Sharpton led protesters last week and vowed to shut down the city after 2 black officers and one white officer were acquitted in the killing of New Yorker Sean Bell.
People protest against the three detectives who were found not guilty in the Sean Bell trial outside Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio studio in New York City, April 25, 2008. Bell was shot, along with two friends, after a bachelor party at a strip club in November 2006. (REUTERS/Joshua Lott)
Al Sharpton attacked Barack Obama for “grandstanding for white people” yesterday.
Sharpton was upset that Obama made a call for nonviolnece(?)
The New York Post reported:
Barack Obama made a call for nonviolence in the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict – infuriating the Rev. Al Sharpton, who accused the presidential candidate of trying to “grandstand in front of white people,” sources told The Post.
During what a source described as a “heated” phone call yesterday, Sharpton told Obama he was disappointed with the Illinois senator’s words on Friday, when Obama said “resorting to violence to express displeasure” was “completely unacceptable and counterproductive.”
“[Obama] issues this statement and not a single rock had been thrown,” said a source. “How does the candidate of change ask people to accept a verdict that is unjust?”
The source said Sharpton had hoped Obama would “side with the Bell family” and not use it as an “opportunity to grandstand in front of white people.”
An Obama spokesman described the conversation as a chance to “hear [Sharpton’s] views and to get his perspective.”
** Are you starting to get the feeling that there are some black leaders who do not want Obama to win?
Rep. John Conyers will be flying to New York City today to meet with Al Sharpton and Sean Bell’s family The Daily News reported:
Sharpton said Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will meet Bell’s family on Monday afternoon and walk from the Kalua Cabaret strip joint to the spot where Bell was killed and two friends were wounded in a fusillade of 50 shots from three detectives.
“We are going to take him to the scene,” Sharpton told a cheering crowd at his National Action Network headquarters in Harlem as Bell’s father and fiancée sat grimly nearby.
“We are going to walk the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to show him how far the scene of the shooting was from the club,” Sharpton said.
“It shows that the policeman had 50 different things he could have done in 2-1/2 blocks. If they thought that somebody was going to get a gun, he could have called for backup.”
The congressman will first meet with Bell’s family at the office of Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), said Sharpton. A spokeswoman for Conyers did not respond to requests for comment.
After meeting with the family on Tuesday, Conyers promised that there would be a federal investigation of the incident.
Previously:
Sharpton Leads “Kill the Police” Protesters in Harlem
UPDATE: A Sharpton aide today said the report on Obama “grandstanding for white folks” was false.
