Bishop E.W. Jackson said in a statement released Monday that Al Sharpton, whom Jackson referred to as “one of the most divisive figures in America,” should not be allowed to preach the eulogy for Tyre Nichols who, police charge, was beaten to death by five, now former, Memphis police officers.
“If the facts as we now know them are proved in a court of law, the former police officers deserve life in prison for their callousness and depraved indifference to human life,” Jackson, president and founder of STAND – Staying True to America’s National Destiny, said in a press statement, adding the current situation does not concern a racial issue, but one of “humanity,” which should be a source of unity rather than division.
As The Tennessee Star reported, the five former Memphis police officers who have been charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’ death were members of a Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods (SCORPION) unit created by Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn Davis and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland (D).
The 40-member SCORPION unit, which was noted to have a history of violence, questionable training, and poor oversight, has now reportedly been “permanently deactivated.”
Nichols, the five former police officers charged in his beating death, and Police Chief Davis, are all black.
Jackson explained why he views Sharpton as a poor choice to highlight the issues involved in Nichols’ beating death:
Al Sharpton is one of the most divisive figures in America. He is a racial demagogue, a liar and a Democrat partisan. Nobody thinks of him as a man of decency, honor or compassion. He is a con-man who would elbow his mother out of the way to get in front of a camera. He brings nothing but distrust and destruction in his wake. The black community needs leaders to bring police and the community together to stop the epidemic of crime that is taking thousands of black lives annually.
In his statement, Jackson lamented the 315 children who have been murdered in inner city violence since 2020. These cases, he alleged, have received “no attention” because the children haven’t been “killed by police or ‘white supremacists.’”
The bishop cited data showing murders of black victims have increased by 25% annually since 2019.
A report in April at Fox News observed FBI data showed black murders soared by 32 percent in 2020, compared to the previous year, and by 43 percent, compared to the 10-year average.
The report noted the riots throughout the nation at the time in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and movements calling to defund the police in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Jackson rebuked both the black leaders usually hailed by the establishment media and the discredited Black Lives Matter organization.
“The only time black lives matter to these people is if a cop is involved in the death,” the bishop asserted. “Forty times more black adults and children are killed by black criminals who mostly get away with it. The lives of these black victims apparently don’t matter.”
Fox News reported in its story the BLM organization “was silent when approached for comment on 2020’s skyrocketing number of Black murders and experts citing BLM and the defund the police movements for contributing to the deaths.”
Sharpton said race is still a central issue in the beating death of Nichols, stating the black former officers charged are a “disgrace to our race,” the New York Post reported.
“Do you think ‘cause you were black we wouldn’t say nothing?” Sharpton reportedly said at a rally at his National Action Network headquarters in Harlem. “Did you think that you’d hide behind your blackness?”
“I want to say loud and clear that we will fight black cops, white cops, any color cops that commit crimes against us,” he said. “Your blackness ain’t gonna stop us from fighting you. These five cops not only disgrace their badges — they disgrace our race.”
Sharpton charged that the officers would not have been as aggressive if Nichols was white, according to the report.
“These black guys thought they could get away with it doing it to a black guy,” he accused. “You know you couldn’t get away with doing that in Tennessee to a white guy. You’ll find out you ain’t getting away with it doing it to a black guy.”
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “E.W. Jackson” by E.W. Jackson. Photo “Al Sharpton” by Reverend Al Sharpton. Background Photo “Memphis Street” by Thomas R Machnitzki. CC BY-SA 3.0.
