When [It] Strikes Me

For those unfamiliar with C. Vernon Mason, he and Alton Maddox engineered one of the great media, race baiting hoaxes of the 1980s by aiding and directing young Tawana Brawley in her fraudulent accusations against members of the police force in Newburgh, NY. Most of the backlash from the incident and the discovery of the hoax fell on Al Sharpton, who was the more public face of the Brawley accusations, but it was Mason and Maddox who closely guarded access to Brawley and who guided Sharpton’s accusations.

Well, new Manhattan DA Cy Vance (who was so woefully under-qualified relative to Leslie Crocker Snyder that I was ashamed of Democratic primary voters in September) has given voters what they deserve… disappointment. The Daily News reports that he has appointed to his transition team Mason, who was both humiliated and made famous by the Brawley affair and then disbarred after abusing and swindling poor clients. Yes, the Manhattan DA elect has chosen to take advice from a man so egregious that he is no longer permitted to practice law. Good work NYC voters.