- GOVERNMENT TOPICS
- JULY 12, 2013
- BY: JOE NEWBY
- On Thursday, Judicial Watch released audio of a Justice Department staffer urging officials in Sanford, Fla., and the minority advocacy group Dream Defenders to seek justice for Trayvon Martin, the Washington Times reported
The audio is a recording of a meeting at the Shiloh Church on April 19, 2012.
“CRS is an arm of the department that we call the Peacemakers,” said Thomas Battles, regional director of the DOJ's Community Relations Service. “We work with communities where there is real or perceived racial tensions.”
"When Trayvon happened, for many of us, it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back,” he added. “We had grown up in a state and environment where race is a way of life … We’re not from Sanford, but what Sanford represented to us was the very real problems going around this state and this country. We wanted to figure out how could we stand in solidarity, and how could we make this about not just justice for Trayvon, but using this moment and using the opportunity to honor his memory, to honor his spirit by working to bring down the various structures and the various systems that allow something like this to happen.”
Judicial Watch said the meeting started with gospel music and produced a nine-point plan that ultimately led to the ouster of Police Chief Bill Lee, who said he was fired for refusing to arrest Zimmerman without probable cause.
On Wednesday, Judicial Watch released documents showing that some $5,000 in taxpayer money was spent by the DOJ to help facilitate anti-Zimmerman protests in Sanford between March 25 and April 12, 2012. One protest was headlined by MSNBC activist Al Sharpton.
During that time, the Zimmerman family wrote the DOJ asking why members of the New Black Panther Party were not being arrested for hate crimes and suggested that race was the reason.
“The Zimmerman family is in hiding because of the threats that have been made against us, yet the DOJ has maintained an eerie silence on this matter. These threats are very public. If you haven’t been paying attention just do a Google search and you will find plenty. Since when can a group of people in the United States put a bounty on someone’s head, circulate Wanted posters publicly, and still be walking the streets?” the family asked.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the findings “detail the extraordinary intervention by the Justice Department in the pressure campaign leading to the prosecution of George Zimmerman."
"My guess is that most Americans would rightly object to taxpayers paying government employees to help organize racially-charged demonstrations," he added.
‘Justice for Trayvon’: Audio released of DOJ member urging action against George Zimmerman
The legal watchdog Judicial Watch released an audio recording Thursday of a Department of Justice staffer urging Sanford, Fla., city officials and the minority advocacy group Dream Defenders to seek justice for Trayvon Martin, because “if a community perceives that there’s something wrong in the black community, there’s something wrong.”
“CRS is an arm of the department that we call the Peacemakers,” Thomas Battles, regional director of the DOJ's Community Relations Service, said at a meeting at the Shiloh Church on April 19, 2012. “We work with communities where there is real or perceived racial tensions.”
“…When Trayvon happened, for many of us, it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back,” he continued. “We had grown up in a state and environment where race is a way of life … We’re not from Sanford, but what Sanford represented to us was the very real problems going around this state and this country. We wanted to figure out how could we stand in solidarity, and how could we make this about not just justice for Trayvon, but using this moment and using the opportunity to honor his memory, to honor his spirit by working to bring down the various structures and the various systems that allow something like this to happen.”
It was reported Wednesday, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that from March 25 to April 12, CRS spent roughly $5,000 upon being deployed to Sanford to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies “related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.”
The findings, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “detail the extraordinary intervention by the Justice Department in the pressure campaign leading to the prosecution of George Zimmerman. My guess is that most Americans would rightly object to taxpayers paying government employees to help organize racially-charged demonstrations.”
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/11/justice-trayvon-audio-released-doj-member-urging-a/#ixzz2Yq3emh44
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