Free James O’Keefe
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In case you wonder what the future is for justice and law
enforcement and media control in this country, take a look at two
cases.
During the last Presidential election, a gang of men
calling themselves Black Panthers showed up at a polling place in
Michigan. They threatened any voter who did not vote for Barack
Obama. This was witnessed and documented. (I am suspicious of
their involvement with the real Black Panthers, whom I knew well
in New Haven, who had a little more finesse along with many, many
faults.)
The bullying was barely reported in the media. Even though
it is an unequivocal violation of voting rights laws, it was
decided by Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, not to
prosecute the case at all. Holder is the legal genius who thought
of holding the trial for the self-styled master mind of 9/11,
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in downtown Manhattan instead of in a
military setting. He has recently backtracked on that.
A few days ago, four young conservatives posed as telephone
repairmen and entered the branch office of Senator Mary Landrieu
of Louisiana in New Orleans. Their goal was to check to see if
the phone system in the office was working. The men, under the
leadership of a young media impresario named James O’Keefe, were
querying why constituents of Sen. Landrieu had been unable to
register negative feelings about Obamacare on the Senator’s phone
line. They had been told that perhaps the phones were out of
order.
O’Keefe is the fellow who recorded workers at liberal
advocacy group ACORN telling a young woman how to set up a
brothel for 14-year-old illegal immigrant girls from Central
America. This had caused considerable anger towards ACORN, one of
Obama’s most stalwart supporting groups.
Back at Sen. Landrieu’s office, someone was suspicious of
the O’Keefe group and called police. The men were arrested and
are now charged with a federal felony of something called
tampering with a federal phone line.
The New York Times had a front page story about
the men and their conservative college pranks. At the top of the
story was a photo of each of the men in prison orange.
This was presumably to humiliate these men.
I don’t see it that way. These men were journalists trying
to get a story. They didn’t even touch a phone as far as I can
learn. They were undercover reporters and TV operators. But that
doesn’t matter. Their real crime was disturbing the peace and
quiet of the nation’s liberal establishment and embarrassing
ACORN. For this, these pranksters are charged with a federal
crime. (”First Amendment? What’s that?”)
Meanwhile, no charges against those thugs with the clubs at
the polling place.
Does this give you the feeling that maybe the prison orange
for Mr. O’Keefe and his pals is a mark of courage and honor and
that the rest of us should be shivering about what the Obama
Justice Department thinks is law? When was the last time you read
about federal charges against a liberal reporter for going
undercover? The behavior of the feds here is not just worrisome.
It is something beyond that. But, Mr. Holder, here is a line from
the civil rights struggle I worked in before you were born: We
are not afraid. And we’re not going away.
