By Stephen Macaulay

One of the all-time most famous examples of the Black Power salute occurred at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, when two Black athletes, on the medals podium, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, threw the fist. An exceedingly powerful image that still resonates today.

Donald J. Trump leaves a Manhattan courtroom having been charged with 34 counts related to what DA Alvin Bragg described as a “catch-and-kill scheme” involving falsification of business records to cover up information about him that could have had a negative impact on his 2016 presidential campaign (hardly: remember Trump’s own comment about shooting someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not losing any votes?). . .and he uses the fist gesture.

Does he know what he’s doing? Does the 76-year-old who has a coif that North Korean leaders undoubtedly admire think it makes him look powerful?

Or does he use a clenched fist because any other hand gesture would make it clear just what a short-fingered vulgarian he really is?

Let’s be clear. Donald J. Trump is presumed innocent.

It is up to a jury to determine whether any of the 34 counts hold.

The whole situation is pathetic because the public discourse today is driven in large part by a man who may have paid money to an adult film actress to keep her quiet about what she claims was an affair she had with him. (Let’s say there wasn’t any hanky panky. What was the payment predicated on? It’s not like the man is known for being a philanthropist for wayward girls or anyone else.)

If this was a scenario related to the PTA president, you can be sure that people — on both sides of the political divide — would be aghast.

But because this is a man who is as lauded on one side as he is disparaged on the other, the simple circumstances seem to be irrelevant.

Oh, and what if the local mayor or alderman paid monies to a former Playboy model and not for purposes of a charity she might be running? How long before there would be efforts to have him summarily dismissed?

Even more pathetic than Trump throwing the fist is the fact that there are so many in public who turn a blind eye to this less-than-upstanding behavior.

Millions of people in the United States (and globally) are in a highly religious period. There is Ramadan. Holy Week. Passover. People who celebrate these have a sense of right and wrong and know particularly well when they have transgressed.

Where is the morality in places like Mar a Lago?

Bravado and bluster don’t change correctitude. It is sad there are so many people who try to excuse bad behavior — even if it doesn’t rise to the level of illegality — while ignoring their fundamental sense of morality — even if it isn’t predicated on an organized religious belief.