Audit: Sharpton campaign owes US nearly $500,000

By DEVLIN BARRETT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal auditors have concluded the Rev. Al Sharpton's 2004 campaign owes the government nearly $500,000 for illegal donations and other financial improprieties. Sharpton has been feuding with the Federal Election Commission for years over his accounting in his failed run for president, for which he received $100,000 in so-called government matching funds that authorities later concluded he did not deserve because he hadn't followed campaign laws.

The auditors have now determined that Sharpton owes $486,803 to the U.S. Treasury because of his campaign's taking improper donations, largely from the National Action Network, a not-for-profit corporation that Sharpton leads but is separate from his campaign committee.

Sharpton will appeal the finding, aides said Friday, which would extend an already years-long fight with the government over how he raised and spent money to run for president.

Audit: Sharpton campaign owes US nearly $500,000....

SHARPTON, MARCHERS PROTEST BELL ACQUITTALS IN NY: Rev. Al promised to 'close this city down' after cops go free.

Al Sharpton fired up a group of protesters in Harlem Saturday with promises to "close this city down" following the acquittals of three police detectives who shot and killed an unarmed groom on his wedding day.


"We strategically know how to stop the city so people stand still and realize that you do not have the right to shoot down unarmed, innocent civilians," Sharpton told an overflow crowd of several hundred people at his National Action Network office. "This city is going to deal with the blood of Sean Bell."


According to the AP, Sharpton's rally at his office was followed by a 20-block march down Malcolm X Boulevard and then across 125th Street, where some bystanders yelled out "Kill the police!" Fifty of the marchers carried white placards bearing big black numbers for each of the 50 bullets police fired at Bell and his friends.


Also taking part in the rally was a friend of Bell who was wounded in the 2006 shooting outside a Queens strip club.

"They never accused Sean Bell of doing anything. Then why is he dead?" Sharpton asked, his voice roaring with anger. Authorities "have shown now that they will not hold police accountable. Well, guess what? If you won't, we will!"

"Shut it down! Shut it down!" the crowd chanted, standing up and applauding wildly.

Sitting behind Sharpton as he spoke were Bell's parents, his sister and Nicole Paultre Bell, who took her fiance's name after his death.

"The justice system let me down," Paultre Bell told the crowd in a soft voice. "April 25, 2008: They killed Sean all over again. That's what it felt like to us."

NY police cleared in 50-bullet wedding day shooting

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three New York City detectives were found not guilty on Friday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man killed in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day, prompting angry reactions and a federal review of the case.

A New York state judge cleared two police officers of manslaughter and other charges and a third of reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell, 23. Bell was shot, along with two friends, after a bachelor party at a strip club in November 2006.

But federal authorities said they would consider civil rights charges in the case in a review to be conducted by the Justice Department, federal prosecutors and the FBI.

They will "take appropriate action if the evidence indicates a prosecutable violation of federal criminal civil rights statutes," the Justice Department said in a statement.

After the verdict, hundreds of demonstrators yelled angrily, and there was pushing and shoving in the crowd as police, reporters and spectators packed the sidewalk.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who has been highly critical of police and is influential in New York's black community, called for wider protests.

"They want us to act crazy so they would have an excuse to do more," Sharpton told the audience of his radio show. "We are going to be strategic. We are going to close the city down in a nonviolent effective way."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for calm after the verdict, saying, "We don't expect violence or law-breaking, nor is there any place for it."

The case had generated outrage in New York's black community, though police said they did not expect violence because numerous demonstrations against the perceived police brutality had remained peaceful.

"It shows that there is no justice in America for the black man. This is telling us the cops can do whatever they want and get away with it," said B.M. Marcus, a community organizer.

APOLOGY

The acquitted officers gave brief statements thanking their friends and family.

"I'd like to say sorry to the Bell family for the tragedy," said detective Marc Cooper, who had been charged only with reckless endangerment.

The other two detectives, Gescard Isnora and Mike Oliver, were charged with manslaughter.

All three defendants waived their right to a jury trial and decided to have the judge decide guilt or innocence. The defense lawyers said jurors in the borough of Queens were likely to be biased against the policemen due to the intense media coverage generated by the case.

State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Cooperman said the charges could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, noting that some prosecution witnesses contradicted themselves from prior statements and may have had motivation to lie.

"At times the testimony just didn't make sense," Cooperman said.

After the verdict, loud sobs were heard in the courtroom.

The judge gave credibility to the detectives' statements that they believed they were in danger but also offered, "Questions of carelessness and incompetence must be left to other forums."

The eight-week trial centered on whether the detectives had reason to believe they faced imminent danger and whether they made it clear to Bell and the two survivors that they were police officers.

On the night of the shooting, Isnora, the undercover officer who fired first, followed Bell and his two friends to Bell's car believing they went to fetch a gun to settle a dispute at the club. He opened fire after being grazed by Bell's car as Bell attempted to drive away.

The other officers reached Bell's car after the initial confrontation and said they believed Isnora was being fired at from inside the vehicle.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Obama Could Alter Black America's Leadership

In his 1963 book "Strength to Love," Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem."

When King was assassinated in Memphis 40 years ago, the progress he had made gave way to a concern: Who would fill his shoes? Who would speak for black America? Few leaders, African-American or otherwise, have been able to enact social change on the scale King did.

But the void left by King was eventually shared by the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Jackson was traveling with King at the time of the assassination and was one of the last few men to see him alive. Sharpton had brief encounters with King as a youth. But he forged a strong bond with Jackson, who acted as his mentor, the two bonding via their shared adoration of King's work.

They're not the only black leaders working toward racial equality. They are, however, the only black leaders who have turned themselves into brands, doing so by cradling the restlessness of the civil-rights movement in their arms and carrying it forward from the '60s.

The two have long been criticized as publicity junkies, but they have loomed so large for so long that it had become hard to imagine a black America without them as the de facto spokesmen. That is, until the ascendancy of Barack Obama (a man whom King, were he alive today, would recognize as precarious progress incarnate). Obama has made himself the first viable black presidential candidate in large part by selling a vision of the future in which our nation's racial wounds can be healed by cooperation rather than opposition.

A major component of Obama's strategy has been to distance himself from prominent black leaders while being careful not to minimize their contributions. He has successfully navigated the tightrope walk. Obama has gained the support of Jackson, Sharpton and the Revs. Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright-all of whom Obama has kept at arm's length or publicly rebuked. Obama hasn't lost any of his support among the black community as a result. This suggests that if a general-election campaign succeeds, his presidency could have a changing effect on the leadership of black America not seen since King's death.

Sharpton acknowledges that an Obama presidency would change certain equations, but dismisses the notion it would damage his own relevance. "Obama is not running for the president of black America, he's running for president of America," he tells NEWSWEEK. "He wouldn't be in a position to mobilize people in response to racial injustice." Jackson agrees: "We currently have an African-American secretary of State, but that hasn't impacted our foreign policy. Having someone in the White House who is sensitive to these issues is helpful, but you still have to raise them."

Their positions on the issue are, of course, biased in the interest of self-preservation. But it's true that an Obama presidency would not mitigate the need for racial-justice advocacy. It would, however, raise new questions about whether Jackson and Sharpton are the men to do it. As long as people crave today's fresh ideas over yesterday's leftovers, the leadership of social movements will tend to fall to the young. Obama's youth has influenced his ability to inspire enthusiasm as much as his race has. Because of the impact King had, it's easy to forget that he was only 39 when he was killed. Jackson, meanwhile, is 66. Sharpton is 53. Farrakhan and Wright, now both retired, are 74 and 66, respectively. Rather than taking the tools of the civil-rights movement-stirring rhetoric, symbolic unity, nonviolent resistance-and arming a new generation with them, Jackson and Sharpton have never let go.

As they advance in age, the men will have to cede the spotlight to someone else-a new, ground-level leader. Like them, that person will have to be able to lobby for racial equality in ways elected officials cannot. But proximity to Jackson or Sharpton won't confer those responsibilities on anyone. Or will they? Jackson seems unsure. "Most doors open because you know the name of a certain person," he tells NEWSWEEK, suggesting he might be the one to eventually groom his successor. But then he suggests the opposite: "You can't just name a guy. When doors open, all kinds of guys come through." If the Obama experiment proves a success, if Americans can bridge their separations through dialogue, it becomes less likely that the person who walks through that door will hew to a bombastic style.

This article continues here: www.newsweek.com/id/130609

SHARPTON CAUGHT ON TAPE CUTTING CAMPAIGN DEAL

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Al Sharpton was caught on tape in 2003 offering to help a fund-raiser win a multimillion-dollar business deal in exchange for helping him raise $50,000 for his presidential campaign.


FBI agents tapping White's phones in 2003 recorded more than 20 conversations between Sharpton and Philadelphia fund-raiser Ronald A. White, most of them related to fund-raising for the presidential campaign and an effort to secure a $40 million pension-fund deal in New York.


Instead of offering to help raise the requested $50,000 for Sharpton's campaign, White offered $25,000, according to the Inquirer.

"If you bring my guys up on this hedge fund, and I have the right conversation," White said on the tape, "I'll give you what you need."

"Cool," Sharpton replied.

The Inquirer obtained an account of the May 9, 2003, conversation, which was recorded as part of the Philadelphia City Hall corruption case. The tape helped spark a separate inquiry into Sharpton's 2004 campaign and his civil-rights organization, the National Action Network. The FBI-IRS probe resurfaced publicly Wednesday, when Sharpton aides received subpoenas.


The video was recorded by an FBI camera hidden in a lamp inside Suite 34A at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan. Sharpton and White were introduced by La-Van Hawkins, a Detroit businessman.

At the time, FBI agents were investigating White and Hawkins, suspecting that they were involved in pay-to-play in Philadelphia - raising campaign funds for Mayor Street and others in order to win municipal contracts for favored donors.

About a year later, White, Hawkins and a dozen others, including former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, were indicted in Philadelphia on federal pay-to-play corruption charges. White died before trial. Hawkins was convicted of fraud and perjury and sentenced to 33 months. Kemp is serving a 10-year sentence for corruption, bribery and fraud.

No charges were brought related to Sharpton or the proposed New York pension-fund deal, which never materialized. However, as The Inquirer reported in 2005, the New York-based investigation of Sharpton has continued. Sources said agents in that case are examining whether Sharpton violated campaign-finance laws or used money donated to his National Action Network for personal use.

AL SHARPTON VS. CHICAGO POLICE

Rev. Al Sharpton has turned his attention toward the Chicago police department and its longstanding allegations of brutality, just as the city prepares to mount a campaign to host the 2016 Olympics.


The activist has given Mayor Richard Daley until Dec. 29 to respond to a series of recommendations Sharpton announced Monday to reform the police department. If no contact is made by the deadline, Sharpton said he will make good on his threat to lobby against the city's Olympic bid by launching an international press tour featuring victims allegedly abused by Chicago cops.


"The Olympics can be a point of leverage for people in this city that have not been able to get direct action by the city fathers," said Sharpton, president of the National Action Network.


Sharpton recommended that the U.S. Justice Department take control of the city's police force; that the city reject Daley's choice for police superintendent, J.P. "Jody" Weiss, because of what Sharpton called a lack of community input into his selection; and that the head of the Independent Police Review Authority be prohibited from speaking publicly about misconduct cases until agency investigations are completed.

When asked about Sharpton's threats at an unrelated news conference, Daley said, "He can do that; that is part of America."

Chicago beat out several other U.S. cities to become the U.S. Olympic Committee's nominee for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will pick the host city in 2009.


• Chicago's police department has been beset by claims that officers abused their positions. Four inmates were recently awarded almost $20 million between them to settle lawsuits claiming they had been tortured by a former lieutenant into falsely confessing to crimes.

• In July, prosecutors accused officers of torturing suspects in the 1980s.

• In September, four special operations members were charged with robbery, kidnapping and making false arrests.

• The department has also has been embarrassed by other accusations of brutality — some caught on tape, including the alleged beating of a female bartender by an off-duty officer.

AL SHARPTON ISSUES ULTIMATUM TO CHICAGO OFFICIALS

On Monday, Rev. Al Sharpton issued a series of recommendations for reforming the Chicago police department as he repeated his threat to lobby against the city's Olympic bid.

If he doesn't hear from Mayor Richard Daley before Dec. 29, Sharpton said, he will announce a date when he and people alleging police abuse will leave for an international tour to tell their stories.

"The Olympics can be a point of leverage for people in this city that have not been able to get direct action by the city fathers," said Sharpton, president of the civil rights group National Action Network.

Sharpton recommended that the U.S. Justice Department take control of the city's police force; that the city reject Mayor Daley's choice for police superintendant, J.P. "Jody" Weiss, because of what Sharpton called a lack of community input into his selection; and that the head of the Independent Police Review Authority be prohibited from speaking publicly about misconduct cases until agency investigations are completed.

