Sharpton's Solution: Shut Down New York City

From the AP comes this report.

Hundreds of angry people marched through Harlem on Saturday after the Rev. Al Sharpton promised to "close this city down" to protest the acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed a groom on his wedding day and wounded two friends.

"We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians," Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattan neighborhood. "This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell."

I do not know enough about the facts to form an opinion on who is accountable in this case. Even the media has presented inconsistencies, sufficient enough to create some confusion. Is there a possibility that some policemen are trigger happy and out of control at times? The answer is yes. Is it possible that this man was drunk and may have intended to run over the policemen? Another yes.

The real question that should be presenting itself (at this point in the time continuum) is not hard to figure out: What will shutting down the city accomplish?

It will not bring the dead back to life and it will not change the verdict. The policemen have been acquitted, they cannot be retried. There is nothing anyone in NYC can do about this and to suggest otherwise would be throwing out the Constitution, which protects against double jeopardy. So, it becomes somewhat unclear what a boycott against the city of New York would accomplish, unless the goal is purely punitive.

If this is accurate and becomes the case, what would the people that must live and work in NYC be able to do about this?

The answer is nothing. So, what recourse is left?

First, the family could petition and lobby for federal civil rights charges to be filed. But with the inconsistencies already evident, this may be a tougher mountain to climb than it sounds.

Then, there is the possibility there is a case for civil action. NYC is full of blood-sucking lawyers that would love nothing more than to win a judgment like this, because it will mean money in their pockets. This will be easier than the state criminal and federal court course of action. But even so, it's still not a slam dunk.

So in spite of all this, shutting down NYC (as Sharpton suggests) is still not going to be of much value. The feds will need to make the determination whether or not there was enough evidence of a civil rights violation. Shutting down the Big Apple will not likely sway them. The family members of Mr. Bell are free to file a wrongful death lawsuit if they wish. Forcing the city to its knees will not make any difference either.

The only thing I can come up with in this is (once again) painfully obvious: Al Sharpton, being the media whore he has always been, has another golden opportunity to get his name in the news. He has another chance to flex his influential muscles and take attention away from things that are of much greater importance in this world and have the spotlight shine on him.

But that's not all, let us consider another variable to this equation.

By virtue of the fact that out of 10 million people that live in the city, only hundreds showed up at his little hissy-fit convention, it should be clear that not all people are going to think this is the proper way to handle this. Not all share his outrage, as is apparent in this NYT article. That being said, it is highly understandable that the family of Mr. Bell is hurting. Not only did they lose him once, they feel like they lost him again when the officers were acquitted. This is not an unusual occurrence in the course of the grieving process.

But Rev. Sharpton (being a minister) should also realize this and should have some compassion for them in this matter. Instead of counseling them how to best go about resolving the wounds created by this whole ordeal, he is doing them no favors by making a public spectacle of this case. His threats do nothing to heal, nor will their grief be eased by shutting down a city of 10 million people. Instead of facilitating the effective healing of these wounds, he is picking the scabs of those very same wounds.

All of this boils down to one very simple thing. Not only has Al long been considered a race baiter and a media whore, we can now add scab-picker to the long list of names he has acquired for himself.