I don't believe in apologizing over and over and over again. Apologies mean nothing to some people, so there's no point lowering one's dignity begging for forgiveness. If after a sincere apology, there are still angry individuals unwilling to forgive, it speaks more of their mean spirits than the guy who made a mistake and was big enough to try and make amends by saying he is sorry.
Sharpton is a racist and antisemitic individual, and I've never heard him apologizing for his vicious tirades and his verbal attacks against Jewish business in Harlem. Don't ever forget that as a result of Sharpton and his cronies bigoted and venomous remarks, tensions were raised and eight people were killed at Freddy's.
Let's refresh our memories...
Excerpt:
On Friday, December 8, at 10:12 a.m., Roland James Smith, Jr., 51, a Harlem resident with a criminal record going back 30 years, walked into Freddy's Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned clothing store at 272 West 125th Street, pulled out a gun, ordered all the black customers to leave, spilled paint thinner on several bins of clothing and set them on fire -- a fire that resulted in killing 8 people including Smith.Sharpton fueled the flames of hate and antisemitism and he never once apologized, much less took responsibility for his behavior. When hate crimes are committed by blacks against whites, Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, or any other black leader are nowhere to be found, and the word "apology" doesn't seem to exist in their vocabulary.Smith had been part of a group of picketers, led by Al Sharpton , head of the National Action Network and Morris Powell , leader of the 125th Street Vendor's Association, who had been protesting the eviction of Sikhulu Shange, owner of the Record Shack who was subletting from Fred Harari, the Jewish owner of Freddy's.
The picketing, which had gone on for months, had led Harari to seek relief with the State Supreme Court. In papers filed just one day before the fire, he said, "Recently, the protesters have made motions of striking a match and throwing it on outside clothing displays or in the doorway of the store." An affidavit by Kareem Brunner, a black security guard killed in the blaze, said that he had been called a "cracker lover" and "would get mine as a traitor [to the black race]." Brunner, was the only black that Smith did not order out of the store before setting it afire.
Besides Smith and Brunner, all the other victims of the fire were Hispanic and Guyanese. Store manager, Steve Brodsky, described how a particularly vicious demonstrator called Shabazz would force his way into the store, pushing Brodsky aside and shout "I will be back to burn the Jew store down -- burn, burn, burn." It has been reported that there is evidence that Shabazz worked for Mr. Shange.
When the tragedy occurred, Al Sharpton denied all responsibility and said "People are trying to put me in the middle of this. I only came one time. I met with the people from the church. ... I was only there a matter of minutes. I was not the leader of this. I was only in support of Shange."
However, the Jewish Action Alliance released copies of a tape containing speeches broadcast on black radio stations WWRL, WLIB and KISS attacking Freddy's, made by Sharpton and others during rallies going back to August 19, 1995. The tape was presented by Beth Gilinsky to the police and to the media, including the Jewish Post. Short excerpts from these tapes were printed in the New York Times, New York Post and Daily News. (This reporter has transcribed the complete tape. All the relevant material on it has been reproduced on page 4.)
The transcript contains demagogic language: Fred Harari is called a "cracker" by Mr. Powell and a "white interloper" by Rev. Sharpton. It contains threats: Mr. Powell says of Fred Harari, "We gonna see that this cracker suffer." Mr. Shange says he "had to tell the lawyer for Freddy, ... Jeff Sutton, that you are tampering with something which you will be so sorry, that you open up a can of worms which you can never close any more." link