Justice Dept. to Address Backlog of Civil Rights Complaints
There is the ongoing review of the death of a man beaten by four white teenagers in a park in Shenandoah, Pa. The kids, all high school football players, shouted, "Go back to Mexico," before one punched him repeatedly with a metal shank balled up in his fist, according to witnesses. Then, another kicked him on the left side of his head so hard that the Mexican man's brain began to swell. He died two days later, his fiancee weeping at his side...
... Their issues are wrapped up in what is a top concern for Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has pledged to make the division his department's "crown jewel" by returning its focus to protecting minorities from discrimination. What becomes of these cases, and others like them, will help determine the meaning of justice in the Obama administration.
Under the Bush administration, it was "destroyed," said John Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who criticized the shift away from the department's traditional civil rights focus to a more expansive agenda that included prosecuting complaints of religious discrimination and human trafficking. Independent investigations by the Office of the Inspector General also found that the civil rights division during the years that George W. Bush was president had been plagued with political hiring scandals and racial insults, further straining the department's already icy relationship with civil rights veterans.
"The [civil rights] division is just sort of a relic of what it used to be," said Payton, who once considered it a partner in the work of righting racial wrongs. Holder "needs to restore the morale. It is a monumental task before him."...
Read entire article at The Washington Post
... Their issues are wrapped up in what is a top concern for Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has pledged to make the division his department's "crown jewel" by returning its focus to protecting minorities from discrimination. What becomes of these cases, and others like them, will help determine the meaning of justice in the Obama administration.
Under the Bush administration, it was "destroyed," said John Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who criticized the shift away from the department's traditional civil rights focus to a more expansive agenda that included prosecuting complaints of religious discrimination and human trafficking. Independent investigations by the Office of the Inspector General also found that the civil rights division during the years that George W. Bush was president had been plagued with political hiring scandals and racial insults, further straining the department's already icy relationship with civil rights veterans.
"The [civil rights] division is just sort of a relic of what it used to be," said Payton, who once considered it a partner in the work of righting racial wrongs. Holder "needs to restore the morale. It is a monumental task before him."...