Whitley County Patriots

From The Heritage Foundation:

From the New Black Panther Party

Jerry Jackson—On Election Day 2008, Jackson was one of two New Black Panthers to visit a Philadelphia polling place wearing paramilitary garb. In response, the Department of Justice brought a lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party, Jackson, and two others. An elected member of Philadelphia’s 14th Ward Democratic Committee, Jackson was credentialed to be an official Democratic poll watcher. After the DOJ dropped the case against Jackson, Jackson served as a poll watcher four days later during Philadelphia municipal elections.
Minister King Samir Shabazz—Along with Jackson, King Samir Shabazz visited a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008. King Samir Shabazz heckled voters with racial epithets—including “white devil” and “cracker”—and also brandished a nightstick. The incident at the Philadelphia poll did not mark the first time King Samir Shabazz has made inflammatory comments. In a 2009 National Geographic documentary, King Samir Shabazz appeared saying, “You want freedom? You’re gonna have to kill some crackers! You’re gonna have to kill some of their babies!” Like Jackson, King Samir Shabazz was one of the four original defendants in the DOJ case against the NBPP. While the DOJ dropped the case against the other three defendants, the department sought an extremely limited injunction against King Samir Shabazz. The NBPP claimed King Samir Shabazz acted on his own, with no direction from the national organization.
Malik Zulu Shabazz—Shabazz is the Chairman of the NBPP and has commented on Fox News that Jackson and King Samir Shabazz were justified in bringing a weapon to the polls because “neo-Nazis” were also present at the Philadelphia polling place. Along with Jackson and King Samir Shabazz, Shabazz was one of the four original defendants in the DOJ case. (The fourth was the NBPP itself.) The DOJ eventually dropped its case against Shabazz.

Witnesses

Bartle Bull—Bull is an attorney and former publisher of the Village Voice. He has been a civil rights activist since the 1960s, working in Mississippi and throughout the South. He was New York chairman of the Robert Kennedy for President campaign.
Bull testified at the April 23rd Commission hearing. He was a poll watcher at the Philadelphia polling place on election day. He saw the two Black Panthers and testified that it was the worst case of voter intimidation he had ever seen, going back to the 1960s in Mississippi. He also testified that he saw voters approach the polling place, turn around, and walk away because they were intimidated by the two Panthers.
Chris Hill—Hill testified before the Commission on April 23rd. He lives near the polling place. He was a registered poll watcher that day and testified that the Panthers were an intimidating presence. He heard them yell racial epithets at poll watchers. He saw voters turn around and walk away from the polling place because they were intimidated. He testified that black poll watchers inside the polling place were frightened. When he attempted to enter the polling place as was his right as a certified poll watcher, the two Panthers “closed ranks” in an attempt to block him, but he walked past them and in the door.

Read the rest at The Heritage Foundation.

From The Heritage Foundation:

To help better understand the issues at stake in the New Black Panther case, The Heritage Foundation has created two timelines, both posted here. The first reviews highlights from the case, concluding with the case’s dismissal on May 19th, 2009. The second, more comprehensive timeline details more meetings between the Department of Justice and the White House and extends through July 2010.

Highlight Timeline:
Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008
The New Black Panther Party, which is recognized as a violent, racial hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, announces on its website that more than 350 of its members will be “deployed” in 15 cities across the country to “ensure that people of color … are ensured their right to vote” and to “provide security protecting our people in the face of real and confirmed” white supremacist group threats. Outside a Philadelphia polling place, two New Black Panthers dressed in paramilitary garb—Jerry Jackson and Minister King Samir Shabazz—stand in front of the door. Shabazz uses racial epithets and brandishes a two-foot-long nightstick. The two are caught on tape, and multiple witnesses, including poll watchers Michael Mauro, Chris Hull, and Bartle Bull, say voters, poll watchers, and others were intimidated.

Friday, Jan. 7, 2009
The Department of Justice files a lawsuit in Philadelphia against the NBPP, and conspirators Malik Zulu Shabazz, Jackson and King Samir Shabazz. NBPP officials then supposedly suspend the Philadelphia chapter (only after the lawsuit is filed), condemn bringing weapons to the polls, and claim King Samir Shabazz acted on his own, with no direction from the national organization.

Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Senate confirms Thomas J. Perrelli as Associate Attorney General of the United States. He does not visit the White House for the next 11 days.

Monday, March 23, 2009
The DOJ trial team on the case—Christopher Coates, Robert Popper, J. Christian Adams and Spencer R. Fisher—present their draft motion for “Request for Entry of Default” to the acting division chiefs—Loretta King and/or Steven H. Rosenbaum.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Perrelli meets with White House Associate Counsel Susan Davies in the White House. Perrelli will meet with White House officials nine times between this date and the final dismissal of the case.

Late March
Kristen Clarke, director of political participation at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, reportedly asks Justice Department officials to drop the case.

Read the entire timeline at The Heritage Foundation.

From The Heritage Foundation:

At last! It took a year, but The Washington Post and The New York Times have finally done (grudging) stories about the Justice Department’s scandalous dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party.

Indeed, even The Los Angeles Times editorialized about the testimony of former career lawyer Christian Adams before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, going so far as to admit that the Department’s handling of this case “raises larger questions,” although they then claim that “so far the case hasn’t been made” that this was handled inappropriately or that “the department is hostile to white voters whose right are violated.”

The Los Angeles Times is wrong that the case hasn’t been made. Adams’s testimony is both credible and shocking, but more importantly, it has not been refuted at all by the Justice Department . DOJ has told the press that it is only “conservatives” who are concerned over this matter, which is beside the point, and not true in any case.

Read the rest at The Heritage Foundation.