Black Panther Voter Intimidation: Minutemen Case Even Worse?

Forgive me.

I suppose I'm about to spit into the flavor of the political month.

I've seen various members on this site hyping up over and over again the handling of the Black Panther Voter Intimidation Case along obvious racial lines. Saying that "if the roles were reversed and the "intimidation" came from Whites there would be hell to pay. No charges would be dropped. Whites would be held up to the fullest letter of the law."

Aside from the fact that the briefest of searches would prove otherwise I just had to add my two cents into the hypocritical piggy-bank of American gutter politics.

I know it doesn't matter that it was a GEORGE BUSH DOJ that decided not pursue criminal charges in the case 11 days before Obama even came into office.

Or that "No voters have come forward to claim that they were intimidated from voting on account of the New Black Panthers standing outside the polling center in 2008". mediamatters

I'd still like to point out a fact that FOX news won't really bring to your table.

The Bush administration DOJ chose not to pursue similar charges against members of the Minutemen, one of whom allegedly carried a weapon while harassing Hispanic voters in Arizona in 2006- mediamatters

That's right.

A similar case came forward regarding voter intimidation along racial lines that was dropped under the Bush administration.

These guys didn't have a "stick" with them.
They had a 9mm Glock automatic!!!!
They even admitted to the activity that amounted to voter intimidation.

No charges were filed.

Where was the outrage?
Where were the cries of injustice?
Were is the friggin' balance?

Where was FOX news?

To illustrate his point, Perez highlighted the Department of Justice's decision in 2006 not to pursue charges against members of the Minutemen for allegedly intimidating Hispanic voters in Pima, Arizona -- with one member of the group allegedly carrying a gun:

In another case, in Arizona, the complaint was received by a national civil rights organization regarding events in Pima, Arizona in the 2006 election when three well-known anti-immigrant advocates affiliated with the Minutemen, one of whom was carrying a gun, allegedly intimidated Latino voters at a polling place by approaching several persons, filming them, and advocating and printing voting materials in Spanish.

In that instance, the Department declined to bring any action for alleged voter intimidation, notwithstanding the requests of the complaining parties.
mediamatters

More details:

- From a November 8, 2006, Austin American-Statesman article:

In Arizona, Roy Warden, an anti-immigration activist with the Minutemen, and a handful of supporters staked out a Tucson precinct and questioned Hispanic voters at the polls to determine whether they spoke English.

Armed with a 9mm Glock automatic strapped to his side, Warden said he planned to photograph Hispanic voters entering polls in an effort to identify illegal immigrants and felons. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund reported the incident to the FBI.

- From a November 21, 2006, Salon.com article:

On Election Day, a posse of three men in Tucson, Ariz., proved that the Wild West still lives.

The group, which was three strong, and allegedly composed of two anti-immigration activists, Russ Dove and Roy Warden, carried a camcorder, a clipboard -- on which, they said, was information about a proposed law to make English the state's official language -- and a gun. While one man would approach a voter, holding the clipboard, another would follow, pointing the video camera at them. The third would stand behind, holding his hand to the gun at his hip in what activists on the other side called classic voter intimidation tactics in a precinct one local paper had previously declared the bellwether of the area's Hispanic vote.

It's not the first time Dove and Warden have been accused of this type of act. Dove, who is a convicted felon and former militia member, patrolled Arizona's polls in 2004 as well, and Warden has publicly burned a Mexican flag (for which he was charged with arson) and acknowledged that he sought a concealed-carry permit for a gun, partly in hopes of enticing a local police officer to attack him and force Warden to use deadly force in self-defense.

- From a November 8, 2006, Arizona Daily Star article:

A crew of anti-immigrant activists, meanwhile, visited several South Side polling places in what one poll-watch group called a blatant attempt to intimidate Hispanic voters.

Anti-immigrant crusader Russ Dove circulated an English-only petition, while a cameraman filmed the voters he approached and Roy Warden stood by with a firearm in a holster.

