I was somewhat encouraged this week when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a pause in the protests and quiet on the streets until after the funerals of the two slain NYPD officers. It seemed a prudent move, giving everyone a chance to pause and reflect, to allow tensions to ease a bit and just maybe allow everyone to retire with their families for Christmas. The horrific tragedy of the police officers’ assassinations might have a chance to settle in and bring everyone to a more sober realization of the need to bring the social temperatures down a notch. It was a responsible decision on the Mayor’s part and I commend him for it.

Of course, Al Sharpton was having none of this namby pamby nonsense.

… Rev. Al Sharpton told Reuters late Monday that de Blasio’s request was too “ill-defined” to heed. “Is a vigil a protest? Is a rally?” Sharpton asked. Another group, The Answer Coalition, said it would go ahead with a long-planned march Tuesday evening, and denounced the mayor for what it called an “outrageous” attempt to chill free speech. The New York Post reported that a few dozen protesters staged a “die-in” at Grand Central Terminal before marching toward Times Square. “We will not let recent tragic moments derail this movement,” one protester shouted. “This is the revolution and we will not be repressed.”

If you were holding out some hope for things to get better sooner rather than later, I would say that this response pretty much puts the kibosh that idea. It is only four days until the funeral of Rafael Ramos on Saturday. (Services for Wenjian Liu can not be finalized until travel plans for relatives from China can be arranged.) Of those four days, two of them are Christmas Eve and Christmas day. To think that a brief pause over such a period of time is an excessive demand is absurd. Nobody is trying to chill free speech or shut the conversation down. It was a simple, civil request to not add insult to injury by having crowds out in the street chanting Hands Up Don’t Shoot (or even What Do We Want, Dead Cops) while the bodies are awaiting interment.

Sharpton was given the opportunity to step up to the plate here, take some responsibility for the consequences of his involvement in all of this and show that he could respectfully understand both sides in the ongoing debate. He has declined to do so and, in effect, thrown salt in the wounds of the entire police force and all those who stand behind them. If the situation deteriorates even further from here on out, Al Sharpton should look back on this moment and ask himself if there wasn’t a possibility that he could have given an inch in exchange for significant possible benefits.

His antics have had more than a few people wondering how MSNBC manages to allow Reverend Al to continue hosting a show each weeknight on their network. For a bit more perspective on this, let’s take a trip in the Way Back Machine to 2013, when one of the writers at Redstate had a bit of prophecy which seems to be coming true today. (Emphasis added.)

Sharpton is not a journalist, he is not even a commentator; he is a hard left racial activist He is also one more thing: The Rev Al is 100% bulletproof. When he was given the host job at MSNBC, I opined that one day, in the near future they’re gonna wake up and realize, “OMG…we can’t fire him.” This won’t end well, these ginned-up protests about the Zimmerman verdict. There will be demonstrations, and they will turn into riots. There will be extensive property damage, and even loss of life. And smack dab in the middle of all of it will be the Rev Al, broadcasting his show nightly from ground zero, surrounded by the mob… Be assured, MSNBC will soon realize that they have a Frankenstein on their hands, and they have no idea how to control it. I suspect that Tom Brokaw might well be the one to deliver the ultimatum: “he goes or I go!”

Those comments were written in the wake of the George Zimmerman incident. They didn’t come true then, but when you fast forward a bit more than a year to the current unrest, you might want to grab that author and see if he has any hot stock tips for you. It’s all rather frightening in its prescience.