In a recent article “Amid Push to Curb Police Abuse, Some Act on Fringe,” The New York Times quoted Malik Zulu Shabazz’s call to kill all Zionists in Israel, including their “old ladies” and “little babies.”

Those words alone are shocking and reprehensible but the Times reporters failed to properly identify Shabazz. They said he was “a former New Black Panther leader.” It is odd to identify someone by reference to his “former” role, when his current role is more important and more relevant to the story. Shabazz is the current president of Black Lawyers for Justice, an organization that assists plaintiffs with police abuse cases and frequently organizes rallies with notorious hate groups, such as Nation of Islam.

A 30 second Google search revealed Shabazz’s current role in an organization with “justice” hypocritically in its title.  Why did the Times choose to identify him by reference to his former, rather than current role?

I know enough about the Times’ fact checking process to be certain that the reporters were aware of his present role. If they made an explicit editorial decision to omit it, the readers are entitled to know why.
A 30 second Google search revealed Shabazz’s current role in an organization with “justice” hypocritically in its title. Why did the Times choose to identify him by reference to his former, rather than current role?
Was it in order to artificially widen the distance between violent radical “fringe” groups and more mainstream groups that are seeking to curb police abuse?  Why not include the current role of this hateful inciter of genocide and let the reader judge his proximity to the mainstream.

The Times didn’t even identify Shabazz as a member of the bar – a practicing lawyer – who, together with his fellow members of Black Lawyers for Justice, gives legal advice to some of those mainstream groups the Times was focusing on in the article.

As president of Black Lawyers for Justice, Shabazz, has called for genocide against the Jews of Israel: “Kill every goddamn Zionist in Israel!  Goddam little babies, goddam old ladies?  Blow up Zionist supermarkets.”  And, he has not limited his hateful vitriol to Zionists.  He had blamed Jews for blowing up the World Trade Center: “They got their people out.”  He has accused the Jews of “[k]illing Christ,” and said that “God condemns you.”  He has said that “Jews” set up the death of Martin Luther King.  He blames “[t]he Jewish rabbis” and “the Talmud” for “the African holocaust.” He has said that “the European Jews have America under control, lock stock and barrel, the media, foreign policy.” 

This bigoted inciter of genocide is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia -- despite having been disciplined by that bar for numerous acts of unprofessional conduct. Those acts include “failing to provide competent representation” to clients, “failing to safe-keep his client’s property” and “knowingly assisting another to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct.”             

Applicants for admission to the bar have been excluded for expressing racist ideas far less virulent than the genocidal incitements attributed to Shabazz.

While these incitements may be protected by the First Amendment, they may also demonstrate unfitness to practice law, especially when considered against the background of the other unprofessional conduct of which Shabazz has been found guilty.

One thing is clear: no decent person should have anything to do with this anti-Semitic hate monger, and every legitimate organization concerned about police abuse should disassociate themselves from him and from his organization.

Yet Cornel West, a Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, recently introduced this despicable bigot at a “March of the Oppressed” rally in Cleveland. West praised Shabazz as “my dear brother,” someone whom he has known for 20 years and who “is still on the battlefield.”

He compared this rancid anti-Semite to the great Martin Luther King.  He asked the crowd to applaud for Shabazz, which they did. He then hugged him.

You can view West’s speech at ‪#‎MASSIVE rally and March in ‪#‎CLE ‪#‎BlackLivesMatter on YouTube.

West’s endorsement of Shabazz is comparable to a white professor introducing the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan with such effusive praise.

Despite West’s close association with and support for this advocate of genocide against Jewish babies, West was appointed to the Democratic Party Platform Committee by Bernie Sanders.

For shame!