Al Sharpton, Critic of ‘Over-Policing,’ Threatens To Jail Anyone Who Disrupts NYC Mayoral Forum

‘I’ve instructed all our security to just remove you and hand you over to the po-po, and I will sign the complaint myself,’ says Sharpton

MSNBC host Al Sharpton, who has for years criticized law enforcement for the “over-policing” of “low-level crimes,” threatened to hand anyone who disrupted his New York City mayoral candidate forum “over to the po-po” and said he’d “sign the complaint myself.”

Sharpton issued the warning during the second day of his National Action Network nonprofit’s annual convention. He told the majority-black audience at the Sheraton in Times Square that he would take a zero-tolerance policy toward outbursts.

“If you think you can force your candidate down our throat, we will see you when you get out of jail,” said Sharpton. “I’ve instructed all our security to just remove you and hand you over to the po-po, and I will sign the complaint myself,” the activist continued, using the slang term for police.

“We paid too much money in this hotel for you to come in here and show your behind.”

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Sharpton, a self-proclaimed “disruptor,” has spent his career demonstrating against what he calls heavy-handed police tactics. In 2014, Sharpton blamed the “over-policing of low-level alleged crimes” for the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Before the shooting, Brown assaulted a convenience store clerk during a robbery. He was shot after assaulting Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who stopped Brown for questioning about the robbery.

Sharpton has called for the decriminalization of misdemeanors like public urination and public consumption of alcohol, which he referred to as “bubble gum crimes.”

“How we police low-level crimes causes the tension” between police and minority communities, he said in 2015. It’s unclear whether Sharpton, whose nonprofit did not immediately respond to a request for comment, considers yelling during a candidate forum to be a “low-level crime.”

And then there’s Sharpton’s history of fomenting demonstrations and protests, some of which turned violent. In 1991, the same year he founded the National Action Network, Sharpton led protests in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn after a driver in the motorcade of a local Jewish leader accidentally struck and killed a 7-year-old black boy. At the boy’s funeral, Sharpton referred to Jews as “diamond merchants.”

In 1995, Sharpton led protests against Freddy’s Fashion Mart after the shop’s landlord, who was Jewish, tried to evict a black tenant. Sharpton railed against the landlord as a “white interloper.” A gunman who reportedly attended the Sharpton-led picket killed seven people in the store on Dec. 8, 1995, and set it on fire.

Several Democratic and media heavyweights are scheduled to appear at Sharpton’s convention. Sharpton held a “fireside chat” on Thursday with Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin, and later spoke with former MSNBC host Joy Reid. Sharpton’s fellow MSNBC employees Ari Melber, Symone Sanders, Alicia Menendez, and Michael Steele are also slated to speak at the convention.

Sharpton is also expected to use the convention to announce two companies that he plans to boycott for ending their DEI programs. Companies like Meta, Walmart, Target, and Amazon have ended DEI efforts amid pushback from the Trump administration, and concerns that they violate federal anti-discrimination laws.