“Justice Department drops charges in voter intimidation case” (CNN)

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Justice Department drops charges in voter intimidation case (CNN)

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Justice Department is dropping charges against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and two of its members who were allegedly involved in voter intimidation on Election Day at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania polling station.

A Justice spokesman said the department decided to take this action after winning an injunction earlier this month against a third member, Samir Shabazz, that prevents him from ever brandishing a weapon outside a polling place again as he was charged with doing last November.

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“Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law,” DOJ spokesman Alejandro Miyar said in a statement. “The Department is committed to the vigorous prosecution of those who intimidate, threaten or coerce anyone exercising his or her sacred right to vote."

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"We want to thank President Obama and his administration for dropping charges against us that were vindictively brought by the Bush administration," Malik Shabaaz told CNN. "We don't condone any type of illegal activity at polling stations."

Justice Denied by Obama Administration? (FOX News)

A lawsuit brought by the Bush administration against three members of the New Black Panther Party has been dropped by the Obama Justice Department. The move comes despite an eyewitness account and a YouTube video of the men seemingly attempting to scare away would-be voters on Election Day, in apparent violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The civil complaint accused the men of coercion, making threats, intimidation and hurling racial slurs while at a Philadelphia polling station on November 4. Prosecutors say one of the men brandished a nightstick, which they called a deadly weapon.

Bartle Bull, a former 1960s civil rights lawyer and Election day poll watcher, said in an affidavit that it was: "The most blatant form of voter intimidation... they were positioned in a location that forced every voter to pass in close proximity to them. The weapon was openly displayed and brandished in plain sight of voters."

A Justice Department spokesman says officials obtained "an injunction that prohibits the defendant who brandished a weapon from doing so again. Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law."