EXPLOITATION DRIVES POLICE PROTESTERS, NOT QUEST FOR JUSTICE.

Byline: Robert C. Parry Local View

TWO local incidents involving police use of deadly force have recently made national headlines. While seemingly unrelated, the differences between them should demonstrate clearly that today's supposed civil-rights leaders are less champions of the oppressed than manipulative exploiters of racial fracture in our communities.

Though separated by almost exactly one year, the variations between the Los Angeles Police Department's Devin Brown incident and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department's shooting of U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Elion Carrion in Chino illustrate the sharp contrasts between what so-called community leaders say and their real agendas.

Though I am by no means an expert on police tactics, I am a graduate of the San Bernardino County's Sheriff's Reserve Academy and I served in the U.S. infantry in combat. Even a basic comparison of these two incidents reveals much about their associated politics.

For starters, both incidents came at the end of short, dangerous vehicle pursuits.

Devin Brown assaulted LAPD Officer Steve Garcia with a deadly weapon (a car), narrowly missing him only because Garcia extricated himself from the ballistic protection of his patrol cruiser. Seconds later, Garcia fired 10 rounds, killing Brown, who was later found to be 13 years old.

In the San Bernardino case, the situation was far less volatile. Carrion, unarmed and lying next to the vehicle, engaged Deputy Ivory Webb III in direct - though highly stressed - conversation. According a fuzzy yet very compelling video of the scene and its transcript, Webb instructed Carrion to ``get up,'' and then, as Carrion did so, fired three rounds into him.

To me, a longtime and ardent supporter of law enforcement, it appears as though Webb either fired with gross negligence or the most horrific intent.

There are additional differences as well.

Days after Devin's death, the usual rabble-rousers marched in the streets, demanding their brand of ``justice.'' As always, when it comes to cops, that meant firing and imprisoning Garcia. The incident was quickly defined through a racial prism because of these protests, despite the absence of any racial aspect to the shooting. The protest leader, John Mack, has since joined the Police Commission and led it in ruling Garcia's actions ``out of policy,'' thus fulfilling his own prophecy and ignoring experts on the issue within the department, the District Attorney's Office, his own highly respected chief of police and the only commission member with tactical experience.

However, nearly a month after the Carrion shooting, none of these ``civil-rights leaders'' has protested. There has been no ``march for justice'' or political grandstanding. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have, for possibly the first time in their adult lives, been absent from a gaggle of television cameras.

The intellectually honest person must ask: Why?

It's not the evidence. Much about the Brown case was unknown in the immediate days after the fact, yet political theatrics ensued. In fact, far more is known about the Carrion case than was the Brown case, and it appears to be almost certainly unjustified (barring startling evidence to the contrary). Yet there is silence.

It is not a matter of distance. Seven years ago, the ``community leaders'' such as Jackson, Sharpton and Najee Ali marched on Riverside when officers there killed a woman, Tyisha Miller, who had a loaded pistol. Chino is some 25 miles closer to the core of Los Angeles.

There appears to be no compelling reason why this incident lacks the usual antics of the anti-cop crowd. Except for one major difference.

Devin, the unfortunately misguided youth whose error proved fatal, was black. Officer Garcia, who was excoriated for split-second judgment, is Hispanic.

Carrion, like Garcia, is Hispanic. But Deputy Webb is black.

The truth is, the Devin Brown protests were never about justice, just as their absence in San Bernardino is not about apathy. The protests were about greedy people exploiting tragedy as leverage to increase fracture and anger in our community, a tragedy they won't exploit when the target is one of their own.

But, I must ask: If Jackson, Sharpton, Mack and Ali are true community leaders, aren't we all - even Steve Garcia - one of their own?