It was inevitable: Al Sharpton to eulogize George Floyd

It had to happen. The only strange thing is that it took so long! When I first wrote about the inevitable "protests" (read: race riots) that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop (see "There's gonna be riotin', by George!", WWW 28/5/20), I said "The 'Reverend' Al Sharpton is expected to jet into the Twin Cities today to add his voice of reason to the clamour."

If you don't know who "Reverend Al" is, Google his name + Tawana Brawley. Way back in 1987, Ms Brawley, then a black teenager (no longer a teen but still black), said she had been raped and kidnapped by a group of white men in Dutchess County, NY. Her story of being attacked, scrawled with racial slurs, smeared with feces and left beside a road wrapped in a plastic bag made front pages across the nation, especially after "Reverend Al" took up her case.

Unfortunately for him and for her, a special state grand jury later determined that Ms Brawley had fabricated her claims, perhaps to avoid punishment for staying out late. In 1998, Steven Pagones, who was the county prosecutor at the time, won a defamation suit against Mr Sharpton, Ms Brawley and her attorneys, who had accused Pagones of being among Brawley's attackers.

NPR quotes the Village Voice as saying that "Sharpton has since paid off his [$65,000] debt with money raised by his supporters." Ms Brawley was ordered to pay $190,000, which, with interest, had grown to a debt of more than $430,000 by 2013. By that time, Mr Pagones had received about $3700, less than 1% of what he was owed. How much has been paid since is a mystery.

But I digress. I was talking about the latest appearance of "Reverend Al". I was only wrong about the timing. (Lifetime pct .980.) He is at the top of the card -- chief eulogist -- for the memorial service for George Floyd, which will take place at North Central University in Minneapolis at 1300 CDT. The family's lawyer, Algonquin J. Calhoun, will also speak. Don't miss it.