Al Sharpton spoke out today after the acquittal of the three New York City police officers responsible for the death of 23-year-old Sean Bell. Bell was unarmed and killed hours before his planned wedding.
"I also challenge Senator Clinton–this is your home state–to address the need for federal intervention."
"They want us to act crazy so they have an excuse to do more [but] we are going to be strategic, we are going to close the city down in a non violent way."
"We are not going to be in any way diverted frome excersizing our civil rights."
"Sean bell [and the other victims]…have rights and they’re the same rights that we have. [Regardless of their prior criminal records] it does not give you the right to do whatever you want to them, as this judge clearly tred to infer today."
Sharpton also said he wanted to challenge the belief that "you can just hire some lawyers that look like us and think that they can smear the [character of the victims]."
He asserted that the African American lawyers defending the police officers have undermined, "the laws and the rights of your own community," saying, "you got up and you castigated these young men who had commited no crime by your own admission. Now a judge says these theatrics are justificable by law. They will not be tolerated by those of us that believe in law."