Thread: NEW DOCUMENTS REVEAL JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COLLUSION IN TRAYVON PROTESTS

NEW DOCUMENTS REVEAL JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COLLUSION IN TRAYVON PROTESTS



By: John Hayward
7/10/2013 02:05 PM

Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen: Judicial Watch used its trusty Freedom of Information Act crowbar to pry some more documents from the Most Transparent Administration in History, and what do you know, Obama’s Justice Department was actively helping to organize demonstrations and spread civil unrest.

Judicial Watch, Inc. (Judicial Watch) on April 24, 2012 launched an investigation into the Trayvon Martin case based on reports that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had sent a secret team of “peacekeepers” to Sanflord, Florida, where Martin was shot on February 26, 2012 after wandering in a gated community after dark. George Zimmerman, a resident of the community and its neighborhood watch captain, is currently on trial for Martin’s death though he maintains he acted in self-defense.

Records obtained by Judicial Watch in response to local, state and federal public records requests show that the so-called peacekeepers are part of a large and growing division within DOJ called the Community Relations Service (CRS). Though CRS purports to spot and quell racial tensions nationwide before they arise, the documents obtained by Judicial Watch show the groupactively worked to foment unrest, spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on travel and hotel rooms to train protesters throughout Florida. The peacekeepers also met with officials of the Republican National Convention, scheduled for several months later in Tampa, to warn them to expect protests in connection with Martin’s death.

Let me get this straight: they met with the RNC organizers to warn them about protests from the very same agitators DOJ spent thousands of dollars training?

The Daily Caller notes that one of the rallies assisted by your tax-funded public servants was headlined by racial arsonist Al Sharpton. You’re welcome, America.

This “large and growing division” of taxpayer-funded saboteurs needs to be de-funded immediately, and it’s probably time to give Attorney General Eric Holder another chance to commit perjury before Congress. He has a certain flair for it.

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/07/1...yvon-protests/

Docs: Justice Department facilitated anti-Zimmerman protests

07/10/2013
US



A division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was deployed to Sanford, Florida in 2012 to provide assistance for anti-George Zimmerman protests, including a rally headlined by activist Al Sharpton, according to newly released documents.

The Community Relations Service (CRS), a unit of DOJ, reported expenses related to its deployment in Sanford to help manage protests between March and April 2012, according to documents obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.

CRS spent $674.14 between March 25-27 related to having been “deployed to Sanford, FL, to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.” CRS spent another $1,142.84 for the same purpose between March 25-28.

CRS spent $892.55 “to provide support for protest deployment in Florida” between March 30-April 1, and $751.60 “to provide technical assistance to the City of Sanford, event organizers, and law enforcement agencies for the march and rally on March 31.”

Sharpton, who promoted the Tawana Brawley hoax in the 1980s and in 1995 led a protest against the “white interloper” owner of a Harlem clothing store that ended in a deadly shooting rampage at the store, was a featured speaker at the March 31 rally, called “The March for Trayvon Martin,” where he advocated for Zimmerman’s prosecution.

CRS expenditures related to the anti-Zimmerman protests continued through mid-April. Between April 11 and April 12, CRS spent $552.35 “to provide technical assistance for the preparation of possible marches and rallies related to the fatal shooting of a 17 year old African American male.”
Local government officials noticed the Department of Justice’s efforts in building “bridges of understanding” in Sanford.

“Congratulations to our partners, Thomas Battles, Regional Director, and Mildred De Robles, Miami-Dade Coordinator and their co-workers at the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service for their outstanding and ongoing efforts to reduce tensions and build bridges of understanding and respect in Sanford, Florida,” wrote Amy Carswell, Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board Program Officer, in an April 16 email.

“Thank you Partner. You did lots of stuff behind the scene to make Miami a success. We will continue to work together,” DOJ official Thomas Battles wrote in reply to Carswell.

“That’s why we make the big bucks,” Carswell replied.

CRS was established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the CRS web page, “The Community Relations Service is the Department’s ‘peacemaker’ for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, and national origin. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, CRS is the only Federal agency dedicated to assist State and local units of government, private and public organizations, and community groups with preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, incidents, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony.”

A Department of Justice spokesperson said that she did not know off the top of her head what CRS’ role was in the anti-Zimmerman protests but is currently trying to figure out that answer. The Daily Caller will update this story upon receiving a statement from DOJ.

UPDATE:

DOJ spokesperson Dena Iverson emailed a statement to The Daily Caller, saying, ”The Community Relations Service was in Florida as part of their mandated mission,” along with a link to the CRS’s website.

