Former Commish Kerik Cries During Court Appearance
UWS Protests Puppy Mill Pups at Store
Teen Pulls BB Gun On Cops, Gets Shot In The Face
Yankees, Fans Revel In Ticker Tape Parade Frenzy
After Girardi's Help, Crash Victim Now A Yankees Fan-For-Life
As previously mentioned, the Reverend Al Sharpton joined last night's Critical Mass rally to highlight, per Times-Up!, a "common pattern of NYPD harassment experienced by diverse groups of law-abiding citizens." Bicyclists were joined by Sharpton, Sean Bell's father William Bell, his fiancee Nicole Paultre Bell and others protesting the fatal police shooting that left a 23-year-old man dead on the day of his wedding.
Sharpton was expected to be in a pedicab alongside bicyclists, but many were surprised when he mounted a bicycle and rode from Union Square along 14th Street to Fifth Avenue, south on Fifth Ave. to 12th Street, then east across 12th Street and back up University Place to Union Square. Reporters, photographers and his entourage chased him on foot (apologies for the shaky video!). People shouted words of encouragement or simply did a double take when he pedaled by.
More about the rally later in the day. But a video of the Reverend getting some props from various people (after he spent 15 minutes posing for pictures with fans) is below:
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Nice chasework Jen!
I'm impressed.
I don't care what the haters say. I love you, Mr Sharpton.
So he basically co-opted someone else's demonstration for his own. Nice. Next to protest the police shooting of Sean Bell he'll turn up naked for PETA. He didn't by any chance tart himself up like a mermaid for the parade?
He's as phony as his hair.
Well, I suppose if a circus bear could be taught how to ride a bike, why not Al Sharpton?
Nice work Jen!
Sharpton's a joke and a fraud.
Guess when the rest of the city is thinking about yet another crane collapse, the traveling Rev. Al minstrel show gets another crack at some cause or another.
Oh, what cause? Fat Al's riding a bicycle.
I'll have more on this later, but Sharpton was invited by Critical Mass and other civil rights activists to join yesterday's rally, because not only do their causes have similar goals, he can draw attention to an issue like few other people.
And people do love to hate him--while some people were excited to see him yesterday, at one point, when he was riding up University, these two white couples were like "Was that Al Sharpton?" "God, I hate him."
Go Al Go! If you want to see NYPD's corrupt fascist cops in action, blatantly breaking the law, check out some of the past Critical Mass ride videos...they're priceless.
do you think he can swim?
if yes and he takes his jogging suits out of mothballs we have a triathlete on our hands.
@fakenewyorker Fat floats right? So I would think he could at least do that.
He will help us put the criminal police in prison. We need to get the cops out of our areas so that our youth can stop dying. The cops hate Rev. Sharpton because he will protect the criminals and youth from them that they think they can kill because they are of color and violated some minor rules. Stop fronting the ipods and prada glasses on 125 st. and making these poor kids envious, they are just trying to get some. Thats why the chinee was killed on 125 st. when he should have gave the two boys his ipod because he was showing off "I have this and much more... look at me... you will never have this". Thats why he ran into traffic, not the boys fault.
That bike must have been working overtime. Hope the tires are recovering this morning.
The only thing critical mass here is his weight. The movement has just lost all credibility.
Critical Mass doesn't operate from bourgeois concepts like "credibility", in other words, approval from the authorities and boss media. It's just there, a group of people asserting a claim to equal rights against a system in which certain people are normally given privilege. Then people (including the cops) have to react to them, either on the side of privilege or on the side of equality. That technique was widely used in the Civil Rights movement with considerable success. As long as the activists stick to their principles, the assertion of equal rights, then the appearance of celebrities of whatever flavor can't hurt them in spite of whatever reputation they have been given by the media.
He will help us put the criminal police in prison. We need to get the cops out of our areas so that our youth can stop dying. The cops hate Rev. Sharpton because he will protect the criminals and youth from them that they think they can kill because they are of color and violated some minor rules. Stop fronting the ipods and prada glasses on 125 st. and making these poor kids envious, they are just trying to get some. Thats why the chinee was killed on 125 st. when he should have gave the two boys his ipod because he was showing off "I have this and much more... look at me... you will never have this". Thats why he ran into traffic, not the boys fault
what a attention whore al shaprton is.
Thanks for making sure to include the fact that the Sharpton haters were WHITE, Jen. Of course there's still no pressure to mention the race of non-whites in crime pieces, though.
what's up with all the "sharpton is fat" remarks? He may have been overweight at one time, but he's looking pretty slim now.
berniegoetz, try your best not to be a tool. I know it's tough for you, but try.
