‘Slim Shady’ Al — look who benefits from Sharpton’s work

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 02 September 2014 | 18.18

Late last month, as the Rev. Al Sharpton was marching in the streets of Staten Island and preaching in a church in St. Louis, I couldn't help but think of Antonio Smith — a 9-year-old boy gunned down by gang members in Chicago the week before.

Antonio should be in school this week; instead, he's six feet under — almost exactly a year after Sharpton pledged to rent an apartment on the Windy City's West Side, spend two days a week walking children to school and lead a high-profile challenge to Chicago's young black men to end that city's horrific black-on-black crime.

Needless to say, Sharpton's pledge came to nothing. He spent a few days in Chicago over a few months, then moved on to more lucrative work.

This is why I call him "Slim Shady" Sharpton, after Eminem's alter-ego. The Rev is far more svelte than in his Tawana Brawley days, but he's still just as dubious a character.

At that black church in St. Louis, the whole nation watched as "Slim" said, "I am not a hater I am a healer."

Then his shady side emerged as he announced his plans to march on Washington, DC, to force America to start dealing with police brutality.

All I could hear were his National Action Network's cash registers singing and ringing with newfound donations from his solicitations to support his efforts.

As he left the church, he was followed by a phalanx of lawyers who've turned police-brutality lawsuits into a cottage industry.

Last September, when Sharpton made his Chicago pledge, I thought just maybe he was turning the corner, moving beyond just blaming brutal police for the problems of young black men.

Move there and lead a crusade within the community? This is gutsy, I thought, and will require a lot of heavy lifting by The Rev.

The murder rate in Chicago is about four times the rate here in New York City — and in both towns, the victims are mostly minorities. Going into the holiday weekend, the Windy City has already seen 282 homicides this year, 241 from guns; with about three times the population, we'd had "just" 185.

Remember, the president and first lady, with continued trips back to their home town, have failed to make any progress on this front. Attorney General Eric Holder's efforts have brought no reduction in this violence.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who lives in Chicago, has failed to stem the endless executions of young black males by other young black males there. Louis Farrakhan and the Southside-based Nation of Islam have failed to stem the flow of blood.

At his wake, Antonio Smith was called a "gentle child." At the scene of his murder, Chicago police investigators were met by the code of the streets: "Snitches get stitches and end up in ditches."

Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, suggested that gang members take their crime off the streets and corners and take it to the back alleys.

Yet he has prevented his NYPD-trained police commissioner, Garry McCarthy, from implementing stop-and-frisk or the proven "broken windows" anti-crime strategy.

In the wake of all this failure, Al Sharpton was going to try to end Chicago's plague of black-on-black crime.

I was disappointed but not surprised when The Rev's Chicago campaign petered out into nothing.

Instead, "Slim Shady" has returned to his roots — blaming police brutality for spreading fear in the black community and not blaming black gang members who roll up with guns drawn and demand of other black males, "Hands up: It's your money or your life!"

Yet all Sharpton's rallies, marches and protests will have no impact on the black gangbangers in the streets of Chicago who have declared war on their own community.

On the other hand, fund-raisers for combating black-on-black crime won't meet the needs of civil-rights groups like The Rev's, nor of the army of civil-rights attorneys who'll get a third of nothing even if they win civil suits against organized black gangs.

Back here on Staten Island, it would've been nice to hear the Rev. Al or any of the speakers recall the execution of two black undercover NYPD cops, Dets. James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews, just blocks away a few years ago by a black thug named Ronell Wilson.

The cops were trying to take guns off the streets of the North Shore — that is, working to prevent black-on-black crime.

Sharpton's silence was deafening at the time of this execution of black police officers by a black thug.

So forgive me if every time I hear Al Sharpton scream out, "No Justice, No Peace," I hear him saying it's all about "just us" and getting "a piece" of the action for the lawyers in the police-brutality civil-rights business.

Curtis Sliwa is the founder and president of the Guardian Angels, which has a very active Chicago chapter.


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