I just got off of a very long flight and was just doing some midnight email clean up when the following statement from Tamika Mallory the Decency Initiative Chief for the National Action Network popped into my email box. I saw who the sender was and figured it would be some foolishness based on our numerous run ins and she never fails underwhelm. I am actually embarrassed to print what she wrote because of how inaccurate the following statement is, but hey--- she wants y'all to read it ( THAT SHOULD SCARE YOU!)
Let me explain what is happening, YOU ARE BEING SUCCESSFUL! Keep sending .this email to everyone you know Every day more members of the media are inquiring about this lunacy and I figure a few of them have begun to ask the National Action Network some questions in addition the West Palm Beach NAACP. Also if you know anyone in Memphis, TN the National Action Network will be there all of next week so make sure you forward the email to as many media outlets in the Memphis area as possible so they can ask Rev. Sharpton to "clarify" his statements since he is now claiming that he was misunderstood.
Let's also be clear that the organizers of the letter writing campaign were VERY DELIBERATE --they have kept records of the fact that BEFORE the letter writing campaign was launched last Friday that they made multiple attempts to contact both the West Palm Beach NAACP, NAACP National Headquarters and the National Action Network. In fact, the National Action Network requested a letter from one of the organizers and she supplied it. In addition I know for a fact that readers of over a dozen blogs were calling them for over a week before the mass email campaign was launched so any assertion that Rev. Sharpton did not receive a call is a lie or a delusion. I am saying all of that to demonstrate just how detached from reality the following statement by Tamika Mallory is. Regular readers know that this ain't our first tango with the Reverend's staffers so we knew exactly what what they were going to trying to pull--- obfuscation and redirection-- and we prepared for that occasion.
Here is a clue, instead of defending your boss to the death by launching cross complaints of MISREPRESENTATION, perhaps you should have clarified Rev. Sharpton's statement if you feel he was misunderstood, however, I think his statement speaks for itself. He is asking for the release of the accused rapists without citing a single statute, rules, case, or FACT which requires it other than he thinks its unfair because some people in a completely UNRELATED case with UNRELATED FACTS and UNRELATED CHARGES got bond.
So Ms. Mallory wanted the undivided attention of my blog readers, well her wish is my command. IF any of the other individuals involved in this matter want free space on What About Our Daughters, I will be more than happy to oblige, heck you can have the whole two hours of the podcast on Thursday as well because the more you speak, the less I have to.
Statement from Tamika Mallory
As National Director of the National Action Network’s Decency Initiative I write to refute statements made in a letter circulating on the internet that completely distort Reverend Sharpton’s position on the Dunbar Village rape case.
First, the National Action Network and Reverend Al Sharpton have advocated against any form of violence or degradation against women since its inception. In fact, in January of this year Rev. Sharpton personally visited Dunbar Village with William Franklyn Richardson, III, president of our Florida chapter, to denounce the living conditions there and the rape and violence that occurred against the victim and her son. He pledged to return and spend the night in Dunbar to hopefully further expose the living conditions that create an environment for such acts of violence to go unchallenged, but due to a storm on the night of his scheduled visit, we have rescheduled the sleep-in to mid April.
Rev. Sharpton’s January visit to Dunbar was widely reported, which is why it is strange to me that anyone would feel that his subsequent statements with the NAACP would be any different from his original statement in January. If there was confusion, one would think a person would at least call us to inquire before jumping to a self serving attack on a position we never took.
Rev. Sharpton was in Florida three weeks ago as part of a tour to make sure the Florida and Michigan delegates of the Democratic Convention, would not be seated since primaries were unfairly held in January. While in Florida, the local NAACP chapter asked him to appear at a press conference where they alleged that since the Dunbar Village incident, the local prosecutor had not held several young whites in a neighboring city who had gang raped a young girl, to the same standard that the assailants in Dunbar are facing. Their point was to underscore how the local prosecutor will not treat whites who have committed a deplorable act the same way they treat blacks. Reverend Sharpton attended and made it clear that he thinks both acts were heinous and deplorable and that both groups should be punished to the full extent of the law. He in no way excused, justified, or called for leniency in the case of the black assailants.
Whether it was Tawana Brawley, several years ago, who many didn’t believe or Meagan Williams, today, who many have forgotten, Reverend Sharpton has stood against women being violated and has supported with resources and his presence our Decency Initiative which is part of his national civil right’s organization. The Decency Initiative has been fighting against the violent and misogynistic language against women. He has done this to the chagrin of many of his supporters and many of his friends in the entertainment industry.
