The head of the Democrat party had a strange way of observing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — at the headquarters of an organization that played a role in a fatal racist and anti-Semitic hate crime in 1995.

President Joe Biden will join Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network (NAN) on Monday at their Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast, where he will deliver the keynote address. The annual event will honor Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Arndrea Waters King and other national leaders who have kept Dr. King's mission alive.

MLK Day ought to stand for America as a country for people of all races and ethnicities who share American values.  But we need to remember what Sharpton and the National Action Network did to Jewish-owned Freddy's Fashion Mart in 1995.

Hy Drusin reports,

Recently, the protesters have made motions of striking a match and throwing it on outside clothing displays or in the doorway of the store. An affidavit by Kareem Brunner, a black security guard killed in the blaze, said that he had been called a 'cracker lover' and 'would get mine as a traitor [to the black race].' …Fred Harari is called a 'cracker' by Mr. Powell and a 'white interloper' by Rev. Sharpton. It contains threats: Mr. Powell says of Fred Harari, "We gonna see that this cracker suffer."

This should become a key Republican talking point next year

There is little difference between this behavior and that of the Ku Klux Klan when the latter objected to Black people who moved into neighborhoods the KKK deemed whites-only.  The sheet-and-hood types would shower the Black people with racial slurs and threaten to burn their homes, stores, and churches.  If the Black people did not move out, the KKK acted on these threats, as did one of Sharpton's followers, who set the store on fire and murdered seven of its employees.

In a piece titled "Democrat Backing for Anti-Semitism Is Killing Jews," Daniel Greenfield draws a picture of then-speaker Pelosi at Sharpton's hate group, noting:

Unlike many contemporary hate groups, the National Action Network has the unique distinction of being the destination of choice for every major Democrat and for its role in the murder of 7 people.

Greenfield quotes Sharpton associate Morris Powell at Freddy's Fashion Mart as saying, "Don't give the Jew a dime."

This combination of racist and anti-Semitic hate speech with arson threats upon which a deranged individual acted ought to qualify the National Action Network as a hate group every bit as repulsive as the Ku Klux Klan and White Aryan Resistance, and Al Sharpton as a hatemonger just as repugnant as David Duke and Andrew Anglin.  I have often speculated that, were Al Sharpton to wake up one morning to discover that he had become a Caucasian (AKA a "cracker," per his associate Morris Powell), his first question would be how a "white interloper" got into his bedroom.  When he finally realized that he was the "white interloper," he would re-purpose his (white) sheet and pillowcase by noon and burn a cross by nightfall, because race-hustling is his only trade, and he could probably do it from either side.  If David Duke were to wake up one morning to discover he'd turned Black, he'd be Al Sharpton.

The Tawana Brawley Scandal

Freddy's Fashion Mart was but one of Sharpton's atrocities.  While the National Action Network did not exist in 1988, Sharpton and several of his associates libelously accused people in Wappingers Falls, New York of raping a teenage girl named Tawana Brawley.  Sharpton is therefore a liar, and there was a time when liars were simply not accepted in civilized societies.  The U.S. Military Academy will still wash out cadets who lie because this character defect cannot be tolerated in somebody who is responsible for the lives of American soldiers.  There was in fact a time when "giving somebody the lie" rendered the person unable to function in society unless he demanded satisfaction from his accuser, but this proved only who was the better pistol shot as opposed to who was telling the truth.  A court of law determined that Sharpton is a liar, and our society needs to treat him accordingly.

More of Sharpton's Sorry Track Record

Edward Kosner's "New York City's Kristallnacht" should meanwhile remind us of Al Sharpton's role in the incitement (although not sufficiently proximate to constitute a crime) of the Crown Heights riots, in which a Jew was murdered.  This suggests further that "no justice, no peace" is Sharptonese for "kill the Jews" because, whenever Sharpton says it, Jews and/or their employees seem to get killed.  Sharpton has also depicted Jews as "diamond merchants."

Now, tell me again what the president of the United States and the former speaker of the House were doing in the company of this individual at the headquarters of the National Action Network.

Sharpton has not limited his hate speech to Caucasians in general and Jews in particular.  He has referred to LGBT people as "punk faggots" and "Greek homos," Asians as "Chinamen," and Black people he dislikes as "yellow n------."  Black lives, meanwhile, seem to matter far less to the National Action Network than money, because the NAN has accepted money from Big Tobacco to ensure the availability of menthol cigarettes to mostly Black communities.

Republicans Must Exploit This and Black Lives Matter

The 2022 elections were ours to lose, and we managed to do so by directing credibility and resources at non-issues like specious claims of election fraud in 2020 and even discussions about impeaching Joe Biden.  I heard disturbing stories about the 2020 elections, but the bottom line is that no court has found proof of any substantial fraud that would have changed the outcome.  Biden cannot be impeached for doing a poor job; what Republicans really want is a recall election, which is not available for the presidency.

We also need to be careful what we wish for, lest we get it, because, were such an effort to actually succeed, we'd have President Giggles instead of Vice President Giggles, with her hand on the veto pen and also the nuclear launch codes.  Imagine this disaster behind the Seal of the President of the United States.

Black Lives Matter's misuse of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt resources to influence the 2020 presidential election is meanwhile a matter of record, and so is the Democrat party's association with this anti-Semitic entity.  BLM has also glorified domestic terrorists like "Mama Assata" (Joanne Chesimard), who murder law enforcement professionals, and foreign terrorists like Rasmea Odeh, who murder Jews.  The Republican Party needs to tear into this like any self-respecting dog into a pile of fresh hamburgers.  The same goes for the open association of prominent Democrats like Biden, Harris, Schumer, Pelosi, and previously Obama (who invited Sharpton to the White House) with an organization that played a major role in a fatal racist and anti-Semitic hate crime no better than what Payton Gendron pleaded guilty to doing to a Black supermarket, Dylann Roof to a Black church, Omar Mateen to a nightclub frequented by LGBT people, and Robert Bowers (allegedly until proven guilty) to a synagogue.

Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way. The author is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to "cancel culture" for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter.

Image: David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons (extracted image), CC BY-SA 3.0.