Friday, December 14, 2007

Al Sharpton Theatens to Scuttle Chicago's Olympic Bid Unless City Addresses Police Brutality

Al Sharpton's threat to scuttle Chicago's Olympic bid shows precisely the kind of creativity and leveraging that I believe it may take to fight police brutality in America.
A leading U.S. civil rights advocate vowed on Monday to wage a worldwide campaign to scuttle Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games if the city doesn't act quickly to stop what he characterized as "unchecked police misconduct."

In a news conference outside Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's office, the Rev. Al Sharpton said he would take alleged abuse victims on a world tour to talk with Olympic Committee officials involved in selecting the host city if Chicago failed to start implementing reforms at its scandal-plagued police department by the end of December. Reuters via National Action Network


Whatever the result of this initiative, Al Sharpton will certainly get the attention of the "system" in Chicago. I wouldn't be surprised if it was even related, in some way, to the decision of the IRS and the FBI to investigate Sharpton's finances.

In any case, this is a perfect example of how Blacks can use economic pressure creatively to force an end to police brutality.

2 comments:

Nick said...

Great post. Go get 'em Al. I will be providing a link to your blog on my own and would appreciate the same. I look forward to more of your posts.

Anonymous said...

[aka Hawa]
Al gets criticized on a regular basis for what he does AND what he doesn't do. But nobody can argue that he generally has his sleeves rolled-up and he occasionally comes up with a gem like this.