Wednesday on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show,” MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” host Al Sharpton said all the riots and violence of the last 50 years, from Watts to Ferguson, have been “sparked by police violence,” and then driven by unemployment and poverty.
Sharpton said. “I think what is critical as we marked the 50th anniversary in March of the voting rights march, and then couple weeks ago, of the signing, that we must remember the Watts rebellion happened the very same year. That shows us even with the promise of the Voting Rights Act there was the violence and rebellion when police stopped a man and roughed him up and it led to six days of violence here, over thirty lives lost. Much more than we see now.”
He continued, “If you think of Watts 50y years ago, if you think of South Central with Rodney King, all of the violence we have seen all the way to today in Baltimore and Ferguson has usually been sparked by police violence. When people feel that those that are sworn to protect them, they can no longer trust, that is when they explode. Now of course it’s driven by unemployment and poverty, but Watts should remind us that this is nothing new. Which is why we need to solve policing. And not keep ignoring it until the next explosion.”
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