Two July 2011 incidents have converged to reveal the pro-abortion bias of Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.
First, alleging that he had stood on a sidewalk near a metro Washington Planned Parenthood facility, forcing those entering to walk around him, Holder’s DOJ sued an eighty-year old Catholic pro-life counselor. DOJ stakes the claim that standing still on a sidewalk so that others must go around you violates the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
Second, that same sidewalk counselor that had just been sued by DOJ carried on his pro-life speech activities on July 14. As he approached a woman walking toward the Planned Parenthood, the elderly gentleman offered pro-life literature to her. The woman immediately threatened, I don’t want to hear anything from you, or I’ll pepper spray you. Despite the warning, the sidewalk counselor continued his offer of help. To his complete surprise, the woman began spraying him in the face with pepper spray.
These two instances, to this point, do not evidence bias. Not until you discover which target Holder’s DOJ gave a sweetheart deal to, you would be right to doubt any alleged bias. You see, when the pepper spray assault incident came up for trial this week, the United States rolled over and played dead. Ms. Gregg was offered a plea arrangement that will lead to dismissal of the criminal charges for her violent attack.
Plea deals are commonplace: day in and day out, something approximating rough justice takes place in courts. Prosecutors responsible for dozens of cases at a time reach agreements in which an accused pleads guilty to the charged offense, pays court costs and fines, and performs community service. If the accused does those things, and avoids re-arrest for a 6 or 12 month period, the charge is then dropped and the accused gets a cleaned record. Such deals lighten court dockets and force defendants to perform acts of service that repair in some way the societal harms caused by their criminal conduct.
So no surprise would be had if the US Attorney for the District of Columbia offered such a deal to Ms. Gregg, the alleged pepper spray attacker. While victims are not always satisfied when such deals are made, the discretion of prosecutors is absolute. But such a deal was not offered to Ms. Gregg. Instead, Ms. Gregg won’t have to pay court costs or fines. Nor will she be required to perform community service. All Ms. Gregg has to do is avoid trouble with the law for six months and her charges for the violent assault will be dismissed.
For those who have followed the ball, a violent criminal will be given a cakewalk by Holder’s DOJ, if she can manage six months of good behavior.
The Catholic sidewalk counselor? Holder’s DOJ wants a federal judge to order him to pay $25,000.00 in fines for standing still on a sidewalk, touching or threatening no one. I guess sometimes it pays to be violent, or, at least, to unleash your violence on a pro-life sidewalk counselor. In the current administration, chances of paying for your crime are substantially reduced.
LifeNews.com Note: James Henderson and Jordan Sekulow write for the American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life legal group. James M. Henderson, Sr. is Senior Counsel of the ACLJ in the Washington, D.C. office.
