Wouldn't it be a nice gesture if Al Sharpton helped pay Tawana Brawley's tab?

Al paid something out of pocket, but too busy now to do the research.

No. I’m not. That was too easy.

“Brawley’s advisers in the infamous race-baiting case, the Rev. Al Sharpton and attorneys C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox, have already paid, or are paying, their defamation debt. At least the monetary part.

Sharpton has never paid in human terms for the damage done to Pagones’ life, which quickly unraveled, even as Sharpton’s career as a race-baiting hustler pushed him forward to his current job as an MSNBC commentator. Pagones’ marriage collapsed, and he left his job as a prosecutor.”

Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/080513-666449-tawana-brawley-pays-for-false-rape-charge.htm#ixzz2bDwptwEE

If I recall, Sharpton’s judgement was nearly double what Brawley’s was.

Because Tawana Brawley’s been in the news lately, I dug around and revisited her circumstances. I found some information that I’d forgotten long ago.

Tawana lied at the urging of, and with the help of, her mother. Tawana had a brutal stepfather who frequently beat her and, according to the allegations, often made sexual advances. Tawana misbehaved and broke the stepfather’s rules that night, when she ignored her curfew and stayed out. It was Tawana’s mother who concocted the whole gang rape story, and who helped Tawana smear dog feces on her own body and climb into a trashbag. The mother was so terrified of her husband, and so fearful of what he might do to Tawana, she went to those absurd extremes to protect her daughter.

Tawana was a minor child at the time, and all she really did was rebel (what teenager doesn’t do so?), hide from her stepfather’s abuse, and follow her mother’s instructions. Because Al Sharpton exploited the event and publicized a mistake that couldn’t be undone, he should pay the judgment. Surely, he has plenty of resources from his MSNBC job.

When Al Sharpton first came on the scene, and involved himself in this shameful case, I didn’t think very much of him.
During the 2008 presidential run, I listened to him talk about a wide variety of issues, and I realized that he was pretty smart, and just got off on a bad start.
Should he pay Tawana’s tab? No. It already cost him quite a bit.

The guy is well off now in part because of her giving him the opportunity to make a name for himself. He should do it. There’s nothing in it for him now to be involved in her affairs so he’s out.

Would it be a nice gesture? Sure. It would also be consistent with his rhetoric of trying to help the less fortunate. As I see it, there are two possibilities here.

The Unlikely Case: There was no hoax, just as Brawley and her family have maintained all along. Brawley was the target of a horrible crime, compounded by the dual tragedies of there not being enough evidence to make out a case against her attackers and there being enough of an appearance of duplicity on her part to allow her attacker to further abuse her by way of a civil suit. If this is the case, then Brawley has been victimized enough and Sharpton should help her pay the judgment out of compassion.

The Likely Case: The whole thing was a hoax, and the grand jury was correct not to indict the accused. Brawley, a minor, was exploited for political and financial purposes. For some reason or another, she decided to make herself complicit by refusing to come clean about the issue. She is not guiltless, but is only partially to blame for those events that were covered in the accused’s civil suit. If this is the case, Brawley has been exploited enough and Sharpton should help her pay the judgment out of remorse.

From the article:

Brawley now works in Richmond, Va. as a nurse at the The Laurels of Bon Air nursing home, under a different name…. A court has ordered Brawley’s employer to garnish her wages in order to begin paying Pagones.

…Unfazed, Pagones and his lawyer Gary Bolnick decided to file for the wage garnishment in January, according to the New York Post. Pagones said he’s waited a long time for vindication, adding that it’s not simply about the money.

“It’s a long time coming,” Pagones told The Post in a recent interview. “Every week, she’ll think of me. And every week, she can think about how she has a way out—she can simply tell the truth.”

Still, Pagone and his attorney aren’t optimistic that Brawley will be able to come up with the cash.

Yikes. Stuff like this is why rape is why rape is so underreported today. If you falsely accuse someone, or just can’t prove your case, the reprisals can be worse than for actual rapists.

I mean, was it really necessary for the article to publish her new name and location? Now anybody on the internet can find her. It compromises her safety. The man involved in the case has this sort of gleefully vindictive tone- sounds like he doesn’t need the money, and she does. (The phrase “every week, she’ll think of me” especially creeped me out. Rape is about having power over somebody. If there’s even the tiniest chance that he actually did it…)

If this were about a fifteen-year-old boy who might have raped someone years ago, we wouldn’t still be talking about it today. I don’t condone false accusations. I just don’t like that they’re throwing the book at her, while rapists often walk away.

@Haleth
She owes him money. And until recently she wasn’t paying. Now she is.
What does that have to do with rape? The whole point is that she was NOT raped.

Falsely accusing of someone of rape can ruin the accused life. Even after it as all sorted out the damage is done and won’t be undone by money but getting the money can’t hurt. The only damage this woman may feel was done by her own hand.

Her parents say they should be millionaires by now? How in the hell do they figure that? It was her mother who cooked up the original story. What kind of woman can think up shit like that?