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5:29 p.m. EST January 6, 2015

Rev. Al Sharpton gestures as he speaks at the National Action Network conference in New York in April 2014.(Photo: AP)

WASHINGTON Recent events from Ferguson, Missouri, to Staten Island, New York, might prompt an observer to infer that American cops are racist and that a bigoted white populace tolerates unnecessary lethal force against minorities.

One might also conclude that America has a hearty appetite for the carnival barker, the jester, the rabble-rouser, the race baiter and, lest we leave anyone out, the performance-activist who pretends to be a newsman while fomenting unrest that only he can quell.

I havent yet said Al Sharpton, but if his name came to mind, there must be a reason.

In nearly every high-profile case in recent years that involved a black alleged victim and a white alleged perpetrator, Sharpton has injected himself as arbiter. Where once he was a mere street activist, he is today a disruptive celebrity. He has stepped off the soapbox and into the MSNBC television studio, where he is free to pontificate and to chastise those who dont fit his template of truth and justice.

This isnt to say that Sharpton doesnt have fans or that he hasnt helped many people. He has. But in too many cases that he designates as racist, he has inarguably contributed to more harm than good. He has evolved into a variation on the Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: He creates a problem, then zooms in to save the day.

One can argue that he isnt really taken seriously, but this isnt so. Protesters take him seriously. The president of the United States takes him seriously enough to bring him in as an adviser. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio takes him seriously enough to keep him close despite, or perhaps because of, Sharptons recent threat to the mayor: If were going to just play spin games, Ill be your worst enemy.

Well, now.

This was in connection with Sharptons push to revolutionize the police department in the wake of the death of Eric Garner, who was asphyxiated after being placed in a police chokehold. Was that cop racist? Hard to say, but its not difficult to deduce racism in the subsequent murders of two police officers sitting in their car by a black man who described his act on Instagram as revenge.

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PARKER: Al Sharpton: race-baiter extraordinaire