THE POLITICS OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT – AT 9:59 A.M. ET:   No attorney general has politicized the Justice Department more than has Eric Holder.  He's at it again.  From John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky in the Washington Times: 

Even we were shocked when we researched our new book, “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department,” at the extent to which Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has politicized the Justice Department and put the interests of left-wing ideology and his political party ahead of the fair and impartial administration of justice. However, there is no doubt that the American public has also recognized just how politically corrupt Mr. Holder is, given this month’s very embarrassing poll conducted by Hart Research for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal.

The poll asked respondents their opinions about 10 different national political officials, ranging from Bill Clinton to President Obama to Eric Holder, as well as the Democratic and Republican parties. They were given choices of very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, very negative and “don’t know the name.” About a third of respondents didn’t know who Mr. Holder is (37 percent). However, those Americans who knew Mr. Holder gave him the second-lowest “positive” rating of anyone or any organization on the survey at a mere 15 percent. Only Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio had a lower “positive” rating than Mr. Holder. The attorney general’s “positive” rating was less than half of the positive rating of the Republican Party and 27 points behind that of his boss, Mr. Obama, who was rated favorably by only 42 percent of respondents.

And now, From Fox: 

WASHINGTON – Broadening its push to improve police relations with minorities, the Justice Department has enlisted a team of criminal justice researchers to study racial bias in law enforcement in five American cities and recommend strategies to address the problem nationally, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

The police shooting last month of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri underscored the need for the long-planned initiative, Holder said in an interview with The Associated Press.

He said the three-year project could be a "silver lining" if it helps ease racial tensions and "pockets of distrust that show up between law enforcement and the communities that they serve."

COMMENT:  Come on, Eric.  This is an old story, going back 50 years.  Sure, there are problem areas.  I hold no brief for violent, corrupt, or bigoted cops.  But the more serious problem is the horror of crime in black communities, which have sometimes become shooting galleries.  Investigating police departments, which is properly done all the time, will have no impact on that tragedy. 

Holder's Justice Department, for example, seems more intent on investigating possible problems in the New York Police Department than it does in holding up New York as an example of how crime can be successfully fought.  When New York's former police commissioner, Ray Kelly, went to speak to black churches, he always got a standing ovation.  African Americans knew what he had done to improve their neighborhoods.  I don't see anyone standing for Attorney General Holder. Well, maybe Al Sharpton.

September 17, 2014