HE WAS ACQUITTED OF ALL CHARGES INVOLVING THAT BOY.
Yeah, I put that in caps.  One thing that pisses me off to no end is listening to people insist that we honor the judgments of courts…when we like what they say.
For the last 16 years or so, we’ve heard people say that Michael Jackson was a child molester.  Yanno, he just looked like one.  I always found that one interesting because, well, I don’t know any child molesters.  So I don’t know what they look like.
My sources aren’t too deep when it comes to Mike, but I know enough people to feel very comfortable saying that he did not do harm to the children that accused him of touching them.  Mike’s greatest mistake was having enough money in the ’90s that he could afford to shell out some dough to stop from dealing with an ugly lawsuit. That’s why it’s safest to fight instead of pay, for you might die one day and folks will keep poppin that same nonsense about you without giving it a second thought.
A case went to criminal court in ’05, and he was acquitted.  Of ALL charges.  The man didn’t do it.
Now, he’s dead, and there’s nothing he can say about it.  Damn shame, when you think about it.
I live in a city where people hold three wrongly accused lacrosse players up as martyrs.  The folks say they were picked on because they were rich, white, etc.  They are, in many ways, right. The boys, however, are NOT martyrs.
Well, Michael Jackson caught a couple of shaky allegations because he’s rich.  I’ve yet to hear anyone say he was a martyr.  I’ve never heard people treat MJ as someone that was the victim of an injustice.
The courts, in ’05, say that he was just that — a man that got caught up in someone else’s plot.  I doubt any of you have any evidence to the contrary.
So, if you love Michael Jackson enough to cry about him — and shut down Twitter — here’s the one thing you can do.  You can remind people that the man was falsely accused of child molestation, the most damning thing anyone can say about someone in American society.
Honor the man by requiring he receive the same dignity that so many others are afforded in similar circumstances.  In the meantime, I’m gonna turn on my (right now) favorite MJ-related track. Til the other side, Mike.