FAMILY WANTS TO REVISIT BRAWLEY RAPE CASE

NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty years after her allegations of a racially charged rape became a national flashpoint, Tawana Brawley's mother and stepfather want to reopen the case, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Glenda Brawley and Ralph King want to press Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to re-examine the November 1987 incident, which a state grand jury ultimately concluded was a hoax, the Daily News reported.

"New York State owes my daughter. They owe her the truth," said Glenda Brawley. She reiterated her stance that her daughter was indeed raped by a group of white men who smeared her with feces and scrawled racial epithets on her body.

Representatives for Spitzer and Cuomo did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages early Saturday.

Brawley was 15 when she went missing for four days from her home in Wappingers Falls, about 75 miles north of New York City. After being found, she made the shocking allegation that she had been abducted and raped by six white law enforcement officials.

The case quickly made headlines and drew the attention of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who became an outspoken advocate for the teen.

But a special state grand jury found evidence Brawley had fabricated her story. A former Dutchess County prosecutor who had been implicated in the case later sued Brawley, Sharpton and other Brawley advisers for defamation, winning a $345,000 judgment against the advisers and a $185,000 judgment against Brawley.

A spokeswoman for Sharpton, who was held liable for $65,000 in the case, did not immediately respond to an e-mail message early Sunday. The former prosecutor's lawyer did not immediately return a telephone message.

Brawley has changed her name and become a nurse, the Daily News reported.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

THOUSANDS SHOW UP FOR HATE CRIMES MARCH

Thousands of demonstrators from across the U.S. heeded a call by Rev. Al Sharpton Friday and marched around the Justice Department in Washington D.C. to demand a government crackdown on hate crimes.


"We have so many people, we surrounded the Justice Department and two blocks more," the Rev. Al Sharpton told CNN as the orderly crowd marched around the building where newly sworn-in Attorney General Michael Mukasey was working. "This is a real outcry, a real outrage from people around this country."

In a statement, Mukasey said the Justice Department shares their vision of wiping out hate.

"Although there are limitations and challenges in bringing successful hate crimes prosecutions, the department takes each case seriously," Mukasey said. "As long as hatred and racism exist, the Justice Department will continue its hard and effective work on behalf of all victims of hate crimes," he said.

Led by Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and members of Sharpton's National Action Network, marchers walked from Freedom Plaza to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, which they circled seven times in an ode to the biblical story of the fall of Jericho.

The protest was sparked by a series of racially-charged incidents over the past 18 months: the police shooting of an unarmed man in New York, hours before his wedding, in November 2006; the appearance of nooses in several workplaces and schools; the case of a black teen charged with child molestation after having sex with another willing teen; and the story of a black West Virginia woman whom six white people allegedly raped, tortured and forced to eat animal feces as they berated her with racial slurs.

In a fact sheet released Thursday, the Justice Department said its Civil Rights Division "has set records and achieved notable successes in prosecuting defendants for civil rights violations."

It said 189 defendants had been convicted of civil rights violations in fiscal year 2007, "the largest number ever in the history of the department," breaking the previous year's record of 181 defendants convicted.

Meanwhile, the number of reported hate crimes has declined, according to the FBI. In 2005, when the latest FBI figures were released, the bureau said that the number of hate crimes reported that year was the lowest in a decade.

SHARPTON, JACKSON LEAD SEPARATE MARCHES

Two civil rights activists are attempting to call attention to two prevailing problems affecting the black community.


Rev. Jesse Jackson will march on Wall Street next month to protest subprime adjustable-rate mortgages that have sent many poor Americans – of all races – into foreclosures. Meanwhile, Rev. Al Sharpton plans to march in the Nation's Capital today against the rise of noose hangings and other hate crimes following the Jena 6 incidents in Louisiana.

Rev. Jackson hopes his New York rally, scheduled for Dec. 10 with similar marches the same day in other cities, will press the financial community and the government to relax terms of subprime adjustable-rate mortgages to head off a massive wave of home foreclosures he says will likely hit poorer communities hardest.

Jackson, who has long accused the finance industry of steering minorities to subprime loans, told the Sun-Times that a rally of "borrowers marching on lenders" will be held under the banner "Save our houses -- choose restructuring over foreclosing."

Foreclosures nationwide jumped nearly 100 percent in the third quarter this year compared with last year, and Jackson said it's likely to get worse as hundreds of billions' worth of ARMs reset from low "teaser" rates to higher rates over the next year.

