Friday, October 29, 2010

Voter Intimidation Was Just A Difference of Opinion

I feel completely chastised. Here I have been opining that the Obama/Holder Justice Department dismissed the Philadelphia New Black Panther voter intimidation judgments on racist and spurious legal grounds. There was even testimony before Congress, with evidence, that established the same mindset as mine. But now it turns out that I was wrong. It was all just a big misunderstanding.

I have it on the best authority that the dismissal of successful lawsuits against the Panthers pursuant to the Voting Rights Act was completely justified, and that the legal pleadings behind the cases were very weak at best. We really were just taking the word of some crazy, fearful white people and a DOJ professional lawyer with a private agenda aimed at rising in the department ranks. Alas, I feel so used.

Oh, you say you're wondering who that authority is? Well, it's no less than the head of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. Now how much more authoritative could that authority be? And we all know that all the political attorneys in the Holder Justice Department are post-racial and as honest as the day is long. We do know that, don't we?

The photo accompanying this post shows a gentle young black protector of the sacred right to vote innocently standing outside a polling place in Philadelphia preparing for another peaceful and interracial game of stickball. It is not a Black Panther wielding a billy club at white voters coming to the polls. Now which of us are you going to believe? Tom Perez and me, or your lying eyes?

You see, it turns out that a bunch of fearful typical white people had merely reacted as white bigots are expected to act--irrationally and with a not-so-secret hatred of black folks. Just look at the young man. Unless you are one of those hysterical white bigots, you too will see that there is absolutely nothing intimidating about him or the perfectly innocent baton he's holding. For all you know, he's simply still wearing his Halloween costume, but because you see everything through the eyes of the dominant white class you're too quick to take the word of white racists over black choir boys. And that's all it is. The word of the white witnesses against the word of the oppressed black man.

You see, because of his reticence to be confrontational, Perez took nearly a month to stew over the testimony of professional DOJ attorney Christopher Coates before reluctantly claiming that everything Coates testified to (and produced physical evidence to support) was nothing more than "he said, she said." Expanding on the theme as it relates to the Black Panthers intimidation falsehood, Perez broadly denied the contention that Obama, Holder and Perez are hostile to race-neutral civil rights and voting rights laws. How dare you draw such a conclusion when one of their favorite confidantes is Mary Frances Berry, former member of the US Commission on Civil Rights who famously said: "Civil rights laws are designed to protect black people, not white people, and we will not investigate matters which involve white complainants."

You see, Perez sees the injustice of pursuing the Black Panthers cases as being so clear as to be worthy of no further discussion. It's time to move on to the misperception that Obama/Holder's entire concept of justice is weighted favorably toward one race and is at best best-described as benign neglect toward the others. One of Perez's deputies at DOJ explained it best: "The Obama administration was only interested in bringing traditional types of cases that would provide equality for racial and language minority voters." Now come on. How can you read anything racist into that?

Coates testified that he believed (as a typical white person) that "prior to the George W. Bush tenure, no administration--Republican or Democrat--had ever filed a voting rights case involving white victims and minority defendants, saying that a focus on minority voters had long been pattern and practice." See? Even the antagonist in this debate admits that Bush was a racist who diverged from the more racially-sensitive DOJs of the past and future by allowing white plaintiffs to have their undeserved day in court.

Another former Civil Rights Division political lawyer backs Perez. Robert Kengle called Coates's testimony "incomplete" and goes on to say: "I believe that a double standard was being applied [during the Bush/Ashcroft ascendancy] under which complaints by minority voters were subjected to excessive and unprecedentedly demanding standards, then dismissed as not being credible, while on the other hand we were being ordered to pursue the [white] Ike Brown complaints as a top priority." See? Kengle believes it, he's a lawyer, so it must be true.

And clearly Perez is right. After all, he did allow the injunction preventing one Black Panther from showing up at a polling place other than his own right through the election this coming Tuesday. But he must be allowed to repeat his performance the next time Obama's name appears on the ballot. After all, that's only fair, and it proves Perez is a zealous, non-racial prosecutor. As he himself says, "there was insufficient evidence to support stronger action against any of the defendants." It's not exactly an explanation for dismissing the cases which had already been won and judgments entered, but nobody's perfect.

And lest you doubt their sincerity, Perez and Holder both have put legal teams together in the Civil Rights Division to investigate themselves. Once again, you have drawn a typical white conclusion that this is self-serving. And besides, it explains why Holder and Perez have refused to respond to subpoenas from the Civil Rights Commission. After all, they're busy investigating themselves and don't need any outside interference.

Finally, the big boss, Eric Holder has put the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on the whole matter. Holder announced earlier this month that "the notion that we are enforcing any civil rights laws--voting or otherwise--on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender is simply false. Some people (he means you) want to go back to older days and want to have a Civil Rights Division that is not nearly as effective as it is now or has traditionally been. I am not going to allow that to happen." That, as we attorneys say, is dispositive. There is nothing left to discuss. They're right, you're wrong.

By the way, Holder would have expanded his remarks, but he had to rush back to the office to prepare some more Miranda warnings and advice on civilian procedure for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

16 comments:

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

I hope Issa is going after Holder after the elections. Holder has done his level best to destroy the US. I know that spurious investigations are counter-productive but the "Top Cop" should enforce the laws not help bypass them.

AndrewPrice said...

I've been following this story closely and the thing that pissed me off was the conclusion that "there is a prevailing attitude in the DOJ Civil Rights Division that the Civil Rights Laws were not meant to protect whites." That's bullsh~t! And that's the kind of thing they would fire you for a second if you change the word "white" to "black." It's time that rule of law prevailed, not rule of whatever interest group currently has power. They should purge the whole division and start over.

