The Black Panthers

When Obama was elected, I watched a Youtube video of the Black Panthers patrolling a polling station with some sort of clubs in their hands. The comments attached to the video attempted to explain away the presence of the aggressive young men. These people insisted that the guy who created the video always happened to find the Black Panthers at polling stations, so he must be setting them up. Because I would risk sounding like a racist, I could not describe how angry I was that our new President allowed thugs to help him get elected.

My thoughts were that a peaceful transition of power separates the developed, industrial world from the developing, agricultural nations. Voter intimidation happens all over the world, but it should not happen in America. One could change the color of their skin, and this might be taking place in Iraq, Cuba, or China. That is why I did not see this situation as a matter of race; it was a matter of destroying the democratic process.

So, the day after the election, I rebelled and decided to show my solidarity with the Black Panthers who were obviously helping the President-Elect. It goes without saying that I will not put into writing what I did because I do not want to be falsely accused of being a racist, but my benign rebellion, my small act of laughing in the face of thugs thousands of miles away made me feel slightly better.

Fast forward to this week when the news broke about the testimony of the whistle blower from the Dept of Justice. It turns out that the Bush Administration tried to press charges against these men at the election site and against the Black Panthers Organization. The Obama Administration continued the process back in early 2009 and won a ruling against them for failure to appear in court. Then, for some unknown reason, the DOJ dropped the charges and decided that the case had no merit. Oh wait, here is what I read on Fox News.com-here is why Obama dropped the case-

"...the administration moved to dismiss the charges the following month after getting one of the New Black Panther members to agree to not carry a "deadly weapon" near a polling place until 2012."

Blink.