WHO IS AL SHARPTON?

Al Sharpton came to Jena, Louisiana Sunday, to lead a protest and speak at the Trout Creek Baptist Church, reports the Town Talk (See here). But, does Al Sharpton truly seek equal justice, or is he a racist himself seeking his own fame? Shapton told the church crowd:

• "You cannot have some boys assault and charged with nothing, some boys hanging nooses and finish the school year and other boys charged with attempted murder and conspiracy. That's two levels of justice, and two levels of justice is an injustice," Sharpton said as the crowd cheered and clapped." id.

But let's look closer at Al's faulty legal assumptions. An assault, in Louisiana, is defined as:

• LSA-R.S. 14:36. Assault defined: Assault is an attempt to commit a battery, or the intentional placing of another in reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery.

"Assault is sometimes defined as an attempted battery, but may also include the intentional creation in another of reasonable fear of receiving a battery." State v. Dauzat, 392 So.2d 393 (La., 1980). While hanging the nooses in the tree was probably malicious and insulting, could Black students at Jena High reasonable believe that they would be hung? Whether that belief existed or not, such is no defense the Jena six beating the White student. I read no quotes from Sharpton condemning the beating of the White student. There were legal options available to the Black students offended by the nooses, beating someone was not one of them. Despite having been convicted by a jury, Sharpton told the Jena crowds "Gov. Blanco ought to be prepared to do whatever is necessary, if for some reason "» Mychal is not released,". Is this the equal justice Sharpton has in mind, that someone convicted of a batter should be set free simply because that convicted criminal is Black? Now that is racism.

But Sharpton's past activities show that he is a racist himself, and does not seek true equality or justice for anyone. Here are some of Sharpton's past antics:

• In April 2007, the New York Post, it was reported that Sharpton stated "Obama never did anything for the community, never worked with anybody from the community, that nobody knows the people around him, that he's a candidate driven by white leadership." (See Wikipedia here).


• November 28, 1987, Tawana Brawley, a 15-year-old black girl, claimed she had been assaulted and raped by six white men, some of them police officers. Sharpton accused the Dutchess County prosecutor, Steven Pagones, of racism and of being one of the perpetrators of the alleged abduction and rape. A jury later determined that Brawley had fabricated the rape story, and Pagones successfully sued Sharpton for slander. id.


• "On August 19, 1991, the Crown Heights Riot occurred after a car accident, involving the motorcade for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, left a young boy named Gavin Cato dead. A riot was sparked after a private Hasidic ambulance came to the scene and, on the orders of a police officer, removed the Hasidic driver from the scene. Gavin and his cousin Angela were picked up soon after by a city ambulance. Caribbean-American and African-American residents of the neighborhood then rioted for four consecutive days fueled by rumors. May accuse Sharpton for fueling the riot when he made speaches saying "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house" and referring to Jews as "diamond merchants." id.


• In 1995, Sharpton led a protest in Harlem against the plans of a black Pentecostal Church, the United House of Prayer, which owned the retail property on 125th Street to ask Fred Harari, the Jewish tenant who operated Freddie's Fashion Mart to evict his longtime subtenant, a black record store, The Record Shack. Sharpton told the protesters, "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business." Roland J. Smith Jr., one of the protesters, entered the store with a gun and flammable liquid, shot several Jewish customers and employees inside the store and burned it down. He killed seven in the store, and himself. id.


• In November 2005, Sharpton appeared in advertisements for LoanMax, an automobile title loan company. Sharpton was criticized for appearing in the ads, as LoanMax has been accused of predatory lending charging fees, and for marketing them to primarily poor, urban and African American audiences. The ads featuring Sharpton were run in predominantly African American markets. id.


• Sharpton also rushed into the ill-fated Dule Lacrosse case, saying, "I know this DA is probably not one that is crazy. He would not have proceeded if he did not feel that he could convict. So it tells me that all of what you said is either not true or he has convincing evidence that would certainly knock that out." The North Carolina Attorney General, who replaced him, dropped charges against the accused players in April 2007 and declared that they were innocent, in light of inconsistencies in Ms. Mangum's accounts of events and the lack of any evidence supporting her claims. Nifong was disbarred in June 2007 for unethical conduct in the case, including making misleading statements concerning DNA evidence to judges and defense attorneys. id.


• Jumping headlong into the April, 2007, Don Imus affair, some, including The Kansas City Star journalist Jason Whitlock, have criticized Sharpton for using the situation "to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda" when he should instead be focusing on other issues like the effects of hip-hop culture such as gangsta rap. Whitlock further accused Sharpton and Jesse Jackson of "exploiting [the Rutger's women's basketball team], making [...] the problems much bigger than what they should be." Former Imus in the Morning producer Bernard McGuirk, on 5/11/07 referred to the Rev. Sharpton as a "crude ... opportunist, a race baiter" who campaigned against Don Imus to help his own career and raise his profile." id.


• Sharpton was quoted as saying to an audience at Kean College in 1994 that, “White folks was in caves while we was building empires ... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.” id.


• In May, 2007, Sharpton said, of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation." id.


• The Catholic League compared Sharpton to Don Imus, and said that his remarks "should finish his career". id.

We can clearly see that Al Sharpton is a racist opportunist, that came to Jena for no reason other reason than his own self-promotion. The Black residents of Jena, and the press, swallowed Sharpton's publicity seeking hook, line and sinker.