The pursuit of justice in the Black Panther voter intimidation case is moving forward on two fronts. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) obtained an opinion from the Congressional Research Service last week that charges against the three Philadelphia men who intimidated and threatened white voters on Election Day 2008 could be re-filed without violating the Constitution’s Double Jeopardy clause. Also, the independent U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has called upon the Justice Department to explain its dismissal of the original case against the men.
In May, the Obama Justice Department summarily dismissed charges brought by the Bush Justice Department in January against the New Black Panther Party, its Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz (former lieutenant to Louis Farrakhan), Minister King Samir Shabazz and member Jerry Jackson for intimidating voters and making racial threats and insults at a polling place in Philadelphia. Samir Shabazz was also carrying a nightstick. The Justice Department said it no longer had sufficient evidence to follow through with the case despite the fact that the event was caught on video and that there were several witnesses.
DOJ also says charges against Mr. Jackson were dropped because “he was a resident of the apartment building” where the incident took place. The building was in fact an elderly care facility and Jackson never lived there. But even if he did, would his residency grant him license to shout racial epithets at and otherwise threaten voters? Incredibly, Jackson’s credentials as a Democrat Party poll watcher in Philadelphia were restored in May.
Wolf repeatedly called upon Attorney General Eric Holder to explain why the Department acted the way it did. Holder refused to respond. Apparently, he belongs to that “nation of cowards” he spoke of earlier this year; the one that’s afraid to “have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.”
