America’s 5 Stages of Grieving for a Dead Black Man

By Bill Maher

Nowadays, whenever an unarmed black man dies at the hands of the police, we’re treated to the following cycle of public opinion: 

 1. Shock and outrage. How could this happen? Is this America?

2. Marches, speeches, calls for change, and possibly some violence. I’m guessing Al Sharpton says something.

3. Finding out the dead black man had a rap sheet and was no angel. 

4. The right wing push back, supporting law enforcement and telling blacks to quit having babies out of wedlock/pull up their pants.

5. Cops found to have followed procedure and are acquitted on all charges. 

 Once there is a right-wing pushback on the Freddie Gray case, and there will be, most of the right wing will line up behind law enforcement. They’ll cite recent shootings of police in Boston and New York City as evidence of how tough the job is, and how the liberals and the media only want to focus on one side of the story because they coddle blacks and hate law and order. 

 And then I’m guessing the right wing will get to this: as a young lesbian in 1971, Hillary Clinton clerked for a law firm – Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein – in Berkeley, California.

 According to The NY Sun, during that time, “the firm was involved in…the trial of [Black Panthers co-founder] Huey Newton for the 1967 killing of an Oakland police officer. Treuhaft represented a Newton associate whose role in the trial may have helped Newton win a series of mistrials and, eventually, the dismissal of all charges related to the officer's death.”

 And there’s the Republican talking point: “How can she say she’s on the side of law enforcement when she fought to acquit one of the most notorious cop killers in the last 50 years?”