Diego Bernal, a staff attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), said the trio was trying to intimidate Hispanic voters. "A gun, a camera, a clipboard before you even get to the polls - if that's not voter intimidation, what is?" he asked.

Bernal said his group encountered the men at the Precinct 49 polling place at South 12th Avenue and West Michigan Street and began documenting the scene with their cameras. "There was an interesting period where they were taking pictures of us taking pictures of them."

- From a November 8, 2006, New York Times article:

Tensions were high in several places. In Arizona, Roy Warden, an anti-immigration activist, and a handful of supporters, staked out a South Tucson precinct and questioned Hispanic voters as they entered the polls to determine if they spoke English.

Mr. Warden said he planned to photograph Hispanic voters entering polls at as many as 20 precincts in an effort to identify illegal immigrants and felons.

Mr. Warden heckled Representative Raul M. Grijalva, a Democrat, as Mr. Grijalva walked into the precinct to cast his ballot. Mr. Grijalva ignored Mr. Warden, saying harassment ''hasn't been a deterrence to voters, it's just been a nuisance.''

- From a November 8, 2006, Tucson Citizen article:

Volunteer election monitors say three men with a video camera and a gun were intimidating voters at various polling stations throughout Tucson.

From about 9:45 a.m. to noon Tuesday, the men approached Hispanic voters as they attempted to enter Iglesia Bautista Kairos, 4502 S. 12th Ave. in Precinct 25, said Diego Bernal, a lawyer with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund.

Kat Rodriguez of Derechos Humanos, who was also acting as an election observer at Iglesia Bautista, identified two of the three men as Roy Warden and Russ Dove, two anti-illegal immigration activists.

Warden could not be reached for comment, but in a mass e-mail he acknowledged being at the polling site to "monitor illegal Mexicans voting in the Midterm elections."

Bernal said he reported the incident to the FBI.

Both the FBI and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment about the reports.

"If intimidation or coercion was going on out there, even though it might have been outside the 75-foot limit, it's something we take very seriously, and we'll be looking into it," [Brad] Nelson [Pima County elections director] said.

He said he plans to work with the Pima County Attorney's Office to determine whether laws were broken. mediamatters

So now that it has been proven that it isn't some sort of "anti-White Obama conspiracy" and that the change made from Criminal to Civil happened under Bush, what will happen here on ATS?

Will the race hype die down?

Look, I don't expect this to come up on FOX news but for those members here that have lamented on and on about fairness and justice, I have to wonder if you will be equally as outraged by this even more blatant attempt at voter intimidation since you expect me to believe you actually care about justice, honor, and freedom?

I don't expect most people to pay attention to this fact. I don't expect most people to acknowledge the obvious hypocrisy, because I know this sort of divisive rhetoric spewing from the Right at the moment from the hypocritical and misleading Conservative activist Christian Adams via FOX news plays right into the whole current political plan.

Some people don't care about the truth.

I just want you to think for a second before you swallow the garbage coming from the Right and Left about who your real enemy is.

I guarantee you that you have more in common with your poor neighbor than these news networks and political leaders want you to believe.

Both sides are in the exact same game and fair and balanced does not even factor into the equation when you take the time to look at the facts.

If a "race-war" is ever even on the horizon it will be because YOU wanted it to happen.

You are a number, a source of income/power and a vote to them.

Nothing more.

It doesn't matter if you are from the Democratic Underground, Free-Republic, ATS or Stormfront.

- Lee

Ugh. People who come here from Stormfront should be automatically banned. Racism and ignorance do NOT belong here, as much as those fools want to believe it does.

As long as they were not raising their `big sticks` at people, they're fine. If they were just being verbal, that's their 1st Amendment right. If there is a law stating, no one should be brandishing a weapon (gun - with or without bulets, stick, club, axe, baton, whatever, etc...), then there might be voter intimidation.

Actually, at first glance long ago, I thought they were protecting the voters from the `real bad guys`, whoever they may happen to be, with their `sticks` from a video on some cable news programming. I didn't realize they had `guns.`

I thought the issues of race, voters intimidation died down long ago. I guess not. And this stuff is resurfacing again in newsworthy media recently. I don't get it.

