Maybe it was too much to expect. The public was so angry and so divided, the political stakes so high for everyone. So far, mercifully, there have been no serious disturbances in reaction to the verdict. But the anger and alienation that the protest leadership is still encouraging even in the wake of a fair trial will ultimately do more damage to the city and to civic peace than any Molotov cocktails or looting sprees.
Reasonable people can disagree about whether it was right to move the trial to Albany.
But once the proceedings got under way, there was little for anyone to complain about. Unlike the bumbling judge in the O.J. Simpson trial, Justice Joseph Teresi moved things along with admirable dispatch and discernment. The jury did its job conscientiously, and the verdict was unanimous, without a hint of dissent from anyone on the panel, black or white. In theory, and through history, fairness like that earns the public's trust, as citizens come to respect the criminal-justice system's neutrality and its authority in resolving disputes. It's a theory apparently lost on Sharpton and his allies.