VIDEO AT LINK BELOW
http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/10/do...rman-protests/

Al Sharpton @ Sanford March 3/31/2012

Documents Show DOJ Helped Facilitate And Support Anti-Zimmerman Protests Including Al Sharpton’s

July 10, 2013 9:21 pm

Is the government purposely trying to stir up racial relations in the George Zimmerman shooting case? Have they assisted in the anti-Zimmerman race-baiting protests organized by the opportunist Al Sharpton? Documents uncovered by The Daily Caller would suggest so and cast a very negative light on The Community Relations Service (CRS), which is a unit of the Department of Justice headed by Attorney General Eric Holder.
The Community Relations Service was commended by local Sanford Florida government officials for building “bridges of understanding” in that town after the shooting, but one has to ask the question, why is a division of the United States Justice Department even involved in a local police matter? And secondly, if the DOJ was really in Sanford after the shooting to build "bridges of understanding" why were they providing support and technical assistance to Al Sharpton, one of the most divisive opportunists our country has ever seen.
As with so many things in the Obama administration, this is just one more that is more than fishy when government is involved in things they really have no business being involved in. Even if the Justice Department has a compelling interest in seeing that Trayvon Martin's civil rights weren't violated, they really have no business partnering with one of the most racist men in the country chanting, "No justice, no peace!" who is doing little more than stirring up tensions along race lines.
Read more on this story below from The Daily Caller:
A division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was deployed to Sanford, Florida in 2012 to provide assistance for anti-George Zimmerman protests, including a rally headlined by activist Al Sharpton, according to newly released documents.
The Community Relations Service (CRS), a unit of DOJ, reported expenses related to its deployment in Sanford to help manage protests between March and April 2012, according to documents obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.
CRS spent $674.14 between March 25-27 related to having been “deployed to Sanford, FL, to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.” CRS spent another $1,142.84 for the same purpose between March 25-28.
CRS spent $892.55 “to provide support for protest deployment in Florida” between March 30-April 1, and $751.60 “to provide technical assistance to the City of Sanford, event organizers, and law enforcement agencies for the march and rally on March 31.”
Sharpton, who promoted the Tawana Brawley hoax in the 1980s and in 1995 led a protest against the “white interloper” owner of a Harlem clothing store that ended in a deadly shooting rampage at the store, was a featured speaker at the March 31 rally, called “The March for Trayvon Martin,” where he advocated for Zimmerman’s prosecution.
CRS expenditures related to the anti-Zimmerman protests continued through mid-April. Between April 11 and April 12, CRS spent $552.35 “to provide technical assistance for the preparation of possible marches and rallies related to the fatal shooting of a 17 year old African American male.”
Local government officials noticed the Department of Justice’s efforts in building “bridges of understanding” in Sanford. http://www.isthatbaloney.com/documen...-al-sharptons/

Ex-Sanford police chief: Zimmerman probe 'taken away from us'

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
July 11, 2013 -- Updated 0010 GMT (0810 HKT)



(CNN) -- The George Zimmerman investigation was hijacked "in a number of ways" by outside forces, said the former police chief of Sanford, Florida.
Bill Lee, who testified Monday in Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial, told CNN's George Howell in an exclusive interview that he felt pressure from city officials to arrest Zimmerman to placate the public rather than as a matter of justice.

"It was (relayed) to me that they just wanted an arrest. They didn't care if it got dismissed later," he said. "You don't do that."

When Sanford police arrived on the scene on February 26, 2012, after Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, they conducted a "sound" investigation, and the evidence provided no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman at the scene, he said.

It had nothing to do with Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, he said; from an investigative standpoint, it was purely a matter of self-defense.

Zimmerman told police he killed Martin after the teen attacked him. While the evidence at the time corroborated that claim, the ex-chief said, Lee's lead investigator made a recommendation that Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter.

It was a matter of protocol, Lee said. Arresting Zimmerman based on the evidence at hand would have been a violation of Zimmerman's Fourth Amendment rights, he said. Thus, the Sanford police presented a "capias request" to the state's attorney, asking that the prosecutor determine whether it was a "justifiable homicide," issue a warrant for arrest or present the case to a grand jury.
"The police department needed to do a job, and there was some influence -- outside influence and inside influence -- that forced a change in the course of the normal criminal justice process," Lee said. "With all the influence and the protests and petitions for an arrest, you still have to uphold you oath."
"That investigation was taken away from us. We weren't able to complete it," he said.

One example involved the 911 tapes, in which neighbors implored dispatchers to send police as a voice in the background screamed for help.

The Sanford police intended to release the tapes once the probe was over, Lee said, because you can't publicize evidence amid an investigation.

