Rev. Al Sharpton (C) and Martin Luther King III (C-R) march around the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. to protest hate crimes, November 16, 2007 (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

by Frank James

New Attorney General Michael Mukasey, just a week into the job, got a visit from a welcome wagon committee of a few thousand people led by his fellow New Yorker, civil-rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton.

Sharpton was in Washington to lead a protest march that was essentially a continuation of the march that occurred in Jena, La. last month to protest the harsh sentences meted out to six young African American men who beat a white youth in retaliation for anti-black acts that took place during a period of escalating racial tensions in Jena.

It's unclear how many protesters showed up for today's demonstration which was publicized on popular black radio shows like those hosted by Tom Joyner and Steve Harvey. The organizers said they had 100 busloads. Suffice it to say it was enough people to leave an impression.

The marchers called for stronger hate-crime enforcement against acts like noose-hangings, a spate of which has caught the attention of the media whose focus is likely spurring some copycat attention.

Stronger federal-hate crime enforcement probably wouldn't have accomplished much in Jena, however, since the nooses were hung by juveniles who were too young to be susceptible to federal law anyway.

Mukasey issued a statement meant to mollify the protestors. It more than likely didn't since African-Americans aren't about to give the Bush Administration the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting their civil-rights, especially at this late date.

“In recent months, there have been reports of nooses and other symbols of racial and religious hate appearing in schools, work places, and neighborhoods across the country. These symbols of hate have no place in our great county. As part of the Justice Department’s racial threats initiative, the Department – including the Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Federal Bureau of Investigation – is working in partnership with state and local law enforcement and civil rights organizations to investigate aggressively dozens of noose-hangings and other recent racially and religiously motivated threats around the country. In order to be most effective, these investigations do not occur in the public eye.

“The Justice Department shares with those who demonstrate today their objective of bringing to justice those who commit criminal acts of hate; it shares their vision of eradicating hate in our society. At the same time, the Department must follow the law and the principles of federal prosecution in every case it investigates and prosecutes. Although there are limitations and challenges in bringing successful hate crimes prosecutions, the Department takes each case seriously, and is prepared to vindicate the rights of the victims when prosecution is warranted by the facts and by federal law.

“The mission of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is as vital today as when it was created 50 years ago. Those who march today should be commended for highlighting the issues of tolerance and civil liberties. We hope that all can agree that it is the criminals who commit violent acts of hate who deserve the loudest protest. And as long as hatred and racism exist, the Justice Department will continue its hard and effective work on behalf of all victims of hate crimes.”

While Mukasey's statement was meant to be anodyne, Sen. Hillary Clinton issued a statement meant to fire up her African-American base. She wanted to remind those who care about the Justice Department's civil-rights mission that during the Bush Administration, the division within the agency responsible for prosecuting such cases has allegedly atrophied. Indeed, in the area of voting disrimination, to pick one example, the civil-rights division has appeared to show more interest in a Mississippi case where blacks were said to have discriminated against whites than the more typical case of whites discriminating against blacks.

Here's Sen. Clinton's campaign statement:

“Today, thousands of men and women from across the country gathered to march on the Department of Justice to deliver an important message to the President - the Justice Department needs to get back to the business of protecting our civil rights, defending our Constitution and the rule of law, and after seven years of neglect, proving that its mission is the evenhanded and vigorous enforcement of our laws.

“The Administration's misplaced priorities have resulted in a slow and inadequate response to alarming reports of racially charged incidents across the country. The Jena Six case was a stark example. For too long, the Department of Justice failed to confront the serious questions of injustice, inequality and intolerance raised by the troubling events in Jena. But Jena is not an isolated case. As we continue to hear about crimes of hate and intolerance, we have every reason to be skeptical of how the Bush Justice Department will respond.

“When we take back the White House, we will have a lot of work to do.

“We'll need to restore professionalism to - and remove partisanship and ideology from - DOJ's Civil Rights Division. We'll need to modernize our hate crimes laws -- and truly enforce them. We'll need to strengthen our voting laws so that every citizen can fully exercise his or her constitutional right to vote. And we'll need to recommit the Department of Justice to the fundamental mission of protecting our citizens' civil rights.”

(Inset photo by photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)