By Daniel John Sobieski
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake made all the right noises Monday night as she discussed her city’s response to the unrest enveloping it after the unexplained death while in police custody of Freddie Gray, but she lost more than a few critics willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when she said that “anyone who wants to add to the calls for peace in our city is welcome” – including Al Sharpton.

Rawlings Blake said “anyone who wants to add to the calls for peace in our city is welcome. I would – if Reverend Sharpton wants to come, parents want to encourage their children to, you know, act within the law, I met with young people this afternoon, young people who want peace, young people who want justice, they were giving their own suggestions on how young people themselves can add a voice , and try to add a sane message, a message that says ‘we don’t – not in our name that you are doing – that you are destroying our city.’ Anybody that wants to be a part of that message, I welcome it.”
If one wants to send a sane message about justice and peace, Al Sharpton is probably among the worst to call. He is an instigator, not a peacemaker, someone who rose out of obscurity by propagating the false Tawana Brawley rape case in which New York city cops were accused of raping a black teenager. Tawana Brawley paid for her part in that big lie. Al Sharpton never has.
Sharpton embraced the “hands up, don’t shoot” mantra meant to indict racist cops and police departments after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri after he committed a strong-armed robbery on his way to assaulting Officer Darren Wilson. Blessed are the peacemakers, but Al Sharpton is not one of them.
The Sharptons of the world don’t want to solve the real problems of the black community, preferring to exploit back unrest with clueless race-baiting such as when Sharpton and his National Action Network organized the “Justice for All” March in Washington, D.C. last December: