Word: sharptons
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Dates: during 1988-1988
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...Sharpton, a loud, overweight minister with a rock-star hair-do, has long been a Black activist from the pulpit and in front of the television cameras but has never been accepted or respected by well-known Black political activists in New York. Maddox and Mason are lawyers who have always been willing to take on extremely controversial cases in attempts to underlines the judicial system...
Aside from the fact that there was an actual racial crime committed in Howard Beach, the case also showed that cooperation with the authorities can get result. Sharpton, Mason and Maddox accepted the city's special prosecutor, cooperated with the his investigations and the results were manslaughter convictions against the gang of white thugs who chased a Black man to his death...
...decision was a significant event. It demonstrated that there could be justice for Blacks in New York. It also indicated that a separate special prosecutor to handle cases of a racial nature might be the best way to achieve justice. Unfortunately for the Blacks, that progress was jeopardized by Sharpton, Maddox and Mason in the Brawley case...
With the story now exposed as a hoax, Maddox and Mason are being called up before the disciplinary board of the New York State Bar Association for their accusations and face possible disbarment for knowingly subverting justice. Sharpton, although a preacher and not a lawyer, has also completely lost what little credibility he had. On the Morton Downey show, he affirmed on his Bible that everything he said about the Brawley case was true...
...Brawley lied. The tragedy is that the next Black victim of a racial crime who tells the truth may not be believed. Once someone cries wolf, it is not easy to be open-minded the next time around. It is unfortunate for all New Yorkers that the memories of Sharpton, Maddox and Mason may last far longer in New York than their careers as activists...