Donald Trump has repeatedly disassociated himself from David Duke, even though he was never really associated with the white supremacist anyway.
So maybe it is time for Hillary Clinton to disavow the cop-killer cartoons published by the now-defunct Yale law journal when she served on the editorial board as a student. But is she willing to offend Black Lives Matter?
If pressed this could be her Sister Souljah moment.
Veteran civil libertarian Norman Siegel, who has sued cops for decades, told the Washington Gadfly that Clinton has an “obligation” to say whether or not she had any direct knowledge of the cartoons.
“We gotta get some answers.”
The cartoons were first exposed by the American Spectator during the 1992 presidential campaign. This reporter drew attention to them during her 2000 Senate campaign in articles for the American Enterprise magazine and JewishWorldReview.com.
Nothing online indicates that Hillary ever disavowed the cartoons, let alone explained what role, if any, she played in their publication. But the Spectator reported that Clinton was actively involved in editing another article. And one of her Yale Law School classmates told me it was inconceivable any of the careerist students would put their name on a journal without carefully monitoring what they published.
The Yale Review of Law and Social Action, since defunct, was founded as a left-wing alternative to the school’s law review.
The cartoons appeared in the Review’s special double issue on the 1970 and 1971 trial of several Black Panthers for torturing and murdering one of their fellow panthers. They accompany an article on the police raid of the Panther New Haven headquarters. One shows several pigs marching with guns and oinking, with a thought bubble that says “niggers” 8 times.
The other shows a pig cop with his head shot off. The Black Panther slogan, “Seize the Time” is written above. Another cartoon shows a wounded cop pig and suggests he had it coming. The accompanying text explained that a pig is “a foul depraved traducer.”
Hillary campaign press secretary Brian Fallon did not reply to a tweeted request for comment.
The Fraternal Order of Police executive director James Pasco also was radio silent. Maybe he didn’t get my emails yet. Or maybe, like almost everybody else in DC, he is loathe to address anything messy without mainstream press coverage.
But retired NYPD officer David Kohlmeier says police officers need to know whether the cartoons reflect her views before they vote in November.
Note: These cartoons are my personal property. I copied them from a bound library volume of the Review. They are not online. Anybody who wishes to re-publish should send a pooper scooper to WaPo media blogger Erik Wemple.
Here are some possibilities from Amazon.
Otherwise, you do not have my permission to post. Seriously.