Voter intimidation is a serious threat to our democracy – a parasitic anomaly that many Americans have sacrificed a great deal to prevent. It is unconscionable that we live in a modern society in which such overt thuggery coexists with rational thought and practice. Even more perplexing and disturbing is a federal government, led by an incompetent Justice Department, which appears more than willing to tolerate such antics.
If you recall (though you may not, as the media have been less than stellar in covering the story), on election day in 2008, two men stood outside a Philadelphia polling location. One carried a nightstick in what can only be perceived as an effort to intimidate those entering the facility, as the delinquents spewed racial slurs and attempted to prevent individuals from voting. Lawyer Ashley L. Taylor, Jr. best describes the scenario in her Washington Times piece:
Bartle Bull, a civil rights movement veteran, was there. He says it was “the most blatant form of voter intimidation I have encountered in my life in political campaigns in many states, even going back to the work I did in Mississippi in the 1960s.” The crimes Mr. Bull witnessed that day were not committed in 1960s Mississippi, however. Those crimes took place in 2008 in Philadelphia.
And how has the Obama administration handled these men, you ask?
Naturally, Eric Holder dropped voter intimidation charges that federal prosecutors rightly against the men. With yet another bungled attempt at handing sane legal practice, Holder’s Justice Department has taken it a step further and is essentially preventing the U.S. Civil Right’s Commission’s investigation from garnishing any viable fruits. Taylor has more:
The selective enforcement of our laws, and the appearance of selective enforcement, erode faith and confidence in the administration of our justice system and undermine the fundamental rule of law that is the very foundation of our society: All persons are equal before the law, and no person stands above it.
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission has picked up this case and will be continuing its investigation of the Obama Justice Department’s handling of it at a hearing Friday. Thus far, the Justice Department has stonewalled the commission’s work – ignoring its requests for records and information and refusing to issue and enforce subpoenas on its behalf.
Change you can believe in, indeed. Hopefully, our hapless mainstream media outlets will begin reporting on the government’s virtual cover-up of such a discriminatory practice. But, due to the media’s rabid complicity and intensely intimate relations with the Obama administration, I won’t hold my breath.