Rev. Al Sharpton, who spoke at the Monday funeral of Andrew Brown Jr., a black man killed by police executing a search warrant, insisted “America was built on racism” in a rebuff of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s remarks from last week.
Scott, a Republican, on Wednesday said, “America is not a racist country” in response to President Joe Biden’s first address to Congress. The comment drew ire from liberal figures on social media, many of whom spread the hashtag “Uncle Tim” following the GOP speech. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris later agreed with Scott’s words.
“Seems something awkward to me where a white president talked about white supremacy, and a black senator said that America is not racist. Seemed a little strange to me,” Sharpton said during Brown’s funeral. “Now, everybody in America is not a racist, but are you talking about whether the practice of America is racist, or the people?”
“The practice of America was built on racism,” he continued. “It was against the law for us to read and write. It was against the law for us to marry. It was against the law for us to name our children after us. We were brought here to serve and never get paid.”
FBI OPENS ‘FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION’ INTO POLICE SHOOTING OF ANDREW BROWN
Sharpton spoke at the funeral alongside attorneys for Brown’s relatives and the family members of George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and Eric Garner, three black men who were killed following police encounters.
Brown was pronounced dead after he was shot during the execution of a search warrant in North Carolina on April 21 after a confidential informant told police he was selling large quantities of crack, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine. Agents involved in the sting described Brown as “a source of supply” of large quantities of narcotics in the Elizabeth City area, according to a warrant.
Brown’s family was permitted to view 20 seconds of the approximately 30 second-long body camera footage of the incident, and lawyers for the family described it as an “execution,” though the video has yet to be viewed by the public. Last Wednesday, District Attorney Andrew Womble rebutted the legal team’s characterization of the events and insisted the 42-year-old rammed officers with his car before he was fatally shot.
At the funeral, attorney Ben Crump, who represented the relatives of Floyd, said he continued to maintain that his death was “reckless” and “unjustifiable.”
“We know that was a reckless, unjustifiable shooting. So the video is gonna have to come out, because when we stand in a house of God, we know that a lie cannot live forever,” Crump said. So brothers and sisters, on this day of April, I’m sorry, May 3, [we are] remembering that they took Andrew away from us on April 21, 2021.”
Attorney Bakari Sellers claimed that “the systems of this country have to be torn down and reimagined” in the wake of the 42-year-old’s death.
Body camera footage of the incident has yet to be released publicly because it’s viewing “would create a serious threat to the fair, impartial and orderly administration of justice,” Pasquotank County Judge Jeffrey Foster wrote last week.
Last Tuesday, the FBI opened a federal civil rights inquiry to “determine whether federal laws were violated” in the shooting and its aftermath.
“The FBI Charlotte Field Office has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the police involved shooting death of Andrew Brown, Jr,” the FBI told the Washington Examiner via email at the time. “Agents will work closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice to determine whether federal laws were violated. As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further.”
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The Washington Examiner contacted Scott’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