[edit on 2010-7-14 by pikypiky]

You don't get it? The answer is VERY simple. They want the people with guns to use them and they're giving them a target. They're fueling this story to incite riots and killing. They are manipulating their emotions, riling them up. And the people with guns are falling for it. Pretty scary stuff.

Originally posted by Yazman
Ugh. People who come here from Stormfront should be automatically banned. Racism and ignorance do NOT belong here, as much as those fools want to believe it does.

Agreed.

I only added them because I know they migrated to ATS for some strange reason.

- Lee

i am going to be very blunt in my response.

the racist hype on ATS is a reflection of the racist hype in america and all over the globe, a microcosm if you will.

when dealing with something such as racism you cannot and should not try to justify your arguments with cases of previous racism. at least not if you intend to identify a future solution to what is conceived to be a problem. therein lies the real trick. identifying the problem.

well that is easy you say! its racism!! but what is racism? too many times i have seen people from all sides of the box claim that someone or something is racist without really understanding what racism is.

let me explain because i am sure that many poeple havent made it to this sentence and are typing thier inflamitory response by now.

if i say to you that black people are black and white people are white. that is not racist. that is a fact. if i say to you that all black people are worthless lazies and all white people are drunken wife beaters, then that is racism.

hypothetical situation here.

lets say two black guys rob a store, and in the process they kill a white attendant. during the robbery the cameras catch that one of them is wearing a black panther jacket and the other is wearing a kill whitey t-shirt. they pull guns out threaten him and in the process of taking the money one goes over the counter and beats the attendant, who subsequently dies.

this is not a hate crime. they should be charged with murder burglary and all that, but not for a hate crime. the intent was to go into the store and get money, and it would not have mattered what color the attendant was, the result would have likely been the same. the fact that the guys may have indeed been racist shuold not be taken into the equation.

another way of putting it is:

the affiliation of the criminal should not be taken into consideration when determining the nature of the crime, only the crime and the factual evidence itself should be used to gather prosecuting evidence and by blanketing every circumstance based solely on affiliation, you become guilty of that which you are trying to defend from.

another case in point (sorry if it isnt as fluid of a thought as i would like)

obama is the first black presdient. this is not a racist statement. however, much of the criticism that he faces today is being blamed on racism.

does racism not lie in both sides of that argument? that is to say that it is just as racist to dismiss legitimate criticism of obama because he is black as it is to justify your criticism based upon his race.

being white and critical of a black person does not qualify you as racist, just as being black does not disqualify you.

racism will only truly end when we identify the difference between making a blanket negativism based upon race, and making factual statements that pertain to an ethinicity, whether negative or positive.

also, a magor component in the continuance of true racism in todays society can be identified as the very tinstitutions that were initially intended to further civil rights and equality in the past.

True equality must be strived for by all peoples from all backgrounds. for instance, the NAACP. while thier intentions are of a positive nature, their very existance continues to draw the line and identify segregation. especially in todays society where the gray line between white black yellow red green etc; is becoming ever so large. never would it be accepted to have a NAAWP, and white people know and identify with this social fact, which further breeds the seeds of future racism, just as efficiently as the KKK and arian nation.

removing such things as affirmative action, BET, NAACP, KKK, arian nation, and black panthers completely from the scene is just as necessary a step to the end of racism as education and open discussion.

identifying and understanding ones past and culture through celebration is a healthy practice, and being individuals and being unique is a positive activity for any heritage. however, doing so must be allowed to all backgrounds and creeds, and should be done without fear. celebrating hispanic american history month is by no means racist, but making it taboo to have a caucasian american history month is definately a malignant practice that only impedes process.

i understand that america sports a checkered past with respect to slavery and acceptance of minorities. but we cannot move forward to our objective goal of equality while maintaining a grudge and demanding reparations for the actions of our forefathers. i do admit that there have been grave and blatant injustices done as recently as decades ago, and this deos leave reason for anger and want of retaliation, but that negativity only serves to hinder the desire for education, and again, effectively destroys our chances of building a better and more equal america for our future.

thats my 2 cents anyway.

I admit I don't really know much about the case, just seeing the Black Panther Party name made me take interest, and note that they are a different group.

I am under the impression the the New Black Panther Party is as much a racist group as the KKK is.

But, and like I said before I really don't know too much about the case, but did any actual voter intimidation take place? From what I understand he was only dressed a certain way, and had a baton with him. As far as I have heard he didn't, or anyone else didn't actively try to initimidate people into voting one way or the other.

I don't seem to find too much information on the actual case, just the current events.

reply to post by lee anoma


Well the tea party movement has lost its ground (what little ground they had) so this just another tactic to bring back frustration, anger and ofcourse attention. I recall this entire black panther fiasco that came out during the elections, then it dissappeared, and now a year and half after its being brought back to light? Just desperation because the rightwing cannot think up anything new.

In anycase I doubt this case itself being solved will satisfy the tea party protesters. Obviously this doesnt account for the millions votes that went towards Obama against McCain. Hmmm? Maybe the tea party folks will go back to being birthers? I smell I new fake birth certificate coming along.

Ah yes, I dont see this getting much attention over the next week to amount to anything.

reply to post by Southern Guardian


and just exactly how has the tea party lost its ground?

i am not for one or the other, but seems to me that the tea party continues to grow despite.

i have heard all about how its nothing but a grass roots movement that will go nowhere, they have been saying it for a year now, and it keeps on going.

unfortunately, big government is so scared of the momentum that the tea party has that they are trying to stop it at all costs, including smear tactics and flat out false accusations.

i have a feeling the tea party may be here to stay

Folks nobody is falling for the race card this time around.
We know change is coming and so do they.
That is why they are attempting to divide us.
As long as we stick together we got us a slam dunk.
As long as 1% of us are ready to enact some change, we have 3 million people thats alot of pitchforks.
They are feeling the heat and backstepping in a heated fashion, believe that.
So,... No Racism only humanity.

reply to post by lee anoma


It's obvious that they were trying to stop illegal immigrants from voting

That's the only reason they were there, and if you notice, they didn't intimidate any white people, so as long as they don't intimidate any white people, it's all ok.

reply to post by Southern Guardian

I smell I new fake birth certificate coming along.

OH GOD don't remind them of that!

I'll volunteer to police the wayward brethren. As I posted earlier, I owe them one. One that I'm destined to collect, unfortunately for them.

I would like to add that if this story interest you, than you HAVE to read what Adam Serwer of the American Prospect has to say about the case.
www.prospect.org...
He turns in some great reporting on this case with some VERY interesting backstory.

As far as why the case was dropped:
At the heart of the New Black Panther case was Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which offers legal protections against voter intimidation. It had only been used once prior to the Bush administration -- in 1992 to prevent a statewide voter-suppression effort initiated in South Carolina by then-Sen. Jesse Helms.

In this case, the Bush administration wanted to use Section 11(b) against several New Black Panthers who had stood in front of a polling place in a black neighborhood, one of whom wielded a baton. "There was no pattern and practice, no concerted effort to cage thousands of voters like in the [1992] Jesse Helms case," said Gerry Hebert, a former senior Voting Rights Section attorney who has served under multiple administrations. "That strikes me as the kind of large-scale voter-suppression case that would be more appropriate for Justice Department resources to be spent on."

The Bush administration filed two Section 11(b) cases, both on behalf of white voters, both supervised by Coates: the Black Panther case and a separate case in Noxubee, Mississippi. The Voting Rights Section had gone from ensuring voting rights for all Americans to focusing on the conservative bugaboo of "reverse racism."

Here is alot more info on this subject:
Section 11(b) And Why The NBPP Case Was Dropped. www.prospect.org...

The NBPP Evidence Review.www.prospect.org...

A Clarification on the NBPP Case. www.prospect.org...

[edit on 15-7-2010 by 12GaugePermissionSlip]