It’s that Judas syndrome, you know, the number that guy played on Jesus Christ? Unfortunately, betrayal has been with humanity long before Judas and, presumably, future generations will continue to mirror that behavior.

Betrayal is a dastardly deed, meaning it is cowardly and despicable. Therefore, someone that commits such an act is a malicious sneak. Instead  of waiting for around Easter to focus on the Judas syndrome, maybe theologians and preachers should drill down on betrayal, constantly, as a deadly sin.

Crimes resulting from domestic disputes to homicides and all malicious acts in between probably have some aspect of betrayal at their core. Someone lied, sneaked, cheated, stole or just cowardly drove by shooting at people. Frustration, anger, fear, ignorance, hopelessness and mental illness are some drivers of crime.

A grand betrayal that tends to slide by, most often imperceptibly, is the behavior of our politicians, especially once they get elected or appointed to office. One deception played with calculated indifference is their vote on issues having no need of concurrence by black constituents. Granted black voters, especially, should protect their political interests rather than give in to the hope of a Moses in the guise of a politician.

What galls is that once called out on aforesaid point, black politicians are known to argue long and hard that we the people put them there to vote his/her conscience, which may or may not be what black constituents want. Wow! Politicians convince voters that they know what is best for black people. However, in reality politicians behave in a manner that’s best for them.

Political money comes from downtown and that gets the black vote out. Black politicians ride the money and help deliver the political party slate (mostly the Democratic Party). Remember President Obama’s 2008 election? Florida’s three black Congresspersons backed Hillary Clinton while each of their black constituencies and black voters throughout Florida overwhelmingly supported Obama.

The shame of it all: recalcitrant politicians and inert constituencies collectively breeding the gentrification of black communities that, in short shrift, will generate significant black removal. Black elected officials and other politicos do not organize black communities. Election time is spent getting out the vote of persons who voted in the last two to four elections – keeping the numbers constant, a predictable turnout.

In actual fact it is ’30 pieces of silver’ that drives the black vote. Like Judas, so many black “operatives” cut deals for themselves by helping to maintain the status quo through which downtown interests get only marginal resistance, if any, from few voices in the black community. So black wheeler-dealers champion downtown deals such as the cover-up of the Wingate pollution site in Fort Lauderdale, for example.

For many years Wingate was a dumpsite with smokestacks spewing carcinogens twenty-four hours a day over the Northwest black community in Fort Lauderdale. With sound scientific and medical research in hand, a small community group challenged the city and private companies that dumped at the site. Community residents have died from various cancers and other diseases and the community was (is) rife with diseases, residents say because of the site.

The city and other downtown interests countered with popular black elected officials and a fairly new black consultant who successfully built a wedge in the community that drove a vote of confidence for the city over the complainant community group. The community just did not have the resources to successfully counter punch. They had failed to thoroughly organize all aspects of the Northwest community and the consultant shrewdly created a different leadership.

’30 pieces of silver’ or what I call the Judas syndrome will consistently win out unless and until black people understand the dangers of inertia – standing by doing nothing while the world goes by (sloth). We the people are responsible for the people. Those we place in positions of service are responsible to we the people. When those entrusted to serve us abrogate and betray that trust they must immediately be dispatched from office and replaced.

Al Calloway is a longtime journalist who began his career with the Atlanta Inquirer during the early 1960s civil rights struggle. He may be reached at Al_Calloway@verizon.net