Will The Real Michael Brown Stand Up

First there was Tawana Brawley.  Now, there's Michael Brown.  But, there is a difference.  Tawana Brawley deserved our sympathy.  If I recall correctly, she suffered abuse at the hands of a terrible step father.  Al Sharpton turned that situation from one of trying to help a needy child, to one of attempting to besmirch the reputation of an honest prosecutor.  To some extent, the justice system worked.  A lawyer working with Al Sharpton was disbarred.  Al Sharpton was heavily fined.  But, his fine was only paid after many, many years by his supporters -- not by him.  Hiding his money is a skill well honed by the Reverend.

In the case of Michael Brown and Ferguson, the situation was quite different.  Here malcontents decided to burn the town of Ferguson because an unarmed black youth had been shot to death by a police officer.  An account of the shooting was spun to the point where it bore little resemblance to what had actually happened.  Based on this false narrative, hoodlums describing themselves as "protesters" burned local businesses, overturned cars and fought with the police.  The month of rioting culminated in the shooting of two police officers.

This miscarriage of justice did more than simply cause grievous damage to innocent Ferguson citizens.  It angered honest citizens who watched on their TVs what the protestors were doing.  What flaws exist in the system -- and there are many -- make correcting those flaws far more difficult.  We can clearly see a great many flaws such as the many black kids murdered by other black kids.  Then too, it's clear that there are communities where police culture and the lack of diversity in the police departmens need to be addressed.

But, while these flaws must be corrected, improving the system becomes far more difficult when it's reduced to "us" versus "them."  And, that's what Al Sharpton has been doing.  Sharpton may be a lot of things, but one thing he's not is a Martin Luther King.