Court Finds Obama Appointee Obstructed Prosecution Of Black Panther Voter Intimidation Case

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Written By:
Rob Port

Jul 31, 2012
2:01pm

Political observers remember the infamous case of voter intimidation by members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia during the 2008 election. In now-infamous video, two men armed with clubs stood outside of a polling place claiming they were acting as “security.”

It was blatant intimidation, but after the Obama administration took office the Department of Justice allowed the prosecution of those responsible for the intimidation to slip away. Critics of the Obama administration have long held that the decision not to prosecute the Black Panther Party members was a political one. The Obama administration has denied this, saying that no political appointees were involved in the decision.

Last week a federal judge agreed with the critics in a ruling awarding watchdog group Judicial Watch legal fees for their fight to get records about the case disclosed to the public.

It’s clear, to anyone who isn’t a blinkered partisan, that the Obama administration decided not to prosecute this obvious case of voter intimidation for political reasons. Which is shameful. The health of our republic is balanced on the sanctity of the ballot box. If voters get the idea that the ballot box is no longer secure, whether through voter intimidation or officials turning a blind eye to voter fraud (which the Obama administration is doing with the voter ID issue), then our nation is in trouble.

We would be a society with a low opinion of those running our government, a distinct sense that voting won’t change anything. That’s recipe for civil unrest, to say the least.