Rev. Al Sharpton said on the Morning Joe Show and again at the Eulogy of Tyre Nichols his belief that if Nichols were a white man, his beating and death would never have happened.
Sharpton has recently spoken out on the need for some type of criminal reform measures in New York State. He then offered his take on the beating being racial, saying, “I can’t speak for everybody in Memphis, I can’t speak for everybody gathering, but for me, I believe if that man had been White, you wouldn’t have beat him like that that night.”
Sharpton also challenged a belief by many that the only way to combat crime in the inner cities is through violence. ’Well, Reverend Al, you don’t understand: how are they going to keep crime down in the Black community and, at the same time not be tough and rough?’” Sharpton imagined being asked. He then answered, “Well, the same way they do it on the White side of Memphis and keep the crime down, without being rough and tough.”
And again, Sharpton asked white America if the same thing happens in their communities. “How do you have the same department and keep crime down on one side of town without beating folk to death, but you can’t do it on the other side of town unless you feel that you can get away with it there?”
But at the same time, Sharpton called out the black officers as a “disgrace to our race,” and asked, “Did you think because you was Black, we wouldn’t say nothing? Did you think you would hide behind your Blackness? I want to say it loud and clear that we will fight Black cops, White cops, any color cops that commit crimes against us.”
