For the last two weeks, the conservative blogosphere has been abuzz with the decision of the Department of Justice to drop the prosecution of the new Black Panther Party for voter intimidation in Philadelphia in 2008. This is a case that the government had won, but which it dropped before sentencing. A DOJ whistle blower has testified that the decision to drop the lawsuit was pursuant to a policy under which voter intimidation by blacks agains whites would not be investigated.
Yesterday, there was rioting in Oakland California after a jury found a policement guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of a local black man. In the rioting, many stores in Oakland were looted, an act supposedly linked to the jury verdict. My initial reaction was to post an item on the blog as a joke that the Department of Justice was now going to investigate the store owners for bias related crimes. I thought better of it; it seemed a joke too far. And then I saw the item in today'e news: DOJ is stepping in to investigate the same incident that was just the subject of the trial in California. DOJ will decide if the manslaughter verdict was adequate or if more is needed.
What a travesty. I know very little about the underlying events, but if DOJ was willing to let the state prosecute the crime, then it should not step in now. It is particularly bad policy for DOJ to jump in at the behest of rioters and looters. President Obama should stop this travesty. He should announce that there already has been a verdict and that the government will respect the decision of the jury, particularly since no one is claiming that the jury was not representative of the local community.
It would be nice to think that Obama could lead on a situation like this. Obama throwing his weight behind the rule of law rather than the rule of the mob would be a noble and proper act. That is why it will not happen.
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