Remember those Black Panthers who were arrested in Philly for voter intimidation? Well, guess who's got a friend in the White House? That would be the three men charged - amazingly, the charges have been DROPPED by the Justice Department! Oh, you know I'm not making this up:
Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned.
The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force -- one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.
The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the final days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly tapped it. Prosecutors also say he "supports racially motivated violence against non-blacks and Jews."
The Obama administration won the case last month, but moved to dismiss the charges on May 15.
Click here to see FOX News video from the scene on election day.
Click to watch the incident on YouTube.
The complaint says the men hurled racial slurs at both blacks and whites.
A poll watcher who provided an affidavit to prosecutors in the case noted that Bartle Bull, who worked as a civil rights lawyer in the south in the 1960's and is a former campaign manager for Robert Kennedy, said it was the most blatant form of voter intimidation he had ever seen. (Emphasis mine.)
In his affidavit, obtained by FOX News, Bull wrote "I watched the two uniformed men confront voters and attempt to intimidate voters. They were positioned in a location that forced every voter to pass in close proximity to them. The weapon was openly displayed and brandished in plain sight of voters."
He also said they tried to "interfere with the work of other poll observers ... whom the uniformed men apparently believed did not share their preferences politically," noting that one of the panthers turned toward the white poll observers and said "you are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker."
A spokesman for the Department of Justice told FOX News, "The Justice Department was successful in obtaining an injunction that prohibits the defendant who brandished a weapon outside a Philadelphia polling place from doing so again. Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law. The department is committed to the vigorous prosecution of those who intimidate, threaten or coerce anyone exercising his or her sacred right to vote."
Golly, I am just SO surprised, aren't you? I just never expected that Obama's Justice Department would let these three men who were engaging in extreme voter intimidation off!! Ahem. Who am I kidding? Of course I did. I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner...
One last note - as a follow-up to all of the GM news, including the closing of plants about which I just wrote, I recommend this post by Uppity Woman, "Congratulations, Comrades and Comradesses! You Are Proud Owners Of Government Motors"! That pretty much says it all! What's next? California?
2 comments:
I wonder what the outcome would have been if a white guy (KKK) stood outside the polling place and brandished a weapon and said to anyone who were obviously supporting Obama, "you are about to be ruled by the white man, n**ger."?
My guess is that it would be in every news story around the country and huge headlines on Huffpost. But hey, calling a white person a "cracker" is ok, cuz reverse racism is ok these days.
Regarding GM, I saw a guy that was being interviewed (I think by Greta VanSustren (sp?) who owned a dealership and had been in the business of selling cars for over 20 years. He said that GM closing all the dealerships is doing more harm than good because when they do that, they are also closing down the maintenance shops and they are the mainstay of most of the dealerships. When someone buys a new car, they are also buying into maintenance agreements and they won't go to another dealership that is 20 miles away, instead they will just bring their business to a local car shop or gas station. He pointed out that the dealerships get most of their money from these maintenance agreements. The bean counters are only looking at how many cars are sold and not how many that have been sold and go there for oil changes, tune ups, etc. He said there are no GM CEO's that have ever run a car dealership and they don't know the ins and outs of the business...they just listen to the bean counters who look at inventory on car sales, that's it.
While bringing my car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change the other day, there was a woman who was asking me if the place did a good job. Her car dealership closed down (with no warning) and she didn't want to drive an hour away to have an oil change done, even though she has a maintenance agreement with the car company (I didn't ask her which company), so apparently, that guy knew what he was talking about.
(sorry for the long comment).
Oh, no need to apologize at all, ME! I appreciate your comment A LOT.
You are soooooo right abt what would have happened over at HuffPo and Kos had it been the reverse. No doubt, all kinds of investigations would be underway. But now? Oh, no problema that there was just a little voter intimidation - what's the big deal anyway?! Get over it! Move on! It's just a vote, after all. Sigh.
I heard abt that interview with Greta. I understand he also said that they didn't include the fleet sales and used car sales in their determinations of which ones to close, which is ABSURD. But, it goes back to which ones are getting closed, too.
And that poor woman - can you imagine buying a car and then have the dealership disappear like some fly-by-night, shady, co.? That is what is becoming of the "too big to fail" companies under Obama. Great. Well, that IS a change, so that's one thing abt which he told the truth...
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