DOJ Sending Out Poll Monitors In 23 States For Tuesday's Election

According to the Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs, it will dispatch nearly 800 federal observers to 51 jurisdictions in 23 states on Election Day. 

Since the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the DOJ has consistently sent observers to the polls to protect voters' civil rights. 

The states to be monitored include: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. 

Find out more here. 

Montana Judge Denies Native American Tribes Better Access To The Polls

Federal Judge Richard Cebull rejected a request by several Native American tribes for satellite polling places on rural Montana reservations. Plaintiffs included members of the Crow, Fort Belknap, and Northern Cheyenne. They argued that traveling to the polls next week will be expensive and burdensome, including the fact some people would have to travel 120 miles to get to the polling stations that had been assigned to them.    

Even the Justice Department assisted with court filings saying, "The practical reality is that Indian voters in Big Horn, Blaine and Rosebud counties do not have the same opportunity as white voters."

But this wasn't good enough for Cebull. He said these realities were not extreme enough to force the government to set up the sites.  

Not that we'd expect better from Cebull, who is stepping down from the bench, because he sent a racist email referring to the president as an animal.  

Read more here. 

Pass Gas in Class: Go Directly to Jail - Black Students Incarcerated in East Mississippi

When we were in high school, no one was jailed for dress code violations or for going to the bathroom without permission.

However, in east Mississippi authorities arrest students who commit relatively minor infractions.  

According to a federal lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Meridian and Lauderdale County, students of color and disabled children are disproportionately targeted. The lawsuit claims that these students were regularly jailed. The Department is suing the city of Meridian, Lauderdale County, the Mississippi Department of Human Services, the Department of Human Services Division of Youth Services, and two Lauderdale County Youth Court judges.

Where do these students go?

Perhaps to the local juvenile hall?

No.

The county's policies allow police to ship students 80 miles to a juvenile detention center sans legal representation or probable cause. And after that, they were placed on probation without proper legal representation. 

ALLOWABLE reasons for incarceration included:

• Dress code infractions such as wearing the wrong color socks or undershirt, or for having shirts untucked
• Tardies
• Flatulence in class
• Using vulgar language
• Yelling at teachers
• Going to the bathroom or leaving the classroom without permission

In the school district, 86% of its 6,000 students are Black and 12% are white. From 2006-2009, all students handed over to the legal system or expelled were Black. 96% of all students who were suspended were Black. 

Shame, shame, East Mississippi.  

You can read more here.

Walking While Black: Justice For Trayvon Martin

Prior to a few weeks ago, I thought it was an obvious fact that you don't need a semi-automatic weapon to do neighborhood watch in a gated community.

However, George Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watch captain in Florida, seemed to think otherwise.

On February 26th, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking home from a store.

Zimmerman spotted the teen and called 911.  He told the dispatcher that Trayvon looked like a burglar and a drug user, that he must have been up to no good.  In actuality, the teen carried only a bag of Skittles and some iced tea.  

The 911 operator told Zimmerman not to pursue the boy but Zimmerman refused and approached Trayvon.  [You can hear Zimmerman's 911 call to police as well as the neighbors' call to 911 after the murder here.  On the tapes, you can clearly hear a boy screaming for 'HELP'.] 

Zimmerman shot Trayvon in the chest. 

Since January 2011, Zimmerman has called 911 46 times.  He has called in open garage doors and 'suspicious characters' who were walking too slowly.  [Can you say 'vigilante'?]  He has also been convicted of assaulting a police officer.  Trayvon had no criminal record. 

Trayvon's English teacher described him as "an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness." 

His only crime was minding his own business and looking 'suspicious' to a wannabe law man with a semi-automatic weapon.

Under Florida's exceptionally broad 'Stand Your Ground' law, a person, such as Zimmerman, is excused from such a crime if he felt threatened.  Zimmerman reported to the police that Martin jumped up and attacked him from behind.  The police did not make any arrests and Police Chief Bill Lee said that there was no probable cause.  "We have not done anything but conduct a fair and complete investigation," Lee said.

Finally, after pressure from community members and others around the country, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the FBI are investigating.

Let us hope Trayvon's killer will be brought to justice.  

  

Read more here.