Sharpton At It Again
Yesterday, Sunday, a day of rest, Rev. Al Sharpton was doing anything but. Instead, [he threatened to sue the city over an increase in racial profiling]. After delivering a sermon at St. Luke's Baptist Church in Harlem, Sharpton cited the NYPDs own statistics as basis for his suit, noting that of the 508,540 people officers stopped on New York City streets last year, 52 percent were black and 29 percent were Hispanic. Apparently, the reverend isnt buying Police Commissioner Ray Kellys defense of the NYPDs tactics, which he explained on Jan. 24 to City Council members by saying, "Officers are stopping those they reasonably suspect of committing a crime, based on descriptions and circumstances and not on personal bias." Sharpton has invited anyone who thinks he or she was stopped, frisked or otherwise mistreated by a police officer based on their race alone to join the class-action suit, which will most likely be filed in federal court. He says, "One will have to explain how 55 percent of the people stopped are black when we're not nearly 50 percent of the population. (http://flickr.com/photos/scrapstothefuture/)