For anyone to distort his position and then attack it without even a phone call and to seemingly and purposely omit the fact that the press conference was about the white kids being treated with kid gloves for the same despicable act is in itself sexist. All women of all communities should expect the law to protect them and we should at least check with those that put themselves on the line for us before we rush to judge a distorted story.
Rev. Sharpton is no stranger to the causes of black women and he should at least be given the benefit of doubt before we accuse him, particularly when it is not true.
I trust that all responsible will correct this misrepresentation…
In the Dunbar Village case, four teens are charged with armed sexual battery for the June crime where they allegedly forced the woman at gunpoint to have sex multiple times, including with her son. Police say the teens then used cleaning agents on the victims afterwards in an attempt to cover their crimes, including stuffing a bar of soap inside the woman. They face possible life in prison.
In the Boca case, five teens are charged with sexual battery on a helpless person because the then 13- and 14-year-old female victims had downed repeated shots of vodka . SOURCE
Am I the only one that see some GLARING DISTINCTIONS in these two cases that have absolutely nothing to do with the race of the defendants or am I missing something? It is breathtaking that the National Action Network brain trust can't seem to comprehend the difference between a home invasion by masked gunmen who torture, rape, sodomize, cut, burn, and beat their victims for THREE HOURS and culminate the event with a crime against nature committed against a 12 year old child (which gets a completely separate charge in Florida-Sexual Performance of a Child) and a case involving NONE of of those facts. Nope, I ain't the only person who can see the distinction.
Let's be clear that in case any of the regulars have noticed, I have not fired off any of my characteristic 10 page rants since this has cropped up because A) I've learned a thing or two over the past year B) I really do think this could be resolved without it looking like something out of romper room and C) I didn't want the "tone" of anything I might say to take away from the ultimate issue, that Al Sharpton and the NAACP called a press conference to distort the severity of the facts in the Dunbar Village case by saying OUTRIGHT that it was analogous to another crime in Boca Raton Florida. Again, do your own research about the two crimes. Do not take my word for it.
That joint NAACP and National Action Network press conference was a brazen, reckless act undermining the criminal prosecution of a very serious crime without a single fact, rule, law or legal precedent to support their assertions that these defendants are in anyway being treated unfairly. I have actually been deliberately holding back and encouraging others to do so because unlike Ms. Mallory who is trying to obfuscate and redirect attention away from the real issues in this case, I really do want people to focus on a serious problem we have with African American leadership as it relates to this issue. The fact that she continues to say that the Boca case and the Dunbar Village case are the same might point to the heart of the problem. You can click your ruby slippers three times and make a wish, but these two cases are not the same, the fact that you can't grasp that rather simple concept makes me very sad... for you.
[T]the West Palm Beach Branch participated in a recent press conference of Reverend Al Sharpton who addressed disparities in the criminal justice system specific to the cases regarding the four Black juvenile defendants in the Dunbar Village case and the five white juvenile defendants in the Boca Raton case .Upon the request of Reverend Sharpton, I welcomed and introduced Reverend Sharpton. My introductory comments were prefaced by a statement that we were assembled not to discuss or make judgments on the guilt or innocence of the defendants, but simply to call for fair and just treatment in all phases of the criminal justice system for the Dunbar Village defendants including fairness in interrogation, bonding, charging, and adequate and effective representation. Portion of Letter from Maude Ford Lee, President of West Palm Beach NAACP to the Director of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP
Hmm Tamika says the NAACP asked him to appear. The NAACP is saying things were done at Sharpton's request. Now somebody is
Our kids are incarcerated, they can't even get a bond and it's unconscionable what is happening. SOURCE-Sun Sentinel
Mind you the press conference happened IN FRONT OF the PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE. Now that sounds like a bit more than "simply to call for fair and just treatment in all phases of the criminal justice system ." If you are going to say their treatment is unconscionable, then at least provide a fact, a figure, an inference. Look at all of the other defendants that get denied bond in Florida.
I can assure you that I am not alone. I can't even claim to be the engine of this freight train. This is a diffused amorphous effort designed to hit from all sides.Everyday another creative person comes up with a new tactic. Your actions are indefensible and the sooner I have to stop typing the name "Al Sharpton" on this blog, the happier I will be. You have all of the contact information of those involved. If you need more contact information, I will be more than happy to provide it to you. Just do the right thing already- if you want to know what that is because you appear confused, have one of the grown ups return a phone call.
I am sure Symphony who runs the Dunbar Village blog will have lots more to say about Tamika's assertion that Rev. Sharpton "missed" the town hall meeting in February because of "flight issues"--- this thing has more moving parts than an NIE.