Unknown said...

Joel: As much as I oppose "political show trials" and their relationship to banana republics, sometimes the corruption and ethical violations go so deep that an investigation is warranted. Based on what I've seen and read from every source, including the DOJ itself, Holder (and perhaps his boss the legal scholar) should be investigated. His entire activity stinks like a fish in the sun.

It goes back to the Roman question "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" (loosely, "who will guard the guardians?"). The answer in this case is "the Congress." With a heavy Democrat leftist majority, Holder has been free to perform his nefarious work unimpeded by those who should be watching him much closer than they are. That will change in November. Although I don't consider this to be the highest priority post-election (we have to get the economy back on track and Obamacare off the tracks), but once the dust has settled, I'm all for looking into those dark corners of the Holder DOJ.

Unknown said...

Andrew: That is one of the reasons I mentioned Mary Frances Berry and her cozy relationship with the Obama/Holder political lawyers. The irony here is that during the last administration, the DOJ was under the control of conservative equal justice for all types, while the Civil Rights Commission was largely controlled by the left, race-baiting "civil rights" establishment. Today the roles are reversed. Either way, we're stuck with paralysis, and only Congress can break that logjam during the next two years.

StanH said...

I thought those Black Panther fellows were giving out back rubs? You know, the stress of voting and all.

No surprises here brother. Barry and Holder are for equality, it’s just a very, very selective brand of equality. These kind of things undermine the rule of law. Where this could lead, is truly frightening.

Unknown said...

Stan: I never thought of that. They're carrying one of those exotic massage tools from Bed, Bath and Beyond, right?

Tehachapi Tom said...

Well Hawk you have exposed another one of those under belly topics of the bo administration that is just infuriating. This sort of activity is just the thing to really inflame race hatred,which up until two years ago was just about a thing of the past. I was not taught racism by my parents but this sort of crap is beginning to do it's own teaching.
Lord help us so we can make it thru the next two years without some major racial melt down.

Tehachapi Tom said...

Ok Hawk if race isn't some thing to consider, consider this.
Vermont has the highest percentage of gun ownership. Vermont has the lowest incidence of gun crime. Vermont also has no permit requirements to carry a concealed gun. Vermont also has the lowest percentage of Negros and Latinos.
The above is as compared to the other states that make up our United States. Maybe there is a message here what do you think?

Unknown said...

Tehachapi Tom: I've been appalled by the behavior of Obama and Holder and his "post-racial" administration since the "Skip" Gates affair. That was the first, but certainly not the last time that Obama as president let his kumbaya mask slip. But we had hints of his real attitude during the campaign (typical white person, first time I've ever been proud of America, some people won't vote for me because I don't look like the other guys on the dollar bill, etc., ad nauseam).

He has clearly identified himself as black rather than mixed race, and he's determined to get even for past racial offenses even though he never actually suffered from any of them. It's one thing to have a skewed version of history and reality (including forgetting the entire civil rights battle fought by blacks and whites side by side), but quite another to institutionalize it and use the power of the Department of Justice to advance that skewed version.

Unknown said...

Tehachapi Tom: Although that's a bit off-topic, it is a fact. What would be more germane to this discussion is how does the Department of Justice view enforcement of the few restrictions Vermont imposes on its citizens.

Tehachapi Tom said...

Hawk
Ok, off topic maybe but a topic that reared it's head when I read your article. Anger, rage, fury or just plain pissed just doesn't provide an adequate expression for the feeling that I experience when such a blatant miss use of power occurs.
We are supposed to be ruled by law not a miscarriage there of.
I'm going to have to stop before I just explode.

Unknown said...

Tehachapi Tom: Misuse and abuse of the considerable power of the Justice Department is an appropriate target for righteous indignation. I probably get every bit as angry as you. I was simply suggesting that Holder and Obama have done considerable damage on the federal level, but have no authority over state (Vermont) law. It's best to concentrate on the areas over which they do have power, and let the states fight their own battles (there are little Obamas and little Holders in every state, as we well know here in California).

BevfromNYC said...

FYI - I got this from my TP group. If you haven't already voted and are concerned about voter fraud, here is a link for an Mobile phone app to report any fraud you may see in real time.

http://americanmajorityaction.org/voterfraudapp/

Unknown said...

Bev: Thanks. We need to pass that on both here and from our e-mail contacts. As I've said, nearly to exhaustion, if we win big, they can't cheat. If it's close, those mysterious ballots will magically show up to clinch the victory for the Democrats. The last thing we need to do is help them by being sloppy about our mail-in ballots. So folks, here's a clickable link from Bev to report suspicious ballot activity: Report Voter Fraud. Many thanks.

Individualist said...

Lawhawk

I am trying very hard to ot react as a typical white bigot and be a good follower of the Obamasaih. I am trying to accept that a man standing in front of a polling booth in a military uniform holding a weapon is not some kind f fascist.

I am trying also to understand how this man is peaceful and friendly to whites when he tells others of his skin color "to kill him some crackers, got to kill their babies". I am trying but it is hard. I am told that I need to log on to Huffpo and click a link for "drinking the KoolAid". Still I am fearful. The people who have drank this Koolaid already seem changed somehow......

Unknown said...

Individualist: See what I mean? No matter how hard I try, I have to close my eyes. Otherwise, I see a thug with a weapon, and I know that can't be true. It's just so hard to be a non-typical white person.

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