Al Sharpton, the Reverend and race-baiter whose antics are growing quite long in the tooth, spoke at the funeral for Tyre Nichols, the Memphis man who was beaten to death by the police after a traffic stop gone wrong. The five officers have been charged with 2nd degree murder.
As could be expected, Sharpton didn’t give a short, quite, nice speech meant to make Nichols’ family feel better. Instead, he went on a wild, self-promoting rant, saying “Yes I got books. Yes I got TV shows. But I’m a mountain climber. I’m going to climb until Tyre Nichols gets justice.”
Sharpton went on to keep reiterating that he would “climb” that mountain, yelling it and making the whole thing about him and what he will supposedly do rather than Nichols and his life.
Watch Sharpton here:
Al Sharpton goes on self-aggrandizing rant at Tyre Nichols’ funeral pic.twitter.com/lpxyIi8gqL
— Clayton Keirns (@CKeirns) February 1, 2023
That wasn’t all Sharpton had to say. Speaking to the police officers who killed Nichols, Sharpton said:
“I come to Memphis today to tell you the same mistake Joseph’s brothers made is the mistake you’ve made. You thought you threw Joseph in a pit, you thought you threw Dr. King’s Dream in a pit, but every time you throw something in a pit, God takes the pit and raises it up and changes the whole world.
“What happened to Tyre is so personal to me is that five Black men that wouldn’t have had a job in the police department – would not ever be thought of to be in the elite squad – in the city that Dr. King lost his life… you beat a Brother to death. There’s nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us that fight to open doors, that you walk through those doors and act like the folks we had to fight to get you through them doors.”
“You didn’t get on the police department by yourself.
The police chief didn’t get there by herself. People had to march and go to jail and some lost their lives to open the doors for you – and how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing?”
Sharpton also managed to turn the eulogy into yet another speech about race despite everyone involved being black, saying:
Why do we want to see the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed? Because then you have to think twice before you beat Tyre Nichols. You think twice before you shoot at someone unarmed. You think twice before you chokehold Eric Garner, you think twice before you put your knee on George Floyd’s neck, because if you don’t have qualified immunity, your wife would be telling you before you leave home “behave yourself, because we could lose the house, we could lose the car. Behave yourself because our savings can be gone.” You wanna be a tough guy? Well let’s get rid of qualified immunity and see if you learn the same manners you have on the white side of town, you’ll have some manners on the Black side of town.
“Well Reverend Al, you don’t understand, how are they gonna keep crime down in the Black community? And at the same time not be tough and rough?” Well they do it the same way they do it on the white side of Memphis and keep the crime down without being rough and tough. How do you have the same department can keep crime down on one side of town without beating folks to death, but you can’t do it on the other side of town unless you feel you can get away with it there? I can’t speak for everyone in Memphis, I can’t speak for everybody gathering, but for me I believe that if that man had been white you wouldn’t have beaten him like that that night.
We’re not asking for nothing special. We’re asking to be treated equal and to be treated fair and just like they marched and boycotted and went to jail for nine years from the ’55 Montgomery Bus Boycott to the ’64 Civil Rights act, we are gonna pay the same dues to get this George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
“Reverend, how long?” I don’t know how long. They didn’t know how long it would be when they boycotted in the ’50s. It’s not about a timetable, it’s about we cannot continue to live under these double standards and these conditions. We don’t care how long. But I can tell you one thing – those of you that keep voting against that bill, we’re going to vote against you. We’ve got more numbers than the police unions.
Sharpton also ranted about a supposed “double-standard,” saying:
I come to Memphis to say the reason I keep going is all I’m trying to do is get home, I wanna get where they can’t treat me with a double standard, I’m trying to get home, I want to get where they can’t call me names no more, I want to get home, I want to get where they cant shoot now and ask questions later, I’m trying to get home, every Black in America stands up every day trying to get home.
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1
Featured image credit: Twitter screengrab
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