Al Sharpton speaks at Cleveland church, threatens GOP convention.
Screengrab/Twitter/Sara Goldenberg
While speaking at the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland on Friday, MSNBC's Al Sharpton issued what some see as a threat against the 2016 GOP convention to be held in that city. He also promised to hold a competing event outside the convention, Cleveland.com said.
"You will not have an election without Republicans addressing policing," he told the packed crowd, according to a tweet issued by 19 Action News reporter Sara Goldenberg. Several saw Sharpton's comments as a threat, while many others observed the cities with the most problems are run by Democrats.
"Sure, just have those Democrat cities vote GOP and we'll address policing first thing," one person said. "GOP 2 hop on that ASAP after #AlSharpton pays $4 mill tax bill & Hillary answers 4 shady dealings at Clinton Foundation," another person added.
Sharpton, Gus Chan said, had quite a lot to say to the packed house. According to the MSNBC host who inserts himself into racial issues across the country, the next president will "be determined to fix policing in that state of Ohio."
"I don't care how much you build downtown, I don't care what championship you win," he said. "Jesus said, in the middle of all your development, bring unto me a child. What are you going to do about Tamir Rice? Bring unto me a child."
"As long as the lights are out, roaches will do whatever they want to do in your town, but the minute you cut the light on, roaches will fly, roaches will run," he added. "They ask you why Al Sharpton come to Cleveland, tell them I'm a roachologist."
"If you thought a few demonstrations was something, you wait until a few months when we are going to support what is going on in Cleveland," he warned. Sharpton, Chan said, promised to register and mobilize "tens of thousands" of voters prior to next year's election.
“I didn’t come to Cleveland to start trouble,” Sharpton claimed. “I came to stop it.” An article at BizPac Review, however, observed that Sharpton has "a history of throwing gasoline on proverbial fires."
"This is just the beginning," Sharpton said. Twitchy, however, wondered if Sharpton and the rest of the liberal media would ask Democratic Party candidates about their previous "tough-on-crime" policies. In 1994, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton was quite supportive of her husband's crime bill.
“We will be able to say, loudly and clearly, that for repeat, violent, criminal offenders — three strikes and you’re out," she said at the time. "We are tired of putting you back in through the revolving door,”
The New York Times recently noted that former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley was "also a supporter of Mrs. Clinton and a tough-on-crime center-left official..." O'Malley, the Times added, "is trying to present himself as the liberal alternative" to Clinton.
BizPac Review said that judging from the response on social media, Sharpton's act "is growing old." But, Tom Tillison added, the photo posted by Goldenberg "proves that there’s no shortage of low-information voters willing to turn out to hear him agitate."
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