Two hundred-plus people blocked traffic in six spots in New York City to protest the acquittal of the detectives who shot Sean Bell, and were briefly arrested

National Review, June 2, 2008

Two hundred-plus people blocked traffic in six spots in New York City to protest the acquittal of the detectives who shot Sean Bell, and were briefly arrested. "If they're not going to arrest the guilty," declared a spokesman for Al Sharpton's National Action Network, "they'll have to arrest the innocent." How come Sharpton got cuffed, then? The Tawana Brawley hoaxer and slanderer, and the rabble-rouser whose acolyte torched and shot up Freddy's Fashion Mart, has another blot on his escutcheon: deadbeat.

Sharpton owes $1.5 million in city and federal taxes, and his National Action Network owes tens of thousands in workers' compensation and unemployment insurance. No wonder Barack Obama practically has a foot in the White House: When Al Sharpton is the face of ordinary black protest, it's not hard to look like Francis of Assisi.