On May 3, 4:00 pm, Andy "mrLookout" Hull <
mrlooko...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, 3 May 2012 15:19:52 -0400, Way Back Jack <
inva...@invalid.net>
> wrote:
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>> On Thu, 03 May 2012 14:09:24 -0500, Lookout wrote:
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>>> On Thu, 3 May 2012 06:57:12 -0400, Way Back Jack <
inva...@invalid.net>
>>> wrote:
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>>>> On Wed, 02 May 2012 23:29:14 -0500, Lookout wrote:
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>>>>> On Wed, 2 May 2012 09:09:26 -0400, Way Back Jack <
inva...@invalid.net>
This isn't "FOXNews," Andy:
The New Black Panther Party Evidence on Voter Intimidation
By Hans von Spakovsky
July 21, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Andy McCarthy has an important story over at National Review Online
that does an outstanding job of demolishing many of the myths being
propagated about the New Black Panther voter intimidation case. It is
important, however, to highlight some specific testimony on one of
those myths. One of the constant refrains heard from liberals in their
attempt to diminish the importance of the New Black Panther scandal is
that there is no evidence that any voters were intimidated or
prevented from voting.That claim is patently false although it was
repeated last night again by Abigail Thernstrom on NBC News.
http://www.youtube.com/v/neGbKHyGuHU&hl
For anyone who bothers to actually look at the record, the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights received direct evidence on that very
issue. Those critics also miss the point that it is a crime to attempt
to intimidate voters and anyone assisting voters, which would include
poll watchers, and no one watching the videotape could come to any
conclusion other than the New Black Panthers were trying to intimidate
people at that poll in Philadelphia.
On the issue of poll watchers, one of the witnesses at the first
hearing of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Chris Hill, testified
on that specific point and what happened when he got to the polling
place. He was responding to a desperate phone call for help from one
of the two black poll watchers who were stationed at the polling
place:
http://www.youtube.com/v/neGbKHyGuHU&hl
HILL: [Shabazz] immediately started with ‘What are you doing here,
Cracker?’ And he and Mr. Jackson attempted to close ranks. I went
straight between them through the door to find our poll watcher, who
was inside the building at the time…he was pretty shaken up…he was
visibly upset.
QUESTION: What did he tell you?
HILL: He was called a race traitor for being a poll watcher,
credentialed poll watcher for the Republican Party as a black man, and
that he was threatened if he stepped outside of the building, there
would be hell to pay.
So there is witness testimony that both Black Panthers, including the
one who was dismissed by the Justice Department, were physically
threatening a poll watcher. And the witnesses made it clear that the
two Black Panthers acted as a team, in concert, at the polling place.
On the issue of voters, Hill testified as follows:
QUESTION: How were third parties reacting to the presence and the
actions of the Panther members?
HILL: People were put off when – there were a couple of people that
walked up, a couple of people that drove up, and they would come to a
screeching halt because it’s not something you expect to see in front
of a polling place. As I was standing on the corner, I had two older
ladies and an older gentleman stop right next to me, ask what was
going on. I said, ‘Truthfully, we don’t really know. All we know is
there’s two Black Panthers here.’ And the lady said, ‘Well, we’ll just
come back.’ And so, they walked away.
Of course, no one knows if those voters ever came back – but we know
for sure that they left without voting when Hill was there rather than
try to get by the New Black Panthers. What is so odd about this is
that Hill was then questioned about that testimony by Commissioner
Abby Thernstrom, who has been one of the persons claiming there is no
evidence that voters were kept from voting:
THERNSTROM: But otherwise, did you see anybody at the polling place
who obviously intended to vote, and didn’t end up voting because of
the presence of the New Black Panther Party members?
HILL: It was two women and a gentleman….They stopped right at the
corner of the driveway, circular drive, where I was standing on the
phone, and they said, ‘What’s going on?’ Truthfully, I didn’t really
have a good answer for them…But at that exact moment in time, those
people were not going near that doorway, and ma’am, I’m not as well
versed as you are in these civil rights issues, but they were
intimidated.
Bartle Bull, one of the other poll watchers who came to the precinct
after the black poll watchers who were stationed there reported they
had been threatened, testified on this point also:
BULL: One of them was waving a baton like that, slapping against his
hand, pointing at people. And several people – I was more or less at
the end of the driveway, and several people began to walk up the
driveways, saw these guys, and then went back and didn’t go on to
vote.
QUESTION: Did the individuals that you saw turn around, those were
people that you believed were coming to vote?
BULL: Oh, yes, yes. That’s the only reason you walk along that long
block on the pavement, and then go in the long driveway. And several
walked in, saw this at the door, and walked back out the drive.
Keep in mind that Bull and Hill were only at the polling place for
about an hour, and in that short amount of time they saw several
people turn around and leave rather than run the thug gauntlet set up
at the front door to the polling place. And there is no question that
the poll watchers stationed inside the precinct were terrified because
of the threats that had been made against them by the New Black
Panthers.
So why haven’t any witnesses who were actual voters come forward? I
talked to Chris Hill after his testimony before the Civil Rights
Commission. As someone who knows Philadelphia and that neighborhood
where these New Black Panthers live, he said that if he lived there he
would be probably be too scared to come forward with testimony that
crossed the NBPP. In short, intimidated voters often stay intimidated
It is time, once and for all, for critics of this case to stop
claiming there is no evidence of intimidation – the evidence is there
in the record for anyone who bothers to actually look for it. And it
is not even necessary to win a case for attempted intimidation – and
no one can rationally claim there was not an attempt to intimidate.
Don’t forget a crucial point that keeps getting missed – the New Black
Panthers never contested any of these charges.
After she heard Hill’s testimony, Commissioner Thernstrom admitted
that those people “were intimidated…I mean I take seriously when
anybody is intimidated, and I’m not dismissing that experience of
theirs…but nevertheless, it seems to me the case of the New Black
Panther Party actually blocking people from voting would be stronger
if there were more than three people that we’re talking about here.”
Really? So how many people have to be intimidated and prevented from
voting before it becomes a “serious” case? How many poll watchers have
to be threatened before it becomes a “serious” case? I have great
respect for Commissioner Thernstrom but she is quite simply wrong
about this case, about the evidence presented, and about the law that
applies.
The only people who don’t think this was a serious case of voter
intimidation seem to be apologists for the administration who want to
sweep this case under the table and make excuses for the inexcusable
conduct of the political appointees who are running the Civil Rights
Division and the Justice Department.
-30-
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/07/21/the-new-black-panther-party-evidence-on-voter-intimidation/