Williams Finds Himself, Lands a Job That Fits

In March 2013 I wrote an editorial entitled “Williams’s Rash Judgment” that criticized City Councilman Jumaane Williams for reacting to rioting on Church Ave. in Brooklyn following the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old who cops said had pointed a gun at them by quoting Martin Luther King Jr. saying that “a riot is the language of the unheard.”

He had quoted Dr. King in context, talking about the civil disturbances erupting throughout the U.S. in the mid-1960s as a reaction to the resistance by racists-without sufficient outcry by much of White America-to the legitimate demands of black protesters seeking equal treatment in schools, living accommodations and in the voting booths. But applying those words in a case in which the victim had been arrested several times and was reportedly a member of The Bloods, and three witnesses said they had heard cops yell “freeze” or “don’t move” before they began shooting, seemed a reach.