'WE ARE WATCHING'

Candidate Mixes Campaign Talk With Demand For Justice

The Rev. Al Sharpton burst through Columbus Friday afternoon, vowing
to local law enforcement and to the family of Kenneth B. Walker that
he would be back if the findings from investigations into the fatal
shooting of an unarmed man by a deputy sheriff were "not right."

"We are watching this case... and if the report is not right, we will
be back," said Sharpton to roaring applause in a church gymnasium
filled with a crowd of some 350 people. "I've seen enough here to see
that this warrants national attention."

In a speech that began in tones as measured as the dark blue pinstripe
suit he wore, Sharpton steadily roused the audience at the Spirit
Filled Ministries' gymnasium to their feet, interspersing his campaign
themes with questions from the Walker case. He was surrounded by more
than a dozen local ministers and civil rights leaders.

"Some would say that this shooting and my campaign should be addressed
separately," Sharpton said. "But I say that someone has got to bring
to a national level the brutality of law enforcement and the people
sworn to uphold the law. We cannot have people that are sworn to
uphold the law think they can become the law."

Walker, a 39-year-old husband and father, was fatally shot by a deputy
sheriff Dec. 10 after he and three friends were stopped in a vehicle
matching one that drug agents had believed was carrying armed men from
Miami involved in narcotics. No drugs or weapons were ever recovered
in the vehicle, nor were any arrests made. Separate investigations by
state and federal investigators remain ongoing. Results from the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation's inquiry are expected in the coming
days.

During a break in the speech, members of the Interdenominational
Ministerial Alliance, the local Operation PUSH chapter and the
Columbus branch of the NAACP circulated a petition calling for the
resignation of Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson and the naming of
the deputy involved in the fatal shooting.

On the campaign

Emphasizing his continued opposition to the war in Iraq, the
presidential candidate said he believed that American soldiers had to
be brought home now and that "unilateral action" had to end.

To drowning applause, Sharpton said, "There's something wrong when we
don't have the money to give prescription drugs to our grandmothers,
when we don't have the money to give schoolbooks for our children but
we can find $87 billion for Iraq and the war."

Circling back to the Walker case and to the racially charged cases of
Rodney King, Amadou Dialou, and Abner Louima, Sharpton faulted the
Bush administration for placing the rights of Iraqi citizens before
the rights of citizens at home.

"We cannot have a nation that takes young men and young women out of
our community and sends them down to Iraq unless we protect the rights
of our people in this country."

Sharpton sprinkled his address with other policy issues: guaranteed
health care for seniors, a national single payer-plan for drug
affordability, a $250 billion infrastructure redevelopment plan to
create jobs.

But he returned again and again to issues of law enforcement's
interaction with the public and the investigations into the Walker
case.

"And it's going to take two weeks?" he asked. "Are you figuring out
what happened or are you trying to come up with an alibi?"

Sharpton called on the Muscogee County Sheriff's Department to release
both a copy of the tape of the incident and the name of the deputy
involved.

"You say you have to protect the officer," Sharpton said. "Protect him
from what? If he's an officer of the law, he's a public servant, paid
by public taxpayers. We have the right to know."

Sharpton continued, his voice now booming, "Who protected Kenny
Walker?"

In a reference to rumors about the incident, Sharpton asked how a
machine gun could fire only a single bullet.

"There are rumors that one was used, and that's why I addressed it,"
he said in an interview after the speech. Sharpton said that he did
not know if, in fact, an assault-type weapon was used. The sheriff's
department has not made any statement regarding the type of weapon
used in Walker's shooting.

Sharpton urged younger members in the crowd to veer from their
generation's complacency.

"We don't stand for nothing no more," he said. "We don't believe in
anything anymore. Our children in this video culture have been brought
up to believe that decadence is alright. This is not black culture."

For those unsure of whether they agreed with Sharpton's talk about
rallies and marches, the veteran activist shot back.

"Many of you say, 'Well I don't know about these rallies.' Well, let
me tell you... if it weren't for them, you wouldn't be working where
you are working. You wouldn't be living where you're living now.
People didn't invite you to where you are. People suffered and some
lost their lives for you to be here now."