"We see the tsunami coming in January and March, and before it hits, we're going to go to the streets," he said. "If somebody is paying $900 a month, they are already a good customer. If it goes to $1,500, they don't need counseling or refinancing, they need restructuring of that twisted ARM."


Sharpton and his National Action Network are leading the scheduled Washington D.C. March on Hate Crimes, which will take place from noon to 2 p.m. today at the U.S. Dept. of Justice (950 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W).

The march will circle the building seven times to symbolically represent the biblical story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, in which God's chosen people marched around the city of Jericho seven times for seven days and the walls of their oppressors came tumbling down.

More info about today's March Against Hate Crimes is available here: http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/html/washington_d_c__march.html

SHARPTON RESPONDS TO 'BOUNTY HUNTER'

Al Sharpton released a letter to Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman via his National Action Network organization responding to the reality star's apology for repeatedly using the N-word in a phone conversation and request for a meeting with the activist to address the situation.


As previously reported, Chapman's phone conversation with his son Tucker, in which he used the racist term in reference to his son's African American girlfriend, was secretly recorded and leaked anonymously to the National Enquirer.


In the conversation, Chapman used the offensive word six times, ironically in a discussion about how using the N-word would destroy his television career if ever exposed. Chapman urges his son to break up with his girlfriend and also expresses concern about the girlfriend going public about his use of the N-word. (Hear excerpt of tape here.)

Once the tape leaked and flooded the Internet over the past two days, the star of A&E's "Dog the Bounty Hunter" issued a statement apologizing for his comments.



Duane 'Dog' Chapman



In his remarks, Chapman said he is meeting with his spiritual adviser, Rev. Tim Storey, who is black, and hopes to meet with other black leaders, "so they can see who I really am and teach me the right thing to do to make things right, again."


Sharpton responded in a letter Thursday that appeared on the Web site of his National Action Network. Here it is in its entirety:


November 1, 2007


Dear Mr. Chapman:


I received your call while on the road promoting a March I am leading on the United States Justice Department on November 16th in Washington, DC, along with Martin Luther King, III, and other leaders in the community against hate crimes and racial attacks around the country. The revelation of your conversation came at a time that is most frightening to a lot of people because we are in a state of crisis with the proliferation of racial attacks, hate crimes, and bias incidents in the United States and abroad. In fact, Abraham H. Foxman, the Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League and I released an unprecedented joint statement today because of this climate. Even more concerning to me though is that the Justice Department and the federal government have failed to intervene in cases all over the country of racial bigotry and hate which is the reason we are having our march on Nov. 16th in front of the Justice Department.


As a Minister I would be inclined to meet with you despite the racist and grotesque things I heard you say, but I am not willing to rearrange my schedule around the country building up for this march to do so. If you wish to meet with me somewhere on the road that is fine, but be assured that I will not sanitize the kind of hate language that leads to the hate action that has left so many people vulnerable in America today. The company that airs the show has the right to take steps by any means when there is a public display of a character of bigotry. We did not call on your company’s action but we will not call against your company’s action, because what was said in private is now public, and they have a right to deal with their public perception.


If you are sincere that this does not reflect you, you should not only meet with us, but you should march with us on November 16th and call on the government of the United States to protect people, that unlike you don’t have publicist, don’t have lawyers, and don’t have any protection. They used to have the protection of the United States government.


In Progress,


Reverend Al Sharpton

President of National Action Network

BLACKOUT FRIDAY BOYCOTT, NOV. 2

Ballentine, Other Talkers Urge Friday 'Blackout' Boycott

A group of black talk show hosts led by RADIO ONE Urban AC-Talk WAMJ (102.5 GROWN FOLKS RADIO)/ATLANTA middayer WARREN BALLENTINE is urging a one-day national general boycott FRIDAY to protest what they call racial and economic injustice. BALLENTINE is being joined in "The Blackout" by syndicated hosts MICHAEL BAISDEN and Rev. AL SHARPTON.

BALLENTINE tells the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION that "after JENA, I decided there's so many things going on in this country as far as [injustices within] the justice system.... I'm a lawyer and I'm seeing a lot of people across the board suffer from the mortgage crisis. I'm asking all Americans to participate, not just blacks. I'm asking people —- if you can —- don't spend any money."

SHARPTON COMMENTS ON CHENEY'S LATEST HUNTING TRIP

Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network has released a statement calling on Vice President Dick Cheney to leave his hunting trip at a gun club in New York because of its decision to hang a flag viewed as offensive to African Americans.

