Al Sharpton

SEIU Local 1199 has endorsed City Council candidate Elizabeth Crowley, one of the Democrats running in the special election to fill Dennis Gallagher's seat.

The union is hugely powerful politically, particularly in special elections. So this is fairly big, if not all that surprising.  read more »

 

After speaking to reporters in Manhattan about the protests he’s organizing in response to the Sean Bell verdict, Al Sharpton was asked about a separate issue: Barack Obama’s denunciation of Jeremiah Wright.

Sharpton, a politician and reverend, said, “What Barack Obama did was a profile in courage,” and said it demonstrated the kind of leadership “I not only respect, but support.”

This, a day after Sharpton blasted Obama for "grandstand[ing] in front of white people." Go figure.

Later today, Al Sharpton and others will be meeting at the 1199 SEIU building on West 43rd Street to organize citywide protests in response to the Sean Bell verdict. The union will be represented by president George Gresham and executive vice president Patrick Gaspard, according to a spokeswoman.

The union's involvement in the planned protests shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Bell’s mother is a former member of the union [clarified]. And union officials have been in touch with the family since the shooting in 2006. .
 read more »

When Al Sharpton walked off the stage at his National Action Networks headquarters in Harlem this weekend, television cameramen and reporters packed up their things and left too. But Terrell Taylor picked up his camera and got to work

Taylor is a 38-year-old filmmaker who is working on a documentary about Sharpton, the National Action Network, and the modern civil right movement. After filming Sharpton for a project focusing on the 40th anniversary of the civil rights movement, Taylor said he approached Sharpton about doing a second project. And Sharpton, never one to shy away from reporters, was more than obliging.

Sharpton has granted Taylor and his six-man-crew behind the scenes access that no other reporter is getting. And since Sharpton is working on the Sean Bell case, that means lots of footage of Bell’s family and friends.

According to Taylor, “We were with the family 48 until the verdict. So, we had an opportunity to sit down while they ate their last dinner before the verdict, while they went to church and prayed. Also at the vigils. We were actually there at the breakfast before the trial.”  read more »

How much credit does Michael Bloomberg deserve for the relative calm that’s followed the Sean Bell verdict? It’s a question that’s more than just academic, given the potential for racially fraught episodes just like this one to have a defining impact on a mayoral legacy – and on a mayor’s political fortunes moving forward.

According to veteran New York political reporter Andrew Kirtzman, who I emailed for his take on the question, Bloomberg has been more lucky than skillful in presiding over what has been, so far, a restrained fallout.

Here’s Kirtzman’s take, from early this weekend:  read more »

 

Tomorrow, Al Sharpton and others will meet at SEIU local 1199’s headquarters to plan citywide protests in light of the Sean Bell verdict, which seems to put the city’s most powerful union right at his corner.  read more »

Shortly after Sean Bell was killed, Michael Bloomberg told reporters, "It sounds like to me like excessive force was used."  read more »

Al Sharpton just finished a press conference with friends and family of Sean Bell, saying they hoped justice would be dispensed by the trial judge, who will announce a verdict Friday.

Sharpton also refuted the notion that their supporter need to be reminded not to act violently if they are unhappy with the decision.

He went on to say that it was the police who acted recklessly when they approached and fired on Bell and his friends without just cause.  read more »

Here's more of Al Sharpton speaking in the capitol building in Albany yesterday, telling reporters, “David Paterson has made the American Dream live in Albany.”

Al Sharpton just told reporters on the second floor of the Capitol building in Albany that David Paterson "is probably the most conservative of our generation of black leadership."