Instead, the mayor told him on March 16 the tapes had been released to Martin's family and the public. The family was asked to help identify voices, Lee said, but if police were in charge of the investigation, they wouldn't have presented evidence to a group.

"It should be done individually so there's no influence on the other people in the room," he said. "Then, there's no questions that can be brought up about how (an identification) was obtained or whether it was influenced."

I'm happy that at the end of the day I can walk away with my integrity.
Ex-Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee

Releasing the evidence to the public was problematic, as well, because it created the potential for someone to concoct a "story about what they observed when they really didn't observe it," he said.

Martin family attorney Jasmine Rand said that she doesn't believe that playing the tapes to a room full of people "makes any difference to the outcome of the case."

"We have to remember that that was played for the family in a private room because they were hearing the last moments of their son's life as he cried for help," Rand told CNN's Erin Burnett on Wednesday night. "And I think Sybrina Fulton (Martin's mother) got up and walked out of that room. She didn't sit in there and talk to everybody, because she had a visceral reaction when she heard her son yell for help and she couldn't help him because she knew he was dead."
Lee was placed on paid leave March 22, 2012, after the Sanford City Commission expressed a lack of confidence in him. The same commission rejected his resignation in a 3-2 vote a month later, with dissenting commissioners questioning the fairness of Lee's losing his job.

Two months later, Lee was sacked. City Manager Norton Bonaparte said in a news release, "The police chief needs to have the trust and respect of the elected officials and the confidence of the entire community."

Lee believes lack of confidence did play a role in his dismissal, he told CNN, but he also believes Bonaparte faced political pressure and terminated him "without cause," which was permitted under his employment contract.

"I upheld my oath," Lee said. "I'm happy that at the end of the day I can walk away with my integrity."

Rand, the Martin family attorney, told CNN that Lee lost his job because he "failed to conduct a fair and impartial investigation."

"I personally thank God that he doesn't have the ability to fulfill his vision to uphold an arcane practice that has no place in our legal system," Rand said.

Asked whether he would do things differently given the opportunity, Lee, a 30-year veteran of law enforcement, said there always are things he could change in hindsight, but he stands by the investigation.

At every turn in the 40-minute interviewwith CNN's Howell, Lee doggedly defended his investigators, saying race never played a role in any decision and that his officers "conducted an unbiased review."

Investigators knew letting Zimmerman walk free for 46 days was an unpopular decision -- and they took abuse for it -- "but they performed professionally. That's the mark of a strong police department."

Lee took issue with the media casting his department as apathetic or lackadaisical in the case.

"A lot of the information that was given out as fact was misinformation," he said.

"It was reported in some media that we didn't conduct an investigation for two weeks, but yet in that same media they would show a photograph of a crime scene with crime scene tape, with patrol cars and blue lights and investigators on the scene."

Lee shrugged off the notion that he was hired to clean up racism and other problems in the department. His goal upon becoming chief was to improve professionalism and trust, and he set several goals, all of which were met during his 10-month tenure, he said.

One of his greatest regrets, he said, is that the Zimmerman investigation ultimately shattered his childhood dream to be police chief of the community where he was raised.

"It's a dream of a vision that is going to be unrealized," he said. "I'm at peace with it on most days. I'm a man of faith. But it stings."

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/10/ju...ive/index.html

DOJ sends secret “peacekeepers” where Trayvon Martin was killed

Last Updated: July 10, 2013
Synopsis

Judicial Watch, Inc. on April 24, 2012 launched an investigation into the Trayvon Martin case based on reports that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had sent a secret team of “peacekeepers” to Sanflord, Florida, where Martin was shot on February 26, 2012 after wandering in a gated community after dark. George Zimmerman, a resident of the community and its neighborhood watch captain, is currently on trial for Martin’s death though he maintains he acted in self-defense.

Records obtained by Judicial Watch in response to local, state and federal public records requests show that the so-called peacekeepers are part of a large and growing division within DOJ called the Community Relations Service (CRS). Though CRS purports to spot and quell racial tensions nationwide before they arise, the documents obtained by Judicial Watch show the group actively worked to foment unrest, spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on travel and hotel rooms to train protestors throughout Florida. The peacekeepers also met with officials of the Republican National Convention, scheduled for several months later in Tampa, to warn them to expect protests in connection with Martin’s death.

