Civil rights...
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are in Connecticut, on the campaign trail supporting U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont and gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano. And another well-known civil rights activists will be hitting the campaign trail this weekend as well. Actor Danny Glover is coming to the state, supporting Lamont and DeStefano. Details regarding the Glover visit have not yet been released by either campaign.
posted by Ray Hackett at 11:15 AM
3 Comments:
Al Sharpton is to civil rights what OJ Simpson is for womens rights.
I've always said that anyone who can connect with people is a spokesman for a cause important to the people he or she is connecting with. Al Sharpton has a following, and is respected as a civil rights leader. I may not personally care for his approach, but then again, I'm not the audience he is preaching to.
from Wikipedia:
Tawana Brawley
In the Tawana Brawley case, a 15-year-old black girl was found smeared with feces, lying in a garbage bag, her clothing torn and burned and with various slurs and epithets written on her body in charcoal. Brawley claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by six white men, some of them police officers, on November 28, 1987 in the town of Wappingers Falls, New York.
The FBI was called in, and Brawley was questioned about what had happened. She claimed she had been raped by unidentified white men. When a rape exam came back inconclusive, she changed her story, saying that she hadn't been raped, but had been sexually abused. Further examinations revealed that Brawley had received no real injuries, nor did she show signs of exposure. Testimony from her schoolmates also indicated that she had been at a local party during the time of her supposed abduction.
The incident made headlines nationwide, and her cause was taken up by Sharpton, along with Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason. The three turned the incident into a media sensation; among other acts, they identified New York prosecutor Steven Pagones as one of the men involved, despite the lack of any evidence, and they likewise attempted to implicate higher officials in the State government.
Accusations continued to be levied; an ex-boyfriend of Brawley's told Newsday that Brawley had admitted to him that she had made up the story of the attack. She may have feared punishment from her stepfather and her mother, who had beaten her after previous runaway episodes. A grand jury was convened, and after seven months of examining police and medical records, the jury determined that Brawley's assault was a hoax.
Disbarment proceedings were begun against Maddox and Mason, and Brawley and her family moved hastily to Virginia, taking with them a "defense fund" of $300,000, which had been contributed by well-wishers.
In 1998, Pagones, whose career and marriage had been shattered, was awarded $345,000 (he sought $150 Million) in a suit for defamation of character that he brought against Sharpton, Maddox, and Mason. Sharpton still refused to apologize to Pagones, and one of his friends paid the judgment money.
Crown Height Riots
The Crown Heights Riot occurred after a car accident involving the Lubavitcher Rebbe killing a young boy Gavin Cato. Al Sharpton's rhetoric against "diamond merchents" considered a code word for Jews, for shedding "the blood of innocent babies" leading marchers shouting "No Justice No Peace" contributing to the riot in Crown Heights in 1993, including the KILLING OF [Emphasis Added] of Yankel Rosenbaum by a mob shouting "Kill the Jew".
Freddie's Fashion Mart
It is also alleged that after calling a Jewish shopkeeper a "white interloper," he [Sharpton]looked on while an associate of his suggested the man's shop should be burned down. When a black member of the crowd did so, killing several people and himself, Sharpton initially denied having been present.
When confronted with a video tape showing his presence, he said: "What's wrong with denouncing white interlopers?" Sharpton later apologized for his remarks. Other such controversies center on purported offenses by Jews against black Americans, although in one case it is alleged he verbally attacked Korean shopkeepers.
Encounter with the FBI
HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel aired a FBI videotape of an undercover sting operation showing Al Sharpton discussing the selling of cocaine with a FBI agent posing as a drug dealer. The meeting between Sharpton and the agent was arranged by Michael Franzese, a Mafia captain who had a relationship with Sharpton and Don King. Sharpton is offered a 10% commission for arranging drug sales. Sharpton mostly nods and allows the FBI agent to do most of the talking but at one point he does incriminate himself when he states, "Well, if [the unnamed buyer] can, if he's gonna do it, he'll do it much more than that."
The drug deal was never consummated, and no charges were brought against Sharpton as a result of the tape. Law enforcement sources have said the FBI used the tape as leverage to enlist Sharpton as a government informant against fellow black activists and others. "The question is: Why would the government say that?" Sharpton said, and denied he was a snitch. "If they have an agreement with me, where is it?".
Sharpton denounced the tape as a set-up. "If anything it will rally people around me," Sharpton said. "For 18 years, the government has been trying to find a way to get me."
***
I say again, Al Sharpton is to civil rights wht OJ Simpson is for womens rights.
Post a Comment
<< Home