When Al Sharpton Incited a Massacre at Freddy's Fashion Mart

Angelina Marrero . . . Cynthia Martinez . . . Luz Ramos . . . Mayra Rentas . . . Olga Garcia . . . Garnette Ramautar . . . Kareem Brunner their names will forever be remembered as the seven victims of the massacre at Freddy's Fashion Mart.  Their deaths can be traced to the racial incitement of one man.. the faux Reverend Al Sharpton.

It all started as a rent dispute in the summer of 1995:

The United House of Prayer, a large African-American church was also a major landlord in Harlem. They raised the rent Freddy's Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned clothing store which had operated from the same Harlem location for over 40 years. In turn Freddy's had to raise the rent on its sub-tenant, a black-owned record store. A landlord-tenant dispute ensued. As he has done so often in his life, Al Sharpton turned this non-racial economic dispute into a racial conflict.

The Sharpton-led protests began in August and came to a head on the morning of Friday, December 8th when Roland James Smith, Jr., who had been part of the Sharpton's protests, walked into Freddy's Fashion Mart, pulled out a gun, ordered all the black customers to leave, spilled paint thinner on several bins of clothing and set them on fire -- a fire that resulted in killing 7 people plus Smith. The only African American left in the story was Freddy's security guard Kareem Brunner, 22-years-old, who was ordered to stay by the mass murderer Smith.

At the time the faux-preacher claimed he wasn't involved in the protests, he was only there to mediate. He also claimed there was no Antisemitism involved in the protests, but he has been proven to be a liar.

Soon after the massacre, the Jewish Action Alliance, a New York-based civil-rights group, released audiotapes of several of Sharpton's weekly radio show in which Morris Powell, leader of the 125th Street Vendor's Association, can be heard using racial and anti-Semitic language to encourage Harlem residents to boycott Freddy's. Learning from his Crown Heights experience Sharpton let others push the anti-Semitic hatred but it was all done on his show.

"We are going to see that this cracker suffers,"  Powell is heard telling a crowd in one broadcast on  Aug. 19.

"Reverend Sharpton is on it. We have made contact with these crackers. We don't expect a lot out of them. They haven't seen how we feel about anything yet. We are going to show them."

 He also said

They think they gonna drive this man out of business, they gotta be out of their minds. We are not gonna stand idly by and let a Jewish person come in Black Harlem and methodically drive black people out of business up and down 125th Street. If we stand for that, we'll stand for anything. Which we've been doing.

 At a rally was recorded on Sept. 9, Mr. Sharpton is heard telling a crowd:

"I want to make it clear to the radio audience and to you here that we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business on 125th Street.

Ironically Sharpton was the interloper, he was living in Hollis Queens at around the time Freddy's opened in Harlem and living in New Jersey when Freddy's was burned down. When other white-owned businesses fled the neighborhood as the population became more African-American, Fred Harari the owner of Freddy's continued to serve the neighborhood.

On an October 21st broadcast Norman "Granddad" Reide said:

I am saying to the Jewish community and specifically to Abraham Foxman, that you come out and utter a word, accusatory remark against Reverend Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Donna Wilson, Reverend Shields, or Gary Byrd, we will boycott you and nobody loves money any more than the Jewish people. Thank you.

In court papers filed the day before the fire, Harari and two employees described weeks of protests outside the clothing store in which demonstrators threatened employees, hurled obscenities at "bloodsucking Jews" and talked of burning down the store.

Aftermath
Sharpton, the professional bigot criticized NYPD investigators for quickly linking the fire to the protesters. But the police evidence and the tapes from the Jewish Alliance proved him to be a liar. After first telling the press "What's wrong with calling someone a white interloper?" he apologized for using that term.  He never apologized for the Jew-hatred broadcast on his radio shows and spoken at the rallies he helped to organize.  He continues to deny that the rallies had anything to do with the firebombing

Of course Sharpton never apologized for Tawana Brawley or slandering DA Pagones by with the unfounded charge that Pagones was the rapist,

“I did what I believed….They are asking me to grovel. They want black children to say they forced a black man coming out of the hard-core ghetto to his knees….Once you begin bending, it’s ‘did you bend today?’ or ‘I missed the apology, say it again.’ Once you start compromising, you lose respect for yourself.” 

..nor did he apologize for saying the "Central Park Jogger" was raped by her boyfriend and leading demonstrations calling the woman who was raped and beaten to within a hair of death a whore...

...and he certainly never apologized for the anti-Semitic Pogrom he led at Crown Heights.

Al Sharpton is a Baptist Minister who regularly breaks the ninth commandment, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, he has incited riots which have lead to the deaths of innocents. A real preacher would not have incited violence but called for peace. A real preacher would have waited for the truth before he incited and a real preacher would have apologized when he wrongly accused people...none of which Al Sharpton has done.

Sharpton's real business isn't preaching, his real business is being a professional agitator. In the end just like a TV detergent, Al Sharpton is selling a product...Al Sharpton. And he has been rewarded for his efforts with an undeserved halo of respectability by the press, by MSNBC, and by the President of the United States.

As you read, watch or hear the news reports about Sharpton's protests with the Trayvon Martin family, understand this context.  Sharpton couldn't give a rat's ass about Travyon, his grieving family or improving the lives of African Americans in this country.  He is only concerned with selling his product.

Note: If you wish to read about Al Sharpton's other NYC pogrom please click on the below:

Al Sharpton Led His First Anti-Semitic Race-Riot In Crown Heights, Twenty-Three Years Ago Today