In his latest effort to defend George Zimmerman, race bait against African Americans and tie it all up in a racialized attack on the Obama administration,  Sean Hannity suggested that the Obama Justice Department has willfully ignored George Zimmerman’s civil rights in favor of Trayvon Martin’s.

In a video FoxNews.com called, Civil rights crime committed in Travyon Martin case? Hannity began by saying, “Attorney General Eric Holder promising to take action if his department finds George Zimmerman broke any federal laws when he shot Trayvon Martin… It’s important to know that not once in (his) press conference was a mention made about the bounty that the New Black Panther Party has put out on Zimmerman’s head.” Hannity showed a flier saying Zimmerman was “wanted dead or alive.” He added, “if that’s not enough evidence, well, there’s countless statements made by the Black Panthers inciting a race war… So why is Eric Holder not investigating the New Black Panther Party?”

Well, Sean, we all know what a terrific defense attorney you are (for white people in racial trouble), despite not having graduated from college but the law is that discrimination occurs when the civil rights of an individual are denied or interfered with because of their membership in a particular group or class. Discrimination, via Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary, is defined as, “To treat similarly situated people differently on the basis of a protected characteristic, such as race, gender, or disability.” While we understand it’s a given for you that any and all white people are vulnerable to discrimination at any moment, you have not provided any evidence that Zimmerman has suffered any discrimination because of his race. 

If Hannity thought the NBPP had broken any other federal laws, he didn’t say so.

But who needs the law when you can just race bait? Hannity went on to complain it was “no surprise” Holder wasn’t investigating the New Black Panther Party because (no surprise here, either) of that old Fox News chestnut, the so-called voter intimidation case Holder declined to prosecute against the NBPP.

Hannity was assisted in his race-baiting by one of his regular helpers, Michelle Malkin. With a brief detour to demonize Holder for opposing more restrictive voter I.D. laws (that will inhibit minority voting) and some of the draconian state immigration laws, Malkin spat, “This is somebody who used the phrase, ‘my people’ which is codeword… (for) the kind of people that he stood with today: race hustlers like Al Sharpton who have hosted other race hustlers like the New Black Panther Party which, as you mentioned, got special dispensation from this Justice Department.”

Sorry, Michelle, but no matter how hard you sneer, it doesn’t make it so. None other than the conservative vice chair of the Commission on Civil Rights wrote about attacks on Holder over the NBPP case: There are plenty of grounds on which to sharply criticize the attorney general — his handling of terrorism questions, just for starters — but this particular overblown attack threatens to undermine the credibility of his conservative critics.” 

But again, who needs law or a lawyer when you can race bait?

Hannity said, “Alright, he’s looking into civil rights, potential civil rights violations of George Zimmerman (sic, Hannity seems to have meant by George Zimmerman) but he hasn’t said anything about the New Black Panther Party. And let’s play that tape and this is just one of many, this is just the most recent comments by the New Black Panther Party. And then we gotta ask the question, why not look for civil rights violations here when there’s a bounty on the head of an individual who’s not been proven guilty yet?”

Malkin didn’t spend a moment considering whether or not any actual federal laws had been broken. Nevertheless, she said, “These questions need to be asked and it is considered brave now to ask these questions because just by asking them, you’ll be met with an onslaught of accusations of being a racist or a white supremacist.”

No, Michelle, it’s not because you asked the questions, it’s because you and Hannity can’t be bothered to find an answer before you leap to race baiting. And I’m not even counting your book defending racial profiling.