politics to go

For Al Sharpton, it’s anything for the money

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Apparently, the purpose of the National Action Network (NAN), the charity run by Al Sharpton, is to enrich Al Sharpton. Last year he received $1,046,948 from the charity, according to tax filings obtained by the New York Post.

Sharpton got a $324,000 salary — 32% higher than his 2017 pay — in addition to a $159,596 bonus and $563,352 in “other compensation.” NAN said it hired an executive compensation firm that determined the good reverend was owed $1.252 million — but he was generously willing to take a few hundred thousand less.

Sharpton and the nonprofit’s board also agreed “he has now been fully compensated for all the years he was underpaid and received no bonus,” NAN said in a statement. His NAN salary in 2017 came to $244,661, and the year before he was paid $250,000 plus a $437,555 bonus — a bonus NAN said was justified to make up for a lack of full compensation, including no retirement or benefits packages, over earlier years.

The nonprofit also noted in 2016 that Sharpton’s average yearly pay of $283,543 from 2007 through 2016 fell within the competitive range of those who held similar positions.

It is no surprise he’s taking such a large salary from the National Action Network. It’s not the first time Sharpton’s been accused of being all about the money.

Erica Snipes, the daughter of Eric Garner who was killed by a NYPD Officer supposedly for using an illegal choke, said that Sharpton, who paid for her father’s funeral, took advantage of the family. In a video interview by a Project Veritas investigator which was published by the New York Post, Ms. Snipes said she severed ties with Sharpton because his organization tried to control her actions and profit from her father’s death.

“You think Al Sharpton is kind of like a crook in a sense?” the investigator asked. “He’s about this,” Ms. Snipes replied, rubbing her fingers together. “He’s about money with you?” the investigator asked. “Yeah,” Ms. Snipes responded. She went on to say that the Staten Island director of Sharpton’s National Action Network, Cynthia Davis, scolded her for handing out street fliers about her father’s case that did not include NAN’s logo.

Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal & Policy Center, a Virginia-based watchdog group, revealed that in 2015 “Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him. Put simply, Sharpton specializes in shakedowns.” In other words, if the company doesn’t play along they get labeled as racist. 

The Catholic news service Catholic Online quoted a source who worked for Shapton that “once Sharpton’s on board, he plays the race card all the way through. He just keeps asking for more and more money.”

“Sharpton raised $1 million for NAN at his 60th birthday bash in October, with donations rolling in from unions and a corporate roster of contributors including AT&T, McDonald’s, Verizon and Walmart. Companies have long shelled out protection money to Sharpton. Macy’s and Pfizer have forked over thousands to NAN, as have General Motors, American Honda and Chrysler. … Corporations have shelled out thousands of dollars in donations and consulting fees to Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. What they get in return is the Reverend’s supposed sway in the black community or, more often, his silence.”

On top of all the pay Sharpton has gotten from NAN in 2018, Sharpton sold the rights to his life story to NAN for $531K, and he claims the charity sold those rights to a film company to make a documentary about his life.

I wonder what the documentary will be called? Maybe it will be named after one of his famous lines like, “kill the Jews,” as a court document recalled he shouted crossing Utica Avenue during the Crown Heights pogrom. Or maybe the fraudulent “hands up don’t shoot” line, or “Greek homos,” another of his bigoted statements. Perhaps the documentary will be called “Whore,” which is what he called the Central Park jogger who was beaten to within an inch of her death.

The NAN website describes itself as “one of the leading civil rights organizations in the Nation with chapters throughout the entire United States. Founded in 1991 by Reverend Al Sharpton, NAN works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice, decency and equal opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, citizenship, criminal record, economic status, gender, gender expression, or sexuality.”

That description is the total opposite of their leader Al Sharpton whose career has shown him to be a money-hungry racist, homophobe, misogynist, and anti-Semite.

Sharpton told the New York Post, about his salary: “It’s a six-day-a-week job and several hours a day and when [the compensation firm] compared it to other companies, other non-profits, that’s the salary that they would get.” And he’s right. Being a professional bigot, dividing the country, and hating women, gays, Jews, and cops is a tough job.

Especially for a “Reverend” who ignores the ninth commandment about not bearing false witness.