On Monday afternoon, the US Department of Justice appealed to civil rights groups and the general public across the country for “tips” on George Zimmerman in their pursuit of potential federal civil rights charges against the just-acquitted defendant in the Trayvon Martin killing. The DOJ actually went so far as to set up an e-mail address to allow such tips: Sanford.florida@usdoj.gov. The email address is slated to go operational by the end of the week.

Barbara Arnwine, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told the Orlando Sentinel that the DOJ had held a Monday conference call “calling on us to actively refer anyone who had any information” that would help build a case against Zimmerman. “They said they would very aggressively investigate this case,” Arnwine stated.

According to Arnwine, the call began at 3:30 p.m. with Tom Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States DOJ, and representatives of the FBI on the line. Several prosecutors joined the call, too.

Arnwine listed off other organizations represented on the call, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the ACLU, and several “human relations” groups.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).