Rev. Sharpton allowed no more visitors.

[MinFaluMuhammad]

Jailed Rev. Sharpton Permitted No More Visitors
By Herb Boyd

New York--It’s a safe bet that the imprisoned Rev. Al Sharpton will soon be protesting the limitations placed on the visitors he can receive upon learning that no more friends, colleagues or media will be permitted at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

This is the most recent setback that in effect is backfiring with more attention being drawn to Sharpton and the “Vieques Four,” as they are fast becoming known.

On Tuesday they--the Rev. Al Sharpton, Bronx Democratic Party leader Roberto Ramirez, Councilman Adolfo Carrion, Jr. and Assemblyman Jose Rivera--learned that the Justice Department had filed papers blocking their release pending an appeal. The only recourse now, short of serving more time under detention, is for a federal appeals court to rule on their request for an appeal of their sentences.

Sharpton, sentenced to 90 days for his civil disobedience demonstration in Vieques, Puerto Rico on May 1, and his cohorts, all sentenced to 40 days, are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. They have been detained since last Wednesday. According to Sharpton’s attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, a decision could come at any moment from the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. He charges that his client and others were not given a chance for a fair trial, receiving a one-day notice to appear in a San Juan courtroom.

“How is it possible that people who have committed felonies are given bail, and my client is not?” Rubenstein asked rhetorically during an interview Tuesday afternoon. “This is a terrible decision and we are going to fight it all the way. Rev. Sharpton is now on a hunger strike, and he has vowed not to eat anything until he and the others are released.”

Former Mayor Ed Koch, Representative Nydia Valesquez, Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker of Canaan