DOJ's Double Standard and the Bounty

They've Got a Friend in the DOJ

I suppose the argument could be made that all of the years in the United States in which we've had a white president and a white attorney general saw racial preference in that blacks are incarcerated at a much higher rate than whites. Either that, or it could have been mere coincidence. The point is, it's an ambiguous topic with no clear conclusion.

Now that we have a black president and a black attorney general, examples of racial preference are far more evident than at any time in history. From the beginning of the forty-fourth president's term right on through the Trayvon Martin shooting, the double standard is glaring, and the New Black Panther Party seems to be the obvious beneficiary of the Department of Justice's bias.

NBPP at PA Polling Place 2008

During the election of 2008, when several New Black Panthers -- dressed in military-style garb and carrying weapons -- were intimidating voters at a Pennsylvania polling place, a young man filmed part of the day's action. The DOJ took up the case and was moving toward criminal proceedings until Eric Holder, as the newly appointed Attorney General, squashed the case. There was nothing arbitrary about the intentions of the New Black Panthers that day, it was obvious voter intimidation, serious business. That is, to everyone but Eric Holder.

When Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested by Cambridge police, President Obama leaped into the fray before he knew any of the facts, and because Gates is a black friend, publicly stated that the "Cambridge police acted stupidly".

And now, in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting, we are getting a very eye-opening look at the depths of our new government's bias and the liberties their favorites can take with the law. Despite all of the facts of the shooting not having yet come out, the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) has put out a very public $10,000 bounty for the "capture" of shooter George Zimmerman. (It matters not, apparently, that Zimmerman is every bit as white as the president, which is half).

Consider that in announcing the bounty, the NBPP declared that if law enforcement wouldn't do the job (of apprehending Zimmerman), they would, and the Department of Justice has not raised a peep of protest. This is the same Department of Justice, however, that has sued several states and harassed local law enforcement officials in those states over immigration laws, claiming that the federal government's jurisdiction is being usurped.

Imagine, a Department of Justice being run by people who will prevent legitimate bodies of government from trying to stop the illegal entry into the country by foreigners, prosecute a local sheriff, sue its own member states to get their laws repealed, but they won't utter a word over an organization openly declaring that they are preparing to take the law into their own hands.

And there's the media, who wailed about the "vigilantism" of George Zimmerman" in participating in the Neighborhood Watch program, all the while gleefully reporting on the NBPP bounty. How will they report on the information trickling out from the alternative media about the angelic Trayvon and his apparently questionable character? Or the allegations -- seemingly corroborated -- that Trayvon viciously attacked Zimmerman before being killed?

More importantly how will the New Black Panther Party and the Department of Justice react if it is proven that they have had it wrong all along? My guess is that they will quickly and quietly fade into the woodwork until the next sensational opportunity arises for fame and retribution. And they will never admit that they were wrong.

Sphere: Related Content

Stand Your Ground

Getting the Kids Involved Already

Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and a whole host of liberals of all stripes are enraged over the incident in Sanford, Florida on February 26th. News broadcasts are uniformly led with the story of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old black male who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch man, George Zimmerman. We've even got a "Million Hoodie March", in honor of the hoodie Trayvon wore that night.

The president has also weighed in, curiously thinking that it mattered to anyone that "if [he] had a son, he'd look like Trayvon". And while all this outrage swirls around us, the tragic death of this young man is being exploited by the very people who profess to care the most about him. Those who perpetuate the race game as a cottage industry for retention of relevance, and those who would strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights for preserving power, are all shamelessly using this poor kid's death for personal gain.

Now there are reports that may pour cold water on their efforts to exploit the tragedy and render the outrage moot.

To briefly recap, George Zimmerman is a Neighborhood Watch captain in his community. He has a penchant for frequently calling police, and some reports allege that this is because they have had a bit of a crime wave in the community. On the night of February 26th, Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin walking in the rain, and began to trail him, phoning police as he did. In the end, Trayvon Martin was dead of a single gunshot.

Sean Hannity has been discussing this with guests on his syndicated radio show for most of the previous week, and he's played audio of Zimmerman's call to a police dispatcher as he pursued Martin. Also, Hannity has played audio of a neighbor's call to 911. On that call, a man can be heard screaming just before the fatal gunshot is heard, and it has been assumed that they were the screams of Trayvon Martin, particularly by Al Sharpton.

Now, however, it is being reported by MY FOX Tampa Bay that there was a witness to the shooting, one who paints a different picture of that night than has been painted for us thus far. Sanford police have in their possession a file containing the deposition of this witness, known only as "John", to be presented to a grand jury in a matter of weeks. The report states that the information from the witness was key in determining whether to arrest Zimmerman that night.

According to the accounts, Zimmerman's claim to self defense appears valid based on the eyewitness deposition and corroborates Zimmerman's statement that he was attacked by Martin while returning to his SUV. The witness says that Martin was on top of Zimmerman and was beating him. Police described Zimmerman as having a bloodied face and a wound to the back of his head.

MY FOX Tampa Bay writes the following:

"The guy on the bottom who had a red sweater on was yelling to me: 'help, help…and I told him to stop and I was calling 911," he said. 

Trayvon Martin was in a hoodie; Zimmerman was in red.

