EDITORIAL

Any good magician or con man knows the benefit of having an assistant to serve as a decoy, either on stage or planted in the crowd.

In both cases, the goal is to distract observers, causing them to look over there, so you can pull the trick right here.

But when it comes to selling illusions to the media and general public, the distraction is best performed by a huckster extraordinaire whose top trick is his own transformation.

One person in particular comes to mind, based on a metamorphosis over the past decade or two that has changed a carnival barker into a would-be man of distinction.

Does anyone recognize the Rev. Al Sharpton, the same roly-poly in his running suit with a huge medal—purportedly given by the Rev. Martin Luther King—who popped up wherever there were racial flames to be fanned?

Now, he is the distinguished guest speaker on several TV talk shows, a visitor to the White House and a purveyor of peace and harmony.

Last week, he held court at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The audience consisted of 262 new police officers, due to graduate and hit the beat in July. Whether he was paid to appear or hired by the Police Department is a little hazy.

He is listed on the website of the International Speakers Bureau and they can be contacted for information on hiring the Reverend Al as a speaker at events. His specialty is "diversity, human rights and national politics."

The event was part of a four-day multicultural training designed to give recruits more exposure to the racially diverse city and a frank assessment about relations between those communities and the cops. Sharpton was one of a halfdozen police critics asked to speak to the graduating class.

The shooting of Sean Bell, who was unarmed, black and in Queens at the time of his death, catapulted Sharpton into the multicultural training program.

But he had burst upon the scene back in 1987, amid the allegations by Tawana Brawley, a black teenager from upstate Fishkill. She insisted that six white law enforcement officers, including then-Assistant District Attorney Steven Pagones, had abducted and raped her, scrawled racial insults on her body and smeared her with feces.

The young girl refused to speak to authorities and even claimed "sanctuary" along with her mother in a church.

The whole tale turned out to be a hoax. The girl had concocted it to cover up the fact that she was with her boyfriend and feared being punished by her father.

Sharpton rode this racial horse right to the end and Pagones sued him for more than $150 million for defamation.

Apparently, all has been forgiven—if not forgotten—and Rev. Al Sharpton is now the "go-to" man when it comes to enlightening police officers on how to conduct themselves out on the mean streets of New York City.

Sharpton has been described as a political figure famous for incendiary talk and not much else—except perhaps for knowing how to peddle the illusion of his own transformation, complete with lots of distractions.