Political (Read: Obama) Appointees Get Civil Rights Case Dropped

Remember last November, the report of Black Panthers wielding billy clubs intimidating voters in Philadelphia? The Justice Department was pursuing them for Civil Rights violations. That was before Hope and Change™ came to town!

Justice Department political appointees (read: Obama appointees) overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day, according to documents and interviews.

The incident - which gained national attention when it was captured on videotape and distributed on YouTube - had prompted the government to sue the men, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring would-be voters with the weapon, racial slurs and military-style uniforms.

Just how bad was the intimidation?

Career lawyers pursued the case for months, including obtaining an affidavit from a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation and described it as "the most blatant form of voter intimidation" that he had seen, even during the voting rights crisis in Mississippi a half-century ago.

"Worse than Mississippi", sometimes known for using dogs and fire hoses to keep "certain individuals" from voting or eating at a lunch counter, or riding in the front of a bus!

The lawyers also had ascertained that one of the three men had gained access to the polling place by securing a credential as a Democratic poll watcher, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Times.

The career Justice lawyers were on the verge of securing sanctions against the men earlier this month when their 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.

Oh, so these guys were Democrats? Well, then...never mind! What was it that Orwell said in Animal Farm? Some are more equal than others???

H/T Mark Hemingway
Cross posted at Say Anything