Former U.S. prosecutor to testify on New Black Panthers charges

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Philadelphia Enquirer:

As voters were casting the ballots that elected America's first black president in November 2008, a troubling incident occurred outside a polling place in North Philadelphia, the Justice Department later contended.

There, two members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense hurled racial threats and insults at black and white voters, federal prosecutors in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division alleged in a complaint accusing the group and three members of violating the federal Voting Rights Act.

The prosecutors later won a default judgment against Minister King Samir Shabazz, whom they identified as leader of the Philadelphia chapter, and sought dismissal of charges against the organization and two other members.

Now, one of the prosecutors, J. Christian Adams, has resigned from the Justice Department amid a widening flap over the case. He said he was scheduled to testify Tuesday before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in an investigation over dismissal of the charges.

Adams said Friday that he disagreed with the decision to dismiss charges. Though his name is on the court document seeking the dismissal, Adams said he believes the case should have been pursued.

"I was just following instructions to dismiss the case," Adams said in an interview.

Adams said there has been long-standing opposition in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department toward "race-neutral enforcement" of the voting-rights law during the Obama administration as well as when President George W. Bush was in office.

"I believe in a robust protection of voters," said Adams, who has been busy doing interviews on Fox News and radio talk shows since leaving the Justice Department in early June.

According to court papers, Shabazz, brandishing a nightstick, and a second member stood at the entrance to the polling place in the 1200 block of Fairmount Avenue. The two "made menacing and intimidating gestures, statements, and movements," the complaint said.

While the prosecutors dismissed charges against the organization, its leader and the third member, they won an order barring Shabazz from displaying a weapon within 100 feet of any open polling location in Philadelphia on any Election Day through 2012.

Justice Department spokesman Tracy Schmaler told the Associated Press that the charges against the New Black Panthers were dropped because they were not supported by the facts or by the law.

On its website, the New Black Panther Party says that "the white man has kept us deaf, dumb, and blind," and that it seeks "the overdue debt of reparations." A group spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
________

These guys make SEIU look like choirboys by comparison. Intimidation at its finest.

[Valin]

Causes one to wonder if the DOJ would handle this the same if the two "gentlemen" were white, dressed in camo", and said The white mans gonna win this election.

 

 

I've got a small feeling it might've been handled differently.

[AceRimmer]

Causes one to wonder if the DOJ would handle this the same if the two "gentlemen" were white, dressed in camo", and said The white mans gonna win this election.

 

 

I've got a small feeling it might've been handled differently.

 

It's all about Hope and Change, the Chicago way....

[NCTexan]

Causes one to wonder if the DOJ would handle this the same if the two "gentlemen" were white, dressed in camo", and said The white mans gonna win this election.

 

 

I've got a small feeling it might've been handled differently.

 

It's all about Hope and Change, the Chicago way....

Acerimmer!

 

It "don't" feel so good when the Hopium wears off and and you've found that he's turning the whole nation into Southside Chicago.

 

[NCTexan]

This just hit the top of the Google News... Either this is getting "mainstream" or there's a glitch in their news filter.

 

FoxNews

 

Former Justice Attorney Set to Testify in New Black Panther Case

By Eric Shawn - July 05, 2010

 

A former Justice official who claims the administration backed off a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party for racial reasons is set to testify Tuesday before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

 

The testimony from J. Christian Adams, who resigned from the Justice Department last month in protest of the administration's handling of the case, comes after he made a series of explosive allegations during an interview with Fox News last week. He said the administration abandoned an open-and-shut case of voter intimidation and that Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave false testimony before the commission in May.

 

Adams claims the administration has failed to prosecute non-whites when it comes to voting intimidation cases and that the New Black Panther incident demonstrates that.

 

"I don't think the department or the fine people who work there are corrupt, but in this particular instance, to abandon law-abiding citizens and abet wrongdoers constitutes corruption," Adams told Fox News.

 

The case stems from an incident on Election Day in 2008 in Philadelphia, where members of the New Black Panther Party were videotaped in front of a polling place, dressed in military-style uniforms and allegedly hurling racial slurs while one brandished a night stick.

 

The Bush Justice Department brought the first case against three members of the group, accusing them in a civil complaint of violating the Voter Rights Act. The Obama administration initially pursued the case, winning a default judgment in federal court in April 2009 when the Black Panther members did not appear in court. But then the administration moved to dismiss the charges the following month after getting one of the New Black Panther members to agree to not carry a "deadly weapon" near a polling place until 2012. The department boasted that justice had been served.

 

But Adams, the former administration lawyer, accused the Justice Department of not continuing the case for political and racial reasons.

 

Adams called the case "a slam dunk," telling Fox News that "nobody thought there was any doubt that this was the clearest case of voter intimidation that I've seen since I've been practicing law."