heard of another instance in the United States where armed and uniformed men blocked the entrance to a polling location."
Mr. Bull said the "clear purpose" of what the Panthers were doing was to "intimidate voters with whom they did not agree." He also said he overheard one of the men tell a white poll watcher: "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker."
He called their conduct an "outrageous affront to American democracy and the rights of voters to participate in an election without fear." He said it was a "racially motivated effort to limit both poll watchers aiding voters, as well as voters with whom the men did not agree."
A Justice Department spokesman on Thursday confirmed that the agency had dropped the case, dismissing two of the men from the lawsuit with no penalty and winning an order against the third man that simply prohibits him from bringing a weapon to a polling place in future elections.
Bringing weapons to a polling place? I was always under the impression that was illegal to start with. I wasn't aware it took a court order to state that rather obvious fact.
Even with Mr. Bulls sworn affidavit and the video tape (below), the current administration and their political appointed attorneys in the Justice Department apparently feel there were no laws violated or civil liberties violated.
“The teenagers and college students who left their homes to march in the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery; the mothers who walked instead of taking the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry and cleaning somebody else's kitchen — they didn't brave fire hoses and Billy clubs so that their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren would still wonder at the beginning of the 21st century whether their vote would be counted; whether their civil rights would be protected by their government; whether justice would be equal and opportunity would be theirs. . . . We have more work to do.”
— Barack Obama, Speech at Howard University, September 28, 2007
I admit, I have not been on this webpage in a long time... however it was another joy to see It is such an important topic and ignored by so many, even professionals.,
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I just hate it when politicians meddle in the course of the law. It means that some people have influence on a matter that should be totally objective and can turn it on their benefit. This makes me afraid to ever go to trial against a powerful man no matter what he's guilty of.
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