When will Sharpton, Jackson et. al. break their silence on the Florida school bus beating?

When will Sharpton, Jackson et. al. break their silence on the Florida school bus beating?

Trayvon-rally---Staten-IslandToday, a 50-x-8-foot commemorative mural titled “We Are All Trayvon Martin” is to be unveiled at the Florida Statehouse in Tallahassee. The event will also mark the end of a month-long vigil by a group called the Dream Defenders, who are out to change Florida law, which is currently discriminatory against black youths.

Smart money says self-styled civil rights leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will be on hand for the solemn festivities.

In all likelihood representatives from the NAACP will also be in attendance, as possibly will entertainers Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z, both of whom are boycotting the state of Florida over its stand your ground law.

Today marks another Florida milestone. It was exactly one month ago today that a 13-year-old was so savagely beaten by three older teens on a school bus in Pinellas County that medical experts said he would have likely died had police not intervened. Yet, Sharpton, Jackson, and the others have not said one word about the vicious assault. The elite media, so eager to jump into the fray surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin, have likewise been tongue-tied.

What accounts for the reticence? One mitigating factor may be the fact that the victim was white. Another is almost certainly the fact that the perpetrators of the beating are black.

Fox News reports that former congressman and ex-Army Colonel Allen West has questioned the silence. West wrote on his Facebook page:

Three 15-yr-old black teens beat up a 13-yr-old white kid because he told school officials they tried to sell him drugs. Do you hear anything from Sharpton, Jackson, NAACP, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, liberal media, or Hollywood? Cat got your tongues or is it that pathetic hypocrisy revealing itself once again? Y’all just make me sick.

Robert Zimmerman Jr., who faced a torrent of deadly threats and criticism over his defense of his brother George and the fact that the two share a common bloodline, also spoke up, tweeting:

It’s time 2 ‘unplug’ their mic if U ask me…“@JimmieFleek: @rzimmermanjr @TheRevAl @RevJJackson apparently racism only works one way?

Fox notes that one of the individuals from whom they solicited comment did react. That was Rev. Manuel Sykes, president of the St. Petersburg chapter of the NAACP, who said his group is monitoring the bus beating story closely. “We would want to see if any and all information out there has determined if there are any disparities,” he said.

In other words, the reverend is taking a calm and measured approach to the story rather than rushing to judgment. That is to be commended, one supposes. It would have been no less commendable had his fellow NAACP members, Sharpton, and Jackson taken it in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing.

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Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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