By John Hayward
Rep. Allen West who has previously decried the police mishandling" of the Trayvon Martin shooting as an outrage" and called for a Justice Department investigation on Wednesday found himself
wondering why that very same Justice Department isnt treating the New Black Panther Partys bounty for the man who shot Martin as a hate crime."
From Wests Facebook page here is his
original statement on the Martin case:
I have sat back and allowed myself time to assess the current episode revealing itself in Sanford Florida involving the shooting of 17-year-old Treyvon Martin. First of all if all that has been reported is accurate the Sanford Police Chief should be relieved of his duties due to what appears to be a mishandling of this shooting in its early stages. The US Navy SEALS identified Osama Bin Laden within hours while this young man laid on a morgue slab for three days. The shooter Mr Zimmerman should have been held in custody and certainly should not be walking free still having a concealed weapons carry permit.
From my reading it seems this young man was pursued and there was no probable cause to engage him certainly not pursue and shoot him….against the direction of the 911 responder. Lets all be appalled at this instance not because of race but because a young American man has lost his life seemingly for no reason. I have signed a letter supporting a DOJ investigation. I am not heading to Sanford to shout and scream because we need the responsible entities and agencies to handle this situation from this point without media bias or undue political influences. This is an outrage.
And here is his
condemnation of the New Black Panther bounty:
I vehemently condemn the bounty poster emanating from the New Black Panther Party putting a $10000 ransom up for the capture of George Zimmerman and call upon the US Department of Justice to prosecute their actions clearly a hate crime. We have seen this type of abhorrent behavior from this group previously in 2008 as part of a voter intimidation action it is reprehensible. To openly solicit for the death of an American citizen with reward is not in keeping with the laws of due process which governs this Constitutional Republic. However this is to be expected when irrational voices dominate our public dialogue and are fueled by an ideological driven media. I am concerned that that the tragic death of Trayvon Martin is being hijacked by malcontents.
Incidentally the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense" is not officially related to the old Black Panther Party. The old Black Panther Party does not like the New Black Panther Party and for that matter probably dislikes being referred to as the Old Black Panther Party" as it makes them sound like a shuffleboard team.
Back to Rep. West: hes hardly the only person who questions the way this case was handled by the Sanford Police Department although they are not without their legal and procedural defenses. Based on what weve now learned about the case West was not helping matters by prematurely stating there was no probable cause to engage him certainly not pursue and shoot him….against the direction of the 911 responder" although he was careful to qualify this as his personal impression based on the same shoddy reporting weve all been reading.
(Along those lines Dan Riehl at
Breitbart.com caught MSNBC deliberately doctoring quotes in a March 21 story to make Zimmerman out as a racist… in the early paragraphs of an article about his neighbors coming to his defense!)
Zimmermans actions may turn out to have been profoundly wrong with obviously deadly consequences but they were not random or utterly
inexplicable. The Sanford Police Department did not dispatch Sherriff Roscoe P. Coltrane from the
Dukes of Hazzard to giggle and wave Zimmerman along. These are important distinctions to make and it doesnt invalidate either legal proceedings against Zimmerman substantive criticism of the police department the imperative to investigate the matter fully or an observers heartfelt conviction that the shooting was horrendous.
If people are to be castigated and placed in legal jeopardy for their actions it is important to remain clear about what those actions actually were. Such clarity has never been in plentiful supply with regard to the Sanford incident.
As for Wests condemnation of the NBPP bounty as a hate crime" well isnt it? Here is the
Justice Departments official definition:
Hate crime is the violence of intolerance and bigotry intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race ethnicity national origin religious sexual orientation or disability. The purveyors of hate use explosives arson weapons vandalism physical violence and verbal threats of violence to instill fear in their victims leaving them vulnerable to more attacks and feeling alienated helpless suspicious and fearful.
Others may become frustrated and angry if they believe the local government and other groups in the community will not protect them. When perpetrators of hate are not prosecuted as criminals and their acts not publicly condemned their crimes can weaken even those communities with the healthiest race relations.
Theres at least as much evidence that the NBPP is motivated by George Zimmermans race or ethnicity" as that Zimmerman was motivated by Trayvon Martins. There is certainly reason to wonder if certain elements of the government are willing to protect Zimmerman from the New Black Panther Party and their bounty hunters as neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor President Barack Obama has spoken up against them.
If the answer to Wests challenge is that white Hispanics" like Zimmerman cannot be targeted by hate crimes or that people like the New Black Panther Party are inherently incapable of committing them lets have that out on the table and get it codified in statute.
Lets be clear that hate crimes are not matters of absolute justice but rather
political constructs - meaning that who commits them against whom is more important than what was actually said or done.
