Former voting rights official: “dismissal of Black Panthers case is a travesty of justice”
Finally, we may be seeing a little semblance of sanity coming out of the justice department, as a former department official in the civil rights branch of the Department of Justice has called it a travesty that the department dismissed the charges of voter intimidation in Philadelphia by the New Black Panthers.
This was clearly a case of the New Black Panthers–equipped with billy clubs and shouting racial epitaphs–trying to intimidate white voters as they went to the polls in the 2008 presidential election. But for some reason Eric Holder’s Justice Department did not think that this case warranted an investigation and all charges that were brought against this group by the Bush administration were dropped.
Here is what Christopher Coates had to say when he was called to testify on Friday before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights :
As important as the mandate in the Voting Rights Act is to protect minority voters, white voters also have an interest in being able to go to the polls without having race-haters such as Black Panther King Samir Shabazz, whose public rhetoric includes such statements as ‘kill cracker babies’ … standing at the entrance of the polling place with a billy club in his hand hurling racial slurs at voters,” he said.”Given this outrageous conduct, it was a travesty of justice for the Department of Justice not to allow attorneys in the voting section to obtain nationwide injunctive relief against” the defendants, he said.
According to the above linked article, Coates was transferred to the attorney’s office in South Carolina and told not to testify in front of this commission. This certainly makes it appears to me as if Eric Holder is covering something up in this case.
As Coates mentioned, every American who is a qualified and registered voter has the right to go to the polling place and cast their vote without fear of repercussions. While the Voting Rights Act was passed to protect minority voters that does not mean that white voters can be intimidated, and the Black Panthers should have been investigated for obvious violations of the Voting Rights Act.
It remains to be seen if anything will come from this and I highly doubt that it will, but at least we know that there was a person in the Department of Justice who thought this case should be heard. Unfortunately he was removed from his position and the reason he was removed will probably never be known so we are left to speculate that is was because of his opposition to Eric Holder’s decision to let voter intimidation stand in this case. Christopher Coate’s removal from his position and the subsequent suggestion that he refuse to testify in this case is equally troubling–if not more so–than the original decision to drop this case.
In light of these revelations it is clear that this case needs to be reopened so that justice can be served. It is totally unacceptable that this case was dropped with the video evidence that we have all seen. I think we all can rest assured that if the situation were reversed these charges would never have been dropped.
America's Watchtower 
The more that comes out, the worse it looks for the DOJ. So much for the first post-racial president!
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The DOJ certainly looks bad in this case, doesn’t it?
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I think this is a case of the AG implementing his own agenda without proper consultation with the boss, and then putting that boss in the untenable position of either overruling his AG or going along with decisions inconsistent with his own utterances.
I’ve said here a number of times that this President is ill-served by his advisers, and this is another example.
Speaking of sanity, though, I note today that the US is requesting dismissal of the case filed on behalf of the father of Yemeni-American cleric and militant Anwar al-Awlaki, which sought to prevent the U.S. government from trying to target him for assassination. Although in general I’d say such an approach is poor jurisprudence, in this case – when the target has gone far beyond anti-American utterances, and has actively engaged in activities designed to kill Americans, and has left the country, the government is entitled to treat him as a belligerent richly deserving the business end of whatever’s handy.
Hope all’s well and your weekend is progressing nicely . . .
And may God bless us all!
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I agree with most of what you said, Barack Obama is being let down by his advisers. However, I am not willing to let him off the hook because he chose these advisers. We can assume that he cose advisers that agree with his views, therefore they are simply carrying out his positions. He knew where these people stood on the issues when he appointed them so we can assume that they are carrying out his will.
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Ever been involved in coalition politics? You do a lot of work to bring together a binch of people and groups with a lot of divergent agendas and, you assume, one or two overarching goals.
You form the coalition and yell “CHARGE!” and go charging forward – when, a little while later, you realize you’re taking a lot of fire, you look behind and you see your coalition “partners” battling among themselves for control.
I think that’s what’s been happening to the BHO White House.
Liberals do it all the time – join a coalition for a cause to which they’re happy to give lip service, and on whose bandwagon they’re jumping in hope of gaining control and redirecting it to their own pet cause.
Conservatives do it too, as witness the recent infighting over control of the Tea party – even without any formal organization, there’s bickering over who’s running the show.
Sure, Obama chose those around him, and he’s responsible for what they do. Nevertheless, he didn’t choose them so they could embarrass him, as I think it’s clear Holder’s done more than once and others seem willing to do when given the chance. IMO, Holder should have been looking for a job the minute it was announced DoJ was dropping this NBP case, which is a shameful blot on Obama’s Presidency.
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