Posted on 12/15/2006 7:56:43 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton and other community leaders plan to stage a silent march down Fifth Avenue Saturday "to shop for justice," in the police shooting incident that killed Sean Bell and wounded two of his friends on his wedding day last month.
Marchers will congregate at 59th Street at noon and walk south, said Sharpton said at a news conference Friday. He called the event a moral appeal to change city police practices.
"Many will be shopping for trinkets and toys. We will be shopping for justice," Sharpton said.
"The fact that we are going on probably the most visible street in the world tomorrow, you don't have to talk to be heard," he said. "You just got to show up."
He wouldn't say how many people were expected to attend, but compared the march to nonviolent protests led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"This may be my last march," said Rev. Calvin Butts, President of the New York City Council of Churches, who joined Sharpton and other officials on the steps of City Hall. "We march too often to receive no results."
Butts said among the changes the group is seeking is a special prosecutor assigned to investigate police.
"This is not an indictment of the entire New York City police department," Butts said. "But there are police officers that must be dealt with that are culturally ignorant and racially insensitive."
Other participants who planned to march included Bell's fiancee and their 4-year-old daughter, and Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who was sodomized with a broomstick in a bathroom by city police nine years ago. Trent Benefield, one of Bell's friends wounded in the Nov. 25 shooting, will be accompanying marchers in a wheelchair. Joseph Guzman, Bell's other friend who was wounded, was at a rehabilitation center for his injuries and was not expected to participate.
The three men were at a bachelor party for the 23-year-old Bell at a Queens strip club before five undercover officers fired 50 bullets at Bell's car, killing him and wounding Benefield and Guzman.
Police have said that the undercover officers were conducting a vice operation at the bar and believed the victims were going to retrieve a gun, but no weapons were found.
The victims were all black; the officers were white, Hispanic and black.
Sharpton and others say police used excessive force; police say Bell's car struck an officer and crashed into an unmarked police van. The officers believed at least one of the men was armed.
"What we want is to hear the criminal justice system talk tomorrow by saying it will be fair to all of us," Sharpton said.
Rev. Al Sharpton, left, is joined by the president of the United Federation of Teachers Randy Weingarten, right, and other community leaders during a news conference outside of New York City Hall on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006, where he announced details for a silent protest down Fifth Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 16, to protest aggressive police practices and to memorialize Sean Bell, who was shot and killed by police three weeks ago. (AP Photo/Adam Rountree)
Will he be bringing Tawana to the march??
RevAl needs a paycheck. Them Christmas presents ain't gonna buy themselves!
In the words of Bill Clinton.. "That dog will not hunt"?
When you don't stop and repeatedly try and run over a cop you better expect to get shot!!!!!
Being black doesn't exempt anyone from obeying a cop or taking responsibility for their own actions. This incident should never have happened and wouldn't have if the car had stopped when the cop told them to do so.
Calvin will be accompanied by his brother Seymour. Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!
Why would Al want to shoot the protest march? Does he have a gun permit?
WHY would the United Federation of Teachers president be a part of THIS?
that headline had multiple meanings for you too, eh? lol
I don't think he has a CCW but his bodyguards probably do.
Dont smear the Charmin Al Fecophillia Sharptounge!
My kids tell me I have a strange sense of humor. Good to see I'm not alone!
From the AP story "said Sharpton said".
Apparently Al's started repeating himself.
Now that's funny!
He's quoting himself in the third person.
What the heck is SHE doing there?
don't know what Randy Weingarten is dong there, but she is darn uuuuuugly. She;s uuuuuglier than Sharpton. He is't bad enough.
Probably to make sure the protest signs are spelled correctly because protesting is more important that teaching kids to read in school don`t you know.
To give you an example how bad it is here, about 10 years ago I use to work for a spring water company in Brooklyn, we would deliver spring water to residential apartments and buisinesses around NYC. One day we had this safety guy come in to go over safe driving, drivers ed and all that.
When he came in he passed around these books on safety and asked us to take turns reading aloud, read passages from the books in turn, you know like they usually do in elementary school.
And I`m not kidding here, when he came to the 4th or 5th guy he gave up and told us to close the books, his face was beet red. You know why? Because these guys couldn`t even get past the first sentence! And these weren`t immigrants, these were guys born and raised in NYC! 20, 30 year old guys completely illiterate! NYC high school graduates! (you couldn`t get a job with the company unless you had a High school diploma or GED) That`s how bad the education system is here. They literally graduate kids who have about a 1st grade reading level, and this wasn`t Shakepeare we were reading this was basic English. "When you make a r-r-r-r-rig-hit r-r-rit turn, be s-s-ore to turn on sig-g-g-nal.."
Translation: "Da way I sees it, if a brutha's DWB it don't matter if he tries to run down a copper...he's gets a pass, hear me, y'all...da cops, they's gotta be sensitive an' keep their peace an' keep DA PIECE IN DA HOLSTER!"
Does this pathetic racist have any idea what "SHOPPING FOR JUSTICE" means?
Maybe a Freudian slip?
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