SHARPTON - Was this predictable or what? (No. 2)

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NYPost

REV. SHARPTON BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE

By LEE UEHARA Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) . The Rev. Al Sharpton began a hunger strike in jail Tuesday to publicize the Navy bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques and his arrest protesting them, his lawyer said.

``Both his legal team and his family are concerned about Rev. Sharpton's health, but the hunger strike will continue until the release of the Vieques Four . as long as that takes,'' Sharpton's attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, said Tuesday.

Sharpton was arrested in Puerto Rico with three other men . City Councilman Adolfo Carrion, state Assemblyman Jose Rivera and Bronx County Democratic Party chairman Roberto Ramirez . for taking part in protests May 1 against the Navy's use of Vieques for military exercises. The men have been dubbed the ``Vieques Four.''

Sharpton was sentenced to serve 90 days by a federal judge in Puerto Rico because of a prior conviction for civil disobedience. The other three men were each sentenced to 40 days. They are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York.

``Rev. Sharpton is committed to keeping the focus of his imprisonment and the imprisonment of the Vieques Four on the issue of Vieques,'' said Rubenstein.

The Rev. T.L. Walker, who accompanied civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to jail in the 1960s, met with Sharpton on Monday afternoon, Rubenstein said.

Walker compared Sharpton's sentence with King's 40 years ago ``when he protested Rich's Department Store with a sit-in,'' Rubenstein said. ``The same thing has happened to Sharpton. He's been given twice the jail time just because he had a prior conviction for protesting over the Brooklyn Bridge.''

Opposition to the bombing exercises grew after a civilian guard was killed on Vieques in 1999 by two off-target bombs. The Navy says the training is essential for national security.

Sharpton told The New York Times in Tuesday's editions that he would not eat until he was released.

Rubenstein also said that Sharpton and the other three men were denied their constitutional rights because they were not given the right or time to prepare a defense.

The four men could be released as early as Tuesday, once an appeals court in Boston rules on whether the men can be released on bail while they appeal their convictions.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001


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