Sharpton said: It has been reported to us by media on the site that Vice President Dick Cheney is duck and pheasant hunting in Dutchess County at the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club outside of Lagrangeville in Union Vale, New York, and there is a Confederate Flag hanging at the club.

I am calling on Vice President Cheney to leave immediately and denounce the club and apologize for going to a club that represents lynching, hate, and murder to black people.

In this age of Jena and hangmen nooses all over the country, for the Vice President to relax under the flag of the hangmen nooses is an unpardonable insult to all Americans, particularly Blacks. He ought to leave immediately, call for the flag to be brought down at once, and apologize for being connected to an institution that would be insensitive enough to fly it in the first place.

What is interesting to me is that this is not even in the South that it is flying. The club owners must identify with the philosophy of the Confederacy because they can’t say that they are a historic club that 200 years ago was a part of the Confederacy since New York was never a confederate state.

If Cheney does not leave, I will bring a delegation of clergy to lead a prayer vigil in the immediate future.

SHARPTON WANTS MALL MARCH AGAINST RASH OF HATE CRIMES

Reverend Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King, III, Charles Steele and Warren Ballantine will meet in the ATL this morning to announce plans for a Nov. 16th March on Washington to protest the outbreak of hate crimes around the country.

The four are scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. today outside of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building in Atlanta (75 Spring St. S.W.) and demand federal intervention into the sudden rise of noose hangings and swastikas.

According to a statement from Sharpton's National Action Network, the group will call on the Justice Department to protect the civil rights of U.S. citizens in the wake of these incidents, which seem to have been triggered by the noose hung in a tree in Jena, Louisiana by three white students.

SHARPTON REFLECTS ON MEETING WITH CLARENCE THOMAS

Rev. Al Sharpton released a statement Tuesday outlining his recent face-to-face with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The staunch conservative, and second African American appointed to the nation's highest court, recently released the book "My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir," which details his life from rural Pin Point, Georgia to his Supreme Court swearing in ceremony.

In a release from his National Action Network, Sharpton writes:

"Today I met with United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for an informal conversation about a range of issues and core beliefs. Last week, I declined the invitation to attend his book party. While there are many specific issues that the Justice and I respectfully disagree about --and those disagreements can be passionate-- the Justice and I agreed that we can disagree without being disagreeable. In particular, during our meeting today we discussed our disagreement over affirmative action, and found that we could, in fact have a spirited debate without resorting to demagoguery.

However, I think the most important point of our meeting today is that conversation between individuals who are concerned about civil rights is vital even if there is no agreement on the solution. To that end, I expect to continue our conversations, and believe there will be candid -- but respectful -- conversations between the Justice and other civil leaders in the months to come."

Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network

SHARPTON TARGETED ON NEO NAZI WEB SITE

As news of increased police patrols in and around Jena, La were reported Tuesday in response to death threats against families of the Jena 6, Rev. Al Sharpton released a statement saying he, too, has been targeted by the same hate group.


"That addresses for my residencies and offices are now publicly listed on the web page of the Neo-Nazi group that continues to list the addresses of the Jena Six and their families is outrageous and shows they are now tagging leaders that have come to the aid of the Jena Six," said Sharpton in a statement released Tuesday.


"This illustrates why FBI efforts aren't taken seriously," he added. "We are in Washington, D.C., today asking for intervention by the federal government because this is tantamount to mocking them. It also jeopardizes me and those that travel with me."

Extra patrols in Jena began several days ago in response to the death threats, LaSalle Parish Sheriff Carl Smith told AP.

Last week a Web site featuring a swastika and racial slurs had posted what purported to be the addresses of five of the six teens and phone numbers for some of their families "in case anyone wants to deliver justice." The posting was dated Thursday, the same day thousands of people marched in Jena to protest racial inequality and what they saw as overly harsh charges against the six black teens.

The Louisiana State Police has dispatched three investigators to help local police investigate any possible threats, agency spokesman Lt. Lawrence McLeary said. So far, the calls reported have been of a more "derogatory nature," he said.

Smith and other local officials, including the Jena police chief and mayor and the county district attorney, issued a statement saying threats had also been made against the white student who was beaten. In the statement, they denounced all of the threats.

"Such vile and cowardly acts will not be tolerated in Jena or LaSalle Parish," the statement read.