Al Sharpton: 'Rand Paul Is Right'

“Rand Paul is right,” Rev. Al Sharpton said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday after the Kentucky Senator empathized with African-Americans who believe their rights were threatened by police officers. 

Paul published a TIME op-ed on Thursday discussing the issue of the “militarization” of the police force and what it meant in the showdown between police officers and protestors in Ferguson, Missouri reacting to the shooting death of Michael Brown.

“Given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them,” Paul wrote, after criticizing the racial disparity of the criminal justice system and the militarization of the police force.

Sharpton agreed with Paul’s assertion, pointing out that the militarization was only one part of the problem.

“Again, it only is exacerbating real feelings about a guy that was killed for, as far as we know, for being told to get out of the street,” he said, referring to Brown. “I mean Rand Paul is right and this is all we were saying since last weekend. What did he do and why?”