Sharpton's most controversial incident came in 1987 when Al Sharpton, C. Vernon Mason, and Alton Maddox acted as advisor for Tawana Brawley. Brawley was a black teenager from Wappingers Falls, New York who claimed that she was raped and sodomized for several days by six white police officer before being covered in excrement and placed in a trash bag. These claims were later proven to be completely untrue. Following the incident, although Brawley refused to speak to the media or authorities, Sharpton and the other advisors began to make wild claims. Sharpton said that to cooperate with the state Attorney General Robert Abrams, a Jew, would be "to sit down with Mr. Hitler". All three implied that Mario Cuomo was tied to organized crime. Sharpton has never recanted any of the allegations he made surrounding the incident and maintains that he has always believed Brawley.
In 1998 Sharpton was ordered to pay Steven Pagones $65,000 in damages for slander for explicitly implicating the young prosecutor in the rape of Tawana Brawley. Before the trial Sharpton had said, "We stated openly that Steven Pagones ... did it ... if we're lying, sue us"[1]. Sharpton refused to pay. In January 2001 after Pagones had collected only $15,000 from Sharpton's garnished salary, a group of wealthy African Americans stepped in to pay.
In 1995 Freddy's Fashion Mart, a Jewish owned stored, is picketed by Sharpton's National Action Network when it raises the rent on a black subtenant. Sharpton claims "We will not stand by, and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business." On December 8, one of the protesters enters Freddy's, shoots four employees, then sets the store on fire, killing seven. Sharpton denies his involvement had anything to do with the incident.
Oh no! More fugly, rhythm-devoid dorks trying to dance! This time I'm really going to gouge out my eyeballs with a kitchen utensil!
Thanks for fleshing out the bare bones of my statements,for those here who might not know what Al is best known for.