INCITING TO RIOT WAS A CRIME?

The death of any young man is a terrible thing, and justice is sometimes more blind than it is depicted to be. But, there is no reason for anyone, much less a man who professes to be a man of the cloth to publicly claim that "he will shut down the City".

Al Sharpton did that yesterday while inciting a crowd to of 250 Black Harlem residents to march against the verdict of a judge who accuited the 3 police officers who shot a Black man outside a strip club.Two of the three officers were Black!.

"We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians," Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office in the historically black Manhattan neighborhood. "This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell."The rally at Sharpton's office was followed by a 20-block march down Malcolm X Boulevard and then across 125th Street, Harlem's main business thoroughfare, where some bystanders yelled out "Kill the police!"

Sharpton urged people to return for a meeting this coming week "to plan the day that we will close this city down" with the kind of "massive civil disobedience" once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.Sharpton exorted people to return for a meeting this coming week "to plan the day that we will close this city down" with the kind of "massive civil disobedience" once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.His protests will demonstrate all over the city, from Wall Street to the home of Justice Arthur Cooperman, who on Friday acquitted the three detectives after a nonjury trial.

First of all. Sharpton is a racist, headline grabbing man, who in no way represents Martin Luther King! Reverend King accomplished thing by non-violent civil disobdience with his marches and speeches urging people to do what is right. Sharpton is inciting to riot by his inflamatory headline grabbing grendstanding!

This can only result in a confrontation with the law and possible violence that could include many injuries and even more deaths. Not to mention the propery damage that can result when people are sturred up to a frenzy state.Mayor Blomberg should nip this in the bud before New York has a riot on it's hands that will further antogonize both the police and the Black community. A divide that appears to be rather wide!