• CRS employee spent $1,142.84 to travel to Sanford, Florida from March 25-28, 2012 “to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies”;
• CRS employee spent $751.60 to travel to Sanford, Florida from March 30-April 1, 2012 “to provide technical assistance to the City of Sanford, event organizers, and law enforcement agencies for the march and rally on March 31”;
• CRS employee spent $1,307.40 to travel to Sanford, Florida from April 3-12, 2012 “to provide technical assistance, conciliation, and onsite mediation during demonstrations planned in Sanford”;
• CRS employee spent $672.24 to travel to Tampa, Florida from April 18-20, 2012 “to meet with RNC official related to possible protests and demonstrations during the RNC”

In response to a Florida Sunshine Law request to the City of Sanford, Judicial Watch also obtained an audio recording of a “community meeting” held at Second Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford on April 19, 2012. The meeting, which opens with a gospel hymn and organ music, is reported to have led to the official ouster of Sanford’s Police Chief Bill Lee. A week earlier, a group calling themselves the “Dream Defenders” had barricaded the entrance to the police department demanding he be fired for failing to file murder charges against Zimmerman. The church meeting produced a nine-point plan, the main demand being the firing of Chief Lee.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/bulleti...in-was-killed/
For additional background and reference:
April 19, 2012: Church meeting produces 9-point plan, led by firing of police chief

April 17, 2012: Who are the Peacekeepers?

April 10, 2012: “Dream Defenders” block entrance to Sanford Police Dept.

March 31, 2012: Narrative of Martin-Zimmerman dispute

Official Legal Documents

CRS Supplement IV
Teaching How to Protest MAR 30
APR 18 Met w RNC to Warn of Protests
APR 3 Mediation in Anticipation
Coordinating MAR 30 Rally
Addl Personnel Work Marches MAR 25
Work Marches Demos Rallies MAR 25
Teaching How to Protest APR 11
More Working Rallies on MAR 25
Crs Part III
CRS Supplement II
Met w Clergymen on Sept 18
CRS Supplement III
Met w Clergymen on May 9
Met w Clergymen on June 21
Met w Clergymen on July 30
CRS Part I
CRS Supplement I
MAR 25 Work Marches and Rallies
MAR 19 on HB56 Then Sanford
CRS Sanford App w Exh
CRS Ack Sanford
CRS App Determination
CRS Sanford Followup
CRS Part II
FBI Sanford App w Exh n Deliv Conf
FBI Sanford App Denial Final
FBI Sanford Ack
Protest Deployment
Emails Obtained
Miami Dade Emails:
CRB Agenda Package March 2012.Doc
An Article From www.miamiherald.com
CRB Minutes March 2012
Bradford Brown Updated His Status Lin…
CRB Chairs Report April 2012
CRB Agenda April 2012
BREAKING Trayvon – Florida Students…
County Officials at Sanford Commission…
CRB Exec Minutes March 2012
Accommodations for Sanford City Com
Bradford Brown Shared a Link
Big Bucks
Bradford Brown Shared a Link I Wish I…
Fw Fwd Article on Other Cases in Sanf…
Emailing Trayvon Martin 15 Facts You N…
2012 03 21 Crb Minutes
FW CNN Breaking News
CRB Exec Agenda April 2012
CRB Trayvon GWA Request
FW NY Times; Stand Your Ground–Seri…
CRB Chairs Report Exec March 2012
CRB Trayvon GWA Cancel
CRB Chairs Report March 2012
Demand Travyons Killer Get Prosecute…
FW_ Miami-Dade CRB Deployments Related to Martin Case
TONIGHT 9PM! Trayvon Martin – NATIONAL Youth Call to Action!
Fwd Raise Your Voice for Trayvon
Update on Controversial Shooting of Miami Youth in Sanford Flo…
Fwd Article on Other Cases in Sanford
RE_ Thank You
FW NY Times; Stand Your Ground–
Fw POLITICO Breaking News
Tallahassee Weekly Report – March 19-23
Trayvon Martin Race – Op-Ed – Professor
Touching Bases
RE Touching Bases
RE NY Times; Stand Your Ground–Series of Opinions (Including…
RE_ Response to Request for Public
Re Update on Controversial Shooting of Miami Youth in Sanford…
Re Monitoring Tensions Over Shooting of Miami-Dade Teen in S…
Re Request for Assistance
Monitoring Tensions Over Shooting of Miami-Dade Teen in Sanf…
Re FYI Florida NAACP Calls for Impartial Investigation Into Shoot…
Hoodies Dont Kill People. Racism Does
FYI Miami Heat Players Pose in Hoodies to Support Trayvon Mar…
Re FYI Miami Heat Players Pose in Hoodies to Support Trayvon…
Miami Dade Trayvon Records
Miami Heat Players Pose in Hoodies to
RADIO AFTERMATH Do Right by Trayvon