What About the New Black Panther Lawsuit

There is a lot of misinformation about the fact that the Justice Department dropped charges of voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party. This story spins well for the GOOP, so you might expect a lot of lying bullshit to surround the issue. Surprisingly, the GOOP is stronger on the facts in this case than it usually is, but that does not mean the GOOP is right. Here are the facts. On January 7, 2009, less than three weeks before the Busch era finally skulked its way out of power, the Justice Department brought charges against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members. They were charged with intimidating voters by hanging out at a polling place wearing uniforms. One of them was carrying a nightstick. It is important to note that the precinct in question was a black precinct that had always voted for Democrats and the pretence of the NBPP was that they were there to prevent voter intimidation. It is also worth noting that thhis is the first voter intimidation law suit brought by the Busch Civil Rights Division in eight years despite substantial evidence of voter intimidation in the 2006 and 2004 elections. In all these cases the voters being intimidated were black and the people doing the intimidation were GOOP poll watchers. (The principal focus of the Civil Rights Division during the Busch years was protecting the rights of Evangelical Christians.) On May 15, the DOJ dropped charges against the NBPP and two of the defendants, and brought charges only against the guy carrying the nightstick. Thus, on its face, the GOOP is right. Charges were dropped. That's where the story ends. The fact is that there were no intimidated voters and no actual evidence except the fact that one guy was carrying a weapon at the polls. From a strictly legal standpoint, it was probably not worth the DOJ's time. From a political viewpoint, however, dropping the case was stupid. It was a small matter to pursue it and let the process weed out the lack of evidence and poor facts. The current flap, which is giving the GOOP and its allies in the stupid press a field day, is not necessary. Dropping the charges reinforces the racist fears of the right wing base and gives pause to the stupid independent center, which is as likely to be guided by ancient fears as current thinking. And speaking of screwing up the facts, Keith Olberman reported that the Busch Justice Department had dropped the charges on January 9. I don't know where he got his facts, but a quick trip to the DOJ website revealed that is not the case. I nearly wrote this article entire based on Olbermann's reporting, but the Washington Post's article Sunday, about the failure of the straight press to cover the story, made me do my homework. Olbermann should work harder to get his facts straight, and, while I am usually skeptical of Keith's blather, in the future I will also be more skeptical of his reporting.