President Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, has been in the “news” lately.  The corporate media have the left and right calling for Eric Holder’s head. The game is this: Just like the Benghazi and IRS faux scandals, the media run with the bare facts of a story in a transparent attempt to provoke outcries of indignation from everyone, left, right and center,  only later to discover that they had it all wrong.  But after it comes out that they had it all (or mostly) wrong, do they take it back? Do they acknowledge their error in creating a rumor that turned out to be mostly inaccurate, entirely false or absurdly out of context? No. They just move on.  Mission accomplished. This is a pattern now in our “news” media. 

Corporate media control not so much what we think, but what we think about.  In the case of Eric Holder, they want us to focus only on aspects of  Holder’s job performance that we might find objectionable or scandalous, because the Obama DOJ is a threat to corporate power (even while they have manipulated some on the left into believing Obama is nothing but a corporate shill).  But maybe you haven’t heard that Attorney General Holder is considered by many to be a champion of the people, a fighter for the downtrodden.  There exist actual facts that support this point of view. 

Eric Holder has acknowledged that some criticisms about him are appropriate. I say let’s take a lesson from previous “scandal” reportings by our corrupt, dysfunctional, corporate media and before we all pile on Eric Holder,  we should also consider other parts of this complex picture. 

This article is from theobamadiary.com/2013/06/03

Eric Holder’s Justice Department has successfully brought a large number of discrimination cases against banks. In most of these cases, the banks were alleged to have charged Hispanics and African-Americans with the same financial credentials thousands more for the same loan. In addition, minorities were targeted for risky sub-prime loans. https://www.impartial-review.com/stories/romney-backers-paid-millions-in-discrimination-lawsuits-against-hispanics

Morgan Stanely settled a race discrimination charge against Hispanics last week. The settlement established a $16 million fund, of which $14 million will be divided among class members who submitted claims. Under the settlement, Morgan Stanley will spend approximately $7.5 million on diversity programs, including programs aimed at training and recruiting African-American and Hispanic financial advisors and trainees over the next five years.

Bank of America has been the hardest hit by Department of Justice lawsuits due to their purchase of Countrywide. Bank of America agreed to pay $335 million (video) to resolve allegations that it engaged in a widespread pattern of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers. In addition, two race bias lawsuits were filed against the company in July.  (click here to read more)

In Meridian Mississippi, where 4 of every 10 kids lives below the poverty line the public schools have been routinely jailing black children for offenses like: wrong color socks. In Meridian, when schools want to discipline children, they do much more than just send them to the principal’s office. They call the police, who show up to arrest children who are as young as 10 years old. Arrests, the Department of Justice says, happen automatically, regardless of whether the police officer knows exactly what kind of offense the child has committed or whether that offense is even worthy of an arrest. The police department’s policy is to arrest all children referred to the agency.

The Department of Justice sued the school district, the police, and the local courts. The schools caved first and in March signed a consent order. But the heavy handed Feds are not going to stop at little Meridian. They are going to prevent school districts from jailing 10 year olds all over the place as Colorlines reports.  (click here to read more)

Justin Elliot (Salon): In a marked shift from the Bush administration, President Obama’s Justice Department is aggressively investigating several big urban police departments for systematic civil rights abuses such as harassment of racial minorities, false arrests, and excessive use of force.

In just the past few months, the Civil Rights Division has announced “pattern and practice” investigations in Newark, New Jersey and Seattle. It’s also conducting a preliminary investigation of the Denver Police Department, and all this is on top of a high-profile push to reform the notorious New Orleans Police Department — as well as criminal prosecutions of several New Orleans officers…

“The primary victims of police misconduct are African-Americans and Latinos. The Bush administration simply wasn’t interested in this,” Walker says. “The Obama-Holder DOJ puts a very high priority on this.” (click here to read more at Salon.com http://www.salon.com/2011/05/30/justice_department_civil_rights_police/)

Department Of Justice: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. pleaded guilty today in cases filed by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and San Francisco to six counts of violating the Clean Water Act by illegally handling and disposing of hazardous materials at its retail stores across the United States. The Bentonville, Ark. based company also pleaded guilty today in Kansas City, Mo., to violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) by failing to properly handle pesticides that had been returned by customers at its stores across the country.

As a result of the three criminal cases brought by the Justice Department, as well as a related civil case filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wal-Mart will pay approximately $81.6 million for its unlawful conduct. Coupled with previous actions brought by the states of California and Missouri for the same conduct, Wal-Mart will pay a combined total of more than $110 million to resolve cases alleging violations of federal and state environmental laws.    http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/May/13-enrd-611.html

Department Of Justice: The Justice Department today announced an agreement with the City of West Columbia, S.C., to improve access to all aspects of civic life for persons with disabilities.  The agreement was reached under Project Civic Access (PCA), the department’s wide-ranging initiative to ensure that cities, towns and counties throughout the country comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

“The ADA is a passport to our nation’s cities for people with disabilities. This agreement ensures that all people have access to West Columbia’s parks and other programs, services and activities,” said Eve L. Hill, Senior Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. “Access to our cities is a basic civil right and the ADA is shaping the way our country and its people think inclusively about themselves and people with disabilities.” (click here to read more at justice.gov Department Of Justice: The Justice Department today announced an agreement with the City of West Columbia, S.C., to improve access to all aspects of civic life for persons with disabilities.  The agreement was reached under Project Civic Access (PCA), the department’s wide-ranging initiative to ensure that cities, towns and counties throughout the country comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

“The ADA is a passport to our nation’s cities for people with disabilities. This agreement ensures that all people have access to West Columbia’s parks and other programs, services and activities,” said Eve L. Hill, Senior Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. “Access to our cities is a basic civil right and the ADA is shaping the way our country and its people think inclusively about themselves and people with disabilities.”   http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/May/13-crt-629.html)

When people list the accomplishments of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress of the last two years, you almost never hear about the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act. It reduced the 100:1 disparity in mandatory minimums for people convicted of offenses related to crack vs powder cocaine. One has to wonder whether the lack of attention to this bill is because the disparities primarily affected young black men. http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2011/06/fair-sentencing-act.html   and  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/06/01/136852435/crack-cocaine-fair-sentencing-act-should-be-retroactive-holder-says)

[Earlier this week], the Justice Department issued a findings letter detailing the results of its investigation into the use of solitary confinement on prisoners with serious mental illness at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Cresson in Cambria County, Pa.  The department found that Cresson’s use of long-term and extreme forms of solitary confinement on prisoners with serious mental illness, many of whom also have intellectual disabilities, violates their rights under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).    http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/May/13-crt-631.html)