Blacks Hurt Most by Brawley Case

PERHAPS the saddest part of the Tawana Brawley sideshow in New York is that the people who will lose the most are innocent. If the case proceeds as it has to date, future Black victims will not be able to seek justice in racial crimes.

The self-proclaimed `spokesmen' for the Black community--Rev. Al Sharpton. C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox--have been giving advice to Ms. Brawley, the teenage girl who alleges that she was kidnapped, raped and abused for four days by a group of whites in upstate New York.

That advice, so far, has been to pursue the strategies used in the much-publicized Howard Beach case, in which a gang of white thugs chased a Black man to his death: incite the Black community to an uproar over the lack of justice for Black victims; use the media to publicize the case; and refuse to cooperate with the system until a special prosecutor is appointed to handle the case.

These strategies were effective in the Howard Beach case. Governor Mario Cuomo appointed a special prosecutor who succeeded in obtaining convictions against the white thugs. A measure of justice was apparently served.

But the Brawley case is different. The advisors' political aspirations have conflicted with good advice. Instead of seeking justice for Brawley, the advisors are undermining her case by making ranting accusations about the involvement of the mob and the Irish Republican Army in the New York judicial system.

Governor Cuomo has again appointed a special prosecutor to handle the case, this time State Attorney General Robert Abrams. But Sharpton, Mason and Maddox are not satisfied with Abrams; they refuse to cooperate with authorities until another prosecutor is appointed.

By that time, there may not be a case to prosecute. Tawana's story has grown less and less credible over time. Medical tests taken after the alleged crimes seem to contradict her story. Percy McKinnon, one of the Rev. Al's former lieutenants, has said publicly that the case is a hoax.

UNLIKE, Howard Beach, when it was all too apparent a crime had been committed, the Brawley case is very likely a fraud.

Without Brawley's testimony and some additional evidence to support it, it appears that the only person who will be prosecuted in the case is Glenda Brawley, Tawana's mother, who is living in a church to avoid imprisonment on a contempt charge. She refused to respond to a subpoena from a grand jury investigating the case, on the advice of Sharpton, Mason and Maddox.

These three men--particularly Sharpton, an overweight, publicity-hound with a James Brown/Don King hairdo--like to point out that the police will arrest Mrs. Brawley, but won't attempt to arrest anyone in connection with her daughter's abduction. To them, this is indicative of the collapse of the justice system for Blacks.

But if and when Brawley's tale proves a mere hoax, it will collapse the careers of Mason, Maddox and Sharpton--all of whom have staked their reputations on Brawley's veracity. And it may also bring down the progress made for Black justice in New York.

In the spirit of the successes of Jesse Jackson in the presidential primaries, it is nice to think of open-mindedness winning the war against racism. But in New York, and elsewhere, racism still lingers.

The tension betwen white and Black groups and neighborhoods in the Empire State seems not to be subsiding, but exploding into more and more cases of racial violence. This past week, two more attacks on Black were made by white gangs yelling racial slurs. Have we not yet left behind the era of lynchings and the Klan?

In New York, justice continues to be uneven. One need simply read the newspapers to see cases where Blacks have not received justice in cases involving whites. A perfect example is the case of Michael Stewart, a Black subway graffiti-artist who died of a beating given by Transit police after he was arrested.

SOMETHING must be done to ensure that the victims of violent racial crimes--both white and Black--are able to seek justice in our system. Sharpton, Mason and Maddox--when they are not busy rambling on about Cuomo's ties to the mob--have called for the creation of a permanent special prosecutor to handle racial crimes.

This is a good idea, but the tactics of Sharpton, Mason and Maddox--refusing to cooperate with authorities while publicizing a non-crime to advance their political ends--will undermine not just their own credibility, but also the credibility of Black victims of racial crimes.

The alleged events of Wappinger Falls, N.Y. may not have happened, but racial crimes do happen to both whites and Blacks. Victims should be able to seek justice without being compared to a teenager who cried wolf.

The appointment of a well-respected special prosecutor to handle violent racial criminal cases is an important step to alleviate the problem of conflict between the races.

Unfortunately, good ideas are harder to hear when they are mixed with rantings.