How much longer will we allow Al Sharpton to intimidate officials around the country? Sharpton doesn’t seem to be concerned about guilt or innocence; to him, charging any black with a crime is unfair. He wants to force an O.J. outcome to any trial involving black on white crime.

CBS News has a report on the march planned for today in Jena, Louisianna:

With as many as 50,000 demonstrators expected here by the busload from across the country, businesses, schools, even government office buildings in this small, central Louisiana town will remain closed all day, reported (CBS News Correspondent Byron) Pitts.

The Reverend Al Sharpton helped organize the march in support of six black teenagers jailed and charged in the beating of a white classmate last December. Five are charged with attempted second-degree murder. The sixth defendant’s case is under court seal because he’s a juvenile.

Sharpton told The Early Show that the case against the six black high school students is a “raw disparity of justice.”

“We didn’t bring race in it,” Sharpton told CBS News. “Those that hung the nooses brought race in it.”

The nooses that Sharpton refers to were hung in a tree at the high school by three white students months before the beating. The students were briefly suspended from school.

There seems to be no evidence that the black teenagers are being treated more severely than anyone else charged with the same crime. The best I can tell, Sharpton believes that their crimes should be excused because someone hung some nooses in a tree several months before the crimes were committed. He clearly intends more than just bringing attention to the black teenagers’ cases. Bringing 50,000 demonstrators to a town of 3,500 is meant to intimidate local and state officials. (Why the state officials are allowing this to happen is another good question.)

Sharpton’s mission is to fan the flames of racial conflict around the country to extend his wealth and power. Has he ever stood up for a black charged with a crime against another black? I don’t have to ask if he has ever stood up for a white charged with a crime against a black.

Update: I learned a little more of the circumstances of the Jena situation. It seems there was enough blame to go around, but the authorities came down harder on the black kids. I still don’t think the state should have allowed Sharpton to bring in hordes of people to cause even more trouble. I think the local officials would have eventually sorted it all out fairly. Do you believe for one minute that, say, New York would allow some white supremacist to bring in thousands of people to protest the prosecution of white kids for assaulting a black kid?