And further: "When I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point," John said. 

 Based on this information, one would reasonably surmise that the screams were not Martin's, but rather Zimmerman's.

None of this negates the tragedy of it all in the slightest bit, but instead promises to exacerbate it. It remains true that Zimmerman may well be innocent of murder, but no less guilty of poor judgement. He should have heeded the dispatcher when told to break off pursuit, and he should have adhered to the "rules" of the neighborhood watch committee. He may have been attacked by the smaller Martin, that will come out in court, but even if true, the likelihood that -- absent the gun -- anyone would have lost their life would have been greatly reduced.

What will be truly tragic for the Martin family will be if Zimmerman's story holds up, along with that of the witness. When all of the agenda-driven "support" from the left wanders off seeing no further profit in remaining, and the Martins are left alone to grieve, who will be there to comfort them? Who will care then?

The answer is equally sad; the same silent Americans who had the good form to remain apart from the circus will care and pray for them. Regrettably, the Martins will never know it.

Sphere: Related Content

The Crazy Kabul Kabuki Dance

And Then the Trouble Started

Most people know that the troops in Afghanistan burned some Qur'an's, and they also know that the locals quickly became unhinged, predictably rioting and causing other acts of enraged "hijinx". Beyond that, the attention of those who know these two pertinent facts has long since been drawn away by such important things as the latest reality show episode or when the next unemployment check will arrive.

They may be peripherally aware that, to date, four American servicemen have been murdered by Afghans they have trained to fight alongside them, and they might be even somewhat aware that the United Nations is calling for the prosecution of the troops that have thus far survived the treachery suffered by their comrades. But they remain oblivious to any mitigating facts in the entire episode, and it is not completely due to selfish ignorance; it is because the mainstream media is not trumpeting those facts and defending those who make their profession possible.

It began on February 20th after NATO workers -- including Afghans -- burned some Qur'an's at the library at Bagram Air Field in the Parwan Province, used to detain Taliban captures. Shortly after the incident, which was initially reported as "an inadvertent act" on the part of the NATO workers, hundreds of protesters arrived. World news outlets were quick to report the ensuing violence, Muslim groups and their sympathizers were quick to condemn the actions of the international forces, and our troops' own Commander-in Chief was fast on his obsequious trigger, leaping at the opportunity to deliver yet another heartfelt apology to the Muslim world.

As our Secretary of State reinforced the President's claim that his apology "calmed things down" in Afghanistan -- despite the fact that two of our murdered soldiers were killed after said apology -- it is infuriating that neither high-level figure has demanded of the Afghan government an apology for the lives of those kids. And it might be noted with a modicum of pride and gratitude that, for the simple fact that average Americans are nothing like the mindless Islamists who will riot at the drop of a hat, we have not begun to demand the destruction of the entire region after learning that our troops may face Afghan trials for their "crimes".

This is where the entire affair may cause our neighbors to come similarly enraged as their Muslim counterparts. This is where the actual facts come to play.

On February 20th, the workers at the Bagram Library discovered that many of the books in the base library -- including Qur'ans --  were being used by Taliban detainees as message boards. As part of their "torture routines", as many so-called human rights activists might call them, detainees were permitted access to the base books for recreational use. They chose to write messages in them for their cohorts to read in an effort to coordinate future attacks on the NATO forces.

Among the books so desecrated by Muslim prisoners -- ostensibly required to kill those who desecrate the Qur'an -- were copies of... the Qur'an. In the Muslim tradition, the proper disposal of a Qur'an in a state of disrepair is burning. Still with me here? Muslim Afghans are burning and killing anything within reach because Americans, they believe, actually showed the ultimate respect for their Holy Book which was desecrated by their own brothers. And then our president, who reportedly studied Islam as a child in Indonesia, apologized for the alleged transgression.

To miss the sad irony in all of this would require being in a coma.

Lt. Col. Oliver North was a guest on Sean Hannity's radio show yesterday. North had just returned from Afghanistan, and he said that among all the damaged books that were burned at Bagram, four were the Qur'an, yet the mainstream media would have us believe that some soldiers cavalierly burned a whole pile of them.

Despite the fact that four of our soldiers have been murdered at the hands of their Afghan "partners" in the war -- that would be one for each Qur'an burned -- President Karzai is calling for those responsible for the book burning to be tried in an Afghan court. Shortly after Karzai made the demand, President Obama sent a three page letter, which stated, in part:

“I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies. We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible.”

That is such a vague assurance from Obama, yet there has been no official denial from Washington that NATO has agreed to "hand over" the soldiers involved for trial. For an American Commander-in Chief to vacillate on a matter of such magnitude is unconscionable, for it would, in effect, allow American soldiers to be tried under Shar'ia Law, which requires death to those who desecrate the Qur'an.

Obama has allowed the opportunity to demand an apology for our murdered soldiers to pass unseized. There is still, however, time to firmly tell Karzai that we will not be turning our soldiers over to anyone for trial.

UPDATE: As of this writing, two more American soldiers have been murdered, bringing the number now to six. Rather than apologize and appease, perhaps the time is drawing nigh for Obama to unleash our troops to put a stop to this outrage immediately.

Sphere: Related Content