Angry in the Great White North

From KXXV-TV:

A driver for the Reverend Al Sharpton is free on bond after leading officers on a high-speed chase in Texas.

Authorities say speeds reached 110 miles an hour during yesterday's chase before Texas troopers stopped the vehicle, which was taking Sharpton to catch a flight.

Sharpton had visited anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan at her camp near President Bush's ranch outside Crawford.

The civil rights activist called the Ellis County sheriff's report ``ludicrous on its face'' and accused the officers of ``embellishing the story.''

The driver was Jarrett Maupin Sr, who was charged with evading arrest with a vehicle and reckless driving, and freed on $1000 bond.

Al Sharpton made his flight when another driver took him to the airport.

So is this story ludicrous? Well, Maupin can get pretty angry:

Maupin Sr., who served 10 years in the Army's airborne ranger unit as the only black in his platoon ("They didn't think I knew how to swim!" he quips), says the posttraumatic stress he suffered after a horrific tour of duty in Grenada (bad enough to qualify him for a disability, for which he remains on medication) is nothing compared to the recurring stress black people deal with every time racism rears its ugly head.

On a Thursday in early January, with young Jarrett in tow, Maupin Sr. is meeting with lawyer Mohammd Riyad to discuss taking action against the Phoenix Police Department for an incident that occurred one afternoon last September, when an officer followed Maupin Sr. to his house and shouted, "Hey, you looked at me back there like you got something you want to say to me!", which Maupin (who'd been wearing sunglasses) felt was meant to provoke a reaction the cop could turn into a call and smacked of racial profiling.

In the lawyer's office, Maupin Sr. becomes hyped up when recounting the case -- at one point even exclaiming, "Next time they come to my house disrespecting me like that, there's gonna be a man down!" The older Maupin says he's aware that kind of talk usually only makes things worse for blacks -- "Showing your emotions is a strike against you," he says -- but is often at a loss when trying to find another way to get non-blacks to really "feel it" when those familiar tensions are brought to the surface.

Maupin Sr definitely has issues with authority figures who are white.

Lucky no one ended up "down".

But Maupin's outbursts need to be controlled, lest they damage the future of his son, Jarrett Maupin Jr, also known as "Mini-me":

Certainly Al Sharpton is smart enough to see the built-in media appeal of the young, charismatic Jarrett Maupin, who speaks with all the evangelical flair of his mentor and even bears a striking physical resemblance, around the eyes and particularly in the long, swept-back hair style he favors, to the iconic New York City politico renowned as either the civil rights movement's most tireless leader or a grandstanding racial agitator, depending on whom you talk to.

"Some people call me his 'Mini Me,'" Maupin says, laughing, standing in front of a series of photographs of himself with Sharpton framed in the [National Action Network's] Phoenix offices on 12th Street and Washington. "When we get our pictures taken together, people think I'm his son or nephew or something."

Young Maupin is the heir-apparent to all the Al Sharpton will leave behind, but only if he can negotiate the potential dangers and scandals that can derail his career:

Sharpton is ebullient in his praise for Maupin, who he says reminds him of himself at that age, only even more disciplined and focused.

So Dad gets in trouble, and the risk here is that Maupin Jr will overreact and say something that he'll regret. I doubt much will come of this, but still I expect that Maupin Sr will get a strict talking to about becoming "hyped up", and the potential cost to Sharpton, young Maupin, and the organizations they lead.

[Michelle Malkin has a round-up of the Sharpton visit to Crawford. Independent Sources considers possible defence strategies for Maupin. Scrappleface reveals the practice of "velocity profiling".]