Loretta Lynch, the new U.S. attorney general, came home to North Carolina on Wednesday with messages of thanks to a hometown crowd that stood behind her during the protracted confirmation process and offers of federal support to local efforts to fight discrimination, hate crimes and human trafficking.
For the first time since being sworn in as the first African-American female to lead the U.S. Department of Justice, Lynch visited Raleigh and Durham, the city where she spent 12 years of her childhood, to meet with law enforcement officers, civil rights leaders and community advocates.
After making a big splash globally during her first month on the job – with the arrest of FIFA executives and corruption charges that rocked the international soccer world – Lynch spoke on Wednesday about her priorities at home.
At a civil rights roundtable discussion at N.C. Central University’s law school in Durham, Lynch talked about violence directed at houses of worship and federal resources available to help make those sacred places more secure.
She mentioned the investigation into the killings of Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha.
Lynch spoke of the killings in Charleston, S.C., in June and called hate crimes “the original domestic terrorism.”
She stressed her support for “protecting every American’s right to vote,” referencing the lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department against North Carolina election law changes adopted in 2013.
Lynch was joined at the N.C. Central law school discussion by her father, the Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, a preacher who led churches in Greensboro and Durham during the civil rights era.
She mentioned the historic stall between her nomination in November by President Barack Obama and the Senate confirmation vote in late April.
“During some of those days that seemed longer than most, it really was wonderful to know that I had the support of home,” Lynch said to the group in Durham. “There’s no place like that.”
Lynch, a Durham High School graduate who left home for Harvard University in the late 1970s, rose up through the ranks of the U.S. Justice Department as a prosecutor who, for much of her career, was able to push high-profile cases but escape the media glare.
That no longer is the case.
On Wednesday, when the Rolling Stones were scheduled to perform live at Raleigh’s PNC Arena, renowned photographer Annie Liebovitz had her camera focused on Lynch – a new bright star.
Two magazine cover-shoots were in the works.
Those who know Lynch describe her as low-key, amiable, but tough when necessary.
Boz Zellinger, a Wake County assistant district attorney who was part of a task force meeting with Lynch in Raleigh, was impressed by her interest in eradicating human trafficking.
“I think the most impressive part was how she actively listened to what was going on in this community,” Zellinger said.
‘Modern-day slavery’
Lynch started her North Carolina stop in Raleigh in the federal courthouse where the N.C. Coalition Against Human Trafficking met.
The coalition brings together law enforcement agencies and various legal and social service organizations and individuals fighting human trafficking in North Carolina.
Lynch lauded the work as a “grassroots effort” that draws on “ingenuity and collaboration across many disciplines, organizations and professions” to fight a “complex and devastating crime.”
“The efforts you’re leading in North Carolina exemplify that cooperative and innovative approach – and illustrate its vast potential,” Lynch told several dozen people gathered for a task force meeting. “You are demonstrating the power of working together, across traditional professional lines, to bring a comprehensive approach to a daunting and urgent challenge.”
In May, Lynch noted, the Wake County Violent Crime Task Force brought together federal, state and local law enforcement officials for a two-night undercover operation that led to multiple arrests and the release of several minors who were victims of sex trafficking. She cited the case of Christopher Jason Williams, a Fayetteville man sentenced to 45 years in prison for two counts of trafficking children that came to light through a concerted approach for identifying victims that included teachers, human services providers, families and law enforcement agencies.
Lynch said it was important to go beyond the focus on catching traffickers, too, and help survivors of such crimes rebuild their lives.
“Human traffickers prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our society to exploit them for labor, for sex and for servitude of all kinds,” Lynch said.
Lynch described trafficking as “modern-day slavery” that “has no place in modern-day society.”
Many people, Lynch said, think that trafficking happens in other places, not in their communities.
“Unfortunately,” she said, “it is the invisible crime that does happen everywhere.”
Blythe: 919-836-4948;
Twitter: @AnneBlythe1
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