Crimes of Al Sharpton?

The Crimes of Reverend Al Sharpton

TAX EVASION: In a 1988 interview, Sharpton said he saw no reason why blacks should pay taxes. 鈥淚f we do not have a justice system that protects us, what are we paying for?鈥?Sharpton has faced multiple charges鈥攁nd one conviction鈥攐f tax evasion.

TAWANA BRAWLY: 1987. Al Sharpton, during the infamous Tawana Brawley case, falsely accused a former assistant district attorney of ****** and sodomizing Ms. Brawley. Young Tawana stated that white racists abducted, *****, and sodomized her, scrawling the initials 鈥淜KK鈥?on her in human feces. A grand jury later found the entire incident a complete hoax. Most likely, Ms. Brawley, afraid of punishment for staying out too late, fabricated the entire story. This did not stop Reverend Al Sharpton, who accused Pagones an assistant district attorney, of the crime. 鈥淲e stated openly that Steven Pagones did it. If we鈥檙e lying, sue us, so we can go into court with you and prove you did it. Sue us鈥攕ue us right now.鈥?br>
Pagones did. After receiving death threats, and threats against his child, Pagones sued Sharpton and two others for defamation. A jury unanimously concluded that Sharpton defamed Pagones, ordering Sharpton to pay $65,000 to Pagones. The Reverend promptly announced his intention not to pay. A couple years later, Sharpton鈥檚 buddies passed the hat and paid off Sharpton鈥檚 debt, which totaled $87,000 with interest and penalties. To this day, never having paid one penny of his own to Pagones, Sharpton refuses to apologize, 鈥淚 did what I believed鈥?They are asking me to grovel. They want black children to say they forced a black man coming out of the hard-core ghetto to his knees鈥?Once you begin bending, it鈥檚 鈥榙id you bend today?鈥?or 鈥業 missed the apology, say it again.鈥?Once you start compromising, you lose respect for yourself.鈥?br>
CENTRAL PARK JOGGER: In 1989 鈥渢he jogger,鈥?a young white woman, was monstrously ***** and nearly beaten to death in Central Park. Sharpton insisted鈥攄espite the defendants鈥?confessions鈥攖hat her black attackers were innocent, modern-day Scottsboro Boys trapped in 鈥渁 fit of racial hysteria.鈥?Sharpton charged that the jogger鈥檚 boyfriend did it, and organized protests outside the courthouse, chanting, 鈥淭he boyfriend did it!鈥?and denouncing the victim as 鈥淲hore!鈥?He brought Tawana Brawley to the trial, to show her 鈥渨hite justice鈥?and arranged for her to meet the attackers. Sharpton appealed for a psychiatrist to examine the victim, generously saying, 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 even have to be a black psychiatrist鈥?We鈥檙e not endorsing the damage to the girl鈥攊f there was this damage.鈥?(While it doesn鈥檛 excuse his calling the victim a 鈥渨hore鈥?and denigrating any damage to her, or his accusations against the boyfriend, the convictions of the accused were eventually vacated, despite their taped confessions, after another man鈥攚hose DNA matched鈥攃onfessed to the **** in 2002.)

CROWN HEIGHTS/ 鈥淒IAMOND MERCHANTS鈥? In 1991, Gavin Cato, a seven-year-old black child was killed in a traffic accident in Crown Heights (in Brooklyn), when a car driven by a Hasidic Jew went out of control. Sharpton turned it into a racial incident. Sharpton led 400 protesters through the Jewish section of Crown Heights, with one protester holding a sign that read, 鈥淭he White Man Is the Devil.鈥?There were four nights of rock- and bottle-throwing, and a young Talmudic scholar was surrounded by a mob shouting, 鈥淜ill the Jew鈥?and stabbed to death. A hundred others were injured. Sharpton said, 鈥淭he world will tell us that [Gavin Cato] was killed by accident鈥?What type of city do we have that would allow politics to rise above the blood of innocent babies?鈥alk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights鈥?All we want to say is what Jesus said: If you offend one of these little ones, you got to pay for it. No compromise. Pay for your deeds.鈥?Later Sharpton said, 鈥淚f the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.鈥?br>
ARAFAT: When Sharpton announced a 2001 trip to the Middle East, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach helped plan his itinerary. Sharpton, according to the Rabbi, promised not to meet with Yassir Arafat, yet only days later, Jewish New Yorkers opened the morning paper to see a smiling Arafat and Sharpton, meeting and shaking hands in Israel. Furious, Rabbi Boteach said, 鈥淧rior to our recent trip to Israel, U.S. black leader Reverend Al Sharpton and I discussed several times that there were to be no meetings with Arab or Palestinian leaders, not because I wished to set preconditions for our travel, but because the express objective of our mission was to show solidarity with Israeli victims of terror. The idea was to provide a magnanimous gesture of friendship and solidarity with the Jewish nation that would hopefully have strong reverberations for the relationship of the Jewish and black communities back home.鈥?br>
FREDDY鈥橲 FASHION MART/鈥漌HITE INTERLOPER鈥? 1995. A Jewish store owner in Harlem was accused of driving a black record store owner out of business, when the United House of Prayer, one of the largest black landlords on 125th Street, raised the rent on the Fashion Mart owned by a Jew, Freddy Harari, who then raised the rent on his subtenant, Sikhulu Shange, who ran a record store. At one of many rallies meant to scare the Jewish owner away, Sharpton said, 鈥溾€here is a systematic and methodical strategy to eliminate our people from doing business off 125th Street. I want to make it clear鈥hat we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.鈥?Following a demonstration three months later, one of the protestors, a black man, stormed Freddy鈥檚 Fashion Mart with a pistol, screaming, 鈥淚t鈥檚 on now! All blacks out!鈥?In addition to shooting, he set fire to the building, eventually killing himself and seven others. Initially, Sharpton denied having spoken at any rallies. When tapes surfaced, he said, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 wrong with denouncing white interlopers?鈥?Eventually, he apologized鈥攂ut only for saying 鈥渨hite,鈥?not 鈥渋nterloper.鈥?br>
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: During the 鈥淢illion Man March鈥?in Washington, civil rights 鈥渁ctivist鈥?Al Sharpton thundered, 鈥淥.J. is home, but Mumia Abu Jamal ain鈥檛 home. And we won鈥檛 stop till all of our people that need a chance in an awkward and unbalanced criminal justice system can come home.鈥?br>
OUT OF THE KING MOVEMENT: Although he was 14 when Martin Luther King was assassinated, Sharpton claims he 鈥渃ame out of the King movement.鈥?Sharpton once explained, 鈥淚 was on some show this week, and people said, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 you just let it go? Why don鈥檛 y鈥檃ll just get over it?鈥?Get over what? Get over Dr. King dying? Get over Medger Evers dying? Get over Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner dying? Get over those four girls in Birmingham dying? We are never gonna get over it, and we are never gonna let you forget it!鈥?br>
FBI TAPES/COCAINE: In 2002, HBO aired a 19-year-old FBI surveillance of Sharpton with self-described mobster Michael Franzese and an undercover FBI agent posing as a Latin American businessman. The three were discussing promoting boxing matches and musical events. HBO鈥檚 鈥淩eal Sports鈥?got a hold of a hidden camera video that shows undercover agent Victor Quintana posing as a drug dealer trying to convince Sharpton to play a middleman in a big cocaine buy.

Sharpton asks the undercover agent, 鈥淲hat kind of time limit are we dealing with?鈥?br>
鈥淐oke?鈥?the agent asks.

鈥淵eah.鈥?Sharpton says.

The phony drug dealer says, 鈥淐ould be about the same time we have 4 million coming to us.鈥?br>
Sharpton: 鈥淓nd of April?鈥?br>
鈥淓nd of April. Six weeks from now. Is that a good time you think?鈥?the agent asks.

鈥淧robably,鈥?Sharpton replies.

Later on, the undercover agent offers Sharpton a finder's fee for help with the drug deal and says to Sharpton, 鈥淚 can get pure coke for about $35,000 a kilo ... Every kilogram we bring in, $3,500 to you. How does that sound?鈥?Sharpton nods in response.

The deal never went down, and Sharpton has said he was just playing along because he was scared of the would-be kingpin. 鈥淎nd I'm in his office. I don't know whether this man is armed. I don't know what's going on. So I kind of say, 鈥榊eah, yeah, yeah,鈥?to get out of there,鈥?Sharpton claimed the tape was leaked by law enforcement officials to disrupt his 2004 presidential run, and he sued HBO, its parent company AOL Time Warner, and several individuals who worked on the story. No charges were ever brought against Sharpton because of the tape, which was allegedly made to get Sharpton to act as an informant for the feds into an investigation into corruption by Don King and the boxing industry. The HBO report featured former Mafia captain Michael Franzese saying that the FBI was on the right track when it targeted Sharpton in a sting back in 1983 to try and root out corruption in boxing.

Sharpton admitted in 1988 that he informed for the government in order 鈥渢o get rid of drugs and election fraud鈥?in black neighborhoods. He denied informing on civil rights leaders and organized crime figures.

FBI TAPES/DONATIONS: After Sharpton鈥檚 name surfaced on wiretaps in an unrelated Philadelphia City Hall corruption case, the FBI launched a probe into Sharpton鈥檚 fund-raising for his failed 2004 presidential run. The FBI secretly videotaped Sharpton on May 9, 2003, pocketing campaign donations from two 鈥渟hady fund-raisers鈥?in a NY City hotel room, and then demanding $25,000 more. The two fund-raisers were La-Van Hawkins and the late Ronald White. Hawkins is currently on trial in Philadelphia on corruption charges. White was going to be indicted, but died before charges were brought. A later wiretap recorded Hawkins telling White that they had raised more than $140,000 for Sharpton the previous quarter, but Hawkins was concerned that Sharpton had only reported about $50,000 to the Federal Election Commission, as required by law. Sharpton said the allegations were a 鈥減olitically motivated smokescreen鈥?to hide the fact the Justice Department is out to get him. He ripped the probe and the secret videotaping, saying, 鈥淐an you imagine what would happen if it was a white presidential candidate?鈥?/div>

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