A California congressman drew thunderous cries of disbelief and outrage at a town hall meeting when he said he was unaware of the voter intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party that has captured national headlines.
The remarkable scene at the town hall meeting on Sunday with Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., was captured on video on posted on YouTube.
When asked by a constituent for reaction to explosive allegations by an ex- Justice Department official that the Obama administration abandoned the New Black Panther case for racial reasons and is not pursuing voter violation cases involving white victims and black defendants, Sherman disputed the charge.
"I'm sure it may say that somewhere on the Internet but that doesn't mean it's true," he said, drawing more jeers."I am extremely sure that we do not have a policy at the Department of Justice of never prosecuting a black defendant when the victim is white," he said, drawing shouts of "Yes, you do!"
"As to the Black Panther Party, I'm simply not aware of that case," he said, drawing a sustained cry of hissing, boos and outrage. One constituent can be heard saying, "Just for that answer, I'm not voting for you."
Sherman's office declined to FoxNews.com to comment on the video.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs gave a similar answer last week when asked about the controversy. He said he has not been paying attention to the case.
In the final days of the Bush administration, the radical group and three of its members were charged in a civil complaint with violating the Voter Rights Act in the November 2008 incident, and one, King Samir Shabazz, specifically was accused of brandishing what prosecutors called a deadly weapon.
The Obama administration won a default judgment in federal court in April 2009 when the Black Panthers didn't appear in court to fight the charges. But the administration moved to dismiss the charges in May 2009. Justice attorneys said a criminal complaint against Shabazz, which resulted in the injunction, proceeded successfully.
The injunction states that Samir Shabazz cannot appear at a polling station in Philadelphia until after 2012.