Great follow up coverage, Jen. I'm no fan of Sharpton, but this was amusing if not marginally useful in drawing attention to the issue that Critical Mass wanted to be known.
White people hate Al Sharpton.
And that's why I love him.
He's a media whore, but there's nothing I love more than white folks getting all worked up over every little thing Al Sharpton does.
4 & 14!!
the sharpton appeasers are clueless lemmings, he's a charlatan and a criminal.
cm was always an apolitical event, and the rnc protesters caused it great harm, and now sharpton has stuck a knife in it.
I added another video of people greeting Sharpton--he spent a bit of time taking photographs with people of all different races after his bike ride.
They should invite the Pope next year. The Pontiff on a bike would instantly validate the many generations of nuns who pedalled so hard and got nowhere.
much better than bloomberg's fake and phony bicycle stunt. God Bless You Al Sharpton.
Did Jen do the video camera? Hahah, awesome!
if you want to piss off white people al sharpton is your man. too bad most of all the bikers are white.
jenspellnogood (22),
critical mass was apolitical?
are you on crack?
what did you think it was?
a sports manifestation?
a commercial enterprise?
critical mass was always 100% political,
nothing but political, and that's what's
so great about it.
the system wants people to be apolitical,
so that they just consume and serve. but critical
mass gives the people the opportunity to be political - taking their rights into their own hands.
I participated in yesterday's critical mass, but I was there mainly to ride my bike and have a good time, not to hear Sharpton speak (I couldn't even hear him anyway). It ended up where myself and a couple other riders just started leaving the Rev Square and rallied up after making a few laps around Union Square.
"critical mass was always 100% political,
nothing but political, and that's what's
so great about it."
If politics means bike awareness, safety and recognition from the City about cyclist rights, than yes. Other than that no.
28...long before you hipster douchebag wannabees co-opted it, cm was nothing more than 'a ride' to highlight unpowered transportation. the rnc just exacerbated it, and every asshole with a cause adopted it since.
What part of "a ride to highlight unpowered transportation" is not political? If nothing else that is a demonstration (the ride) to promote a viewpoint (cycling is good).
Of course Critical Mass is political. It's a direct-action assertion of a claim of equal rights against a claim of privilege.
babyhitler says: "if you want to piss off white people al sharpton is your man. too bad most of all the bikers are white."
Too bad your comment makes no sense. I'm white and he doesn't piss me off. You say, "most of all the bikers are white." According to Jen, the cyclists invited Sharpton to the event.
jen i think you should stop giving attention to al sharpton. he'll fade away one day!!!!
The Critical Ass is really just what they are. If some dumb fuck biker crosses me as I have the light at Houston Street going to the Pier 40 parking lot they are dead meat.
Such violent assumptions of privilege are unfortunately widespread, and often have police sympathy. The resonance with the Old South are obvious. Hence the utility of mass rides. It's easy to run person down and drive away; not so easy with 40 or 400.
@ starry: thank you. better than i would have put it.
The Rev. Sharpton will stop the police from killing innocents and he can prove the unequal treatment. He goes with white bike riders and nobody gets beaten or tossed in jail because they are white. If you cant deal with the facts... go to hell. he will help us rid our areas from the police in order to be able to live in peace.
What might that "area" be? Keep your "area" safe from who? Al Sharpton doesn't do shit for the black community other than the moan and groan crap.
Personally I don't give an F if the hoodies keep killing the other hoodies. It's just less welfare f's looking for a hand out because "their precious one" was snuffed tonight because some dude shot up the neighborhood. The mothers will only produce more.
Dont blame the mothers, they are up against 300 years of institutional racism. They try to raise the kids good but society prevents them from doing so and the cops kill unarmed youth EVERY DAY !!!!
^^^ Think about it for a second. How many dollars have the Afro Americans sucked out of the decent tax payers pocket because their great ancestors worked for a living without getting paid? It probably comes out to a million dollar pension fund per every slave.
I'll blame the mothers every day of the week because they keep spitting out kids they can't afford to take care of physically, mentally or economically. They are too busy filling out forms at the welfare department.
Talk about Critical Mass losing the legitimate label. If I were an organizer, I would be angered for losing 3+ years of important protest karma ... down the preverbal drain.
And to all the commentators above who negatively elude to issues of race, you fall into the same despicable behavior as Mr. Sharpton. You deserve each other.
You made them that way, by destroying their minds, families and souls by making them slaves and raping them. The Rev. Sharpton will get us payback from this government and we have our rightful monies we will no longer be in this problem. You love to touch the "jungle bunny women" but then you condemn them, HIPPOCRYTE !!!!
God Bless you Reverend Al Sharpton.
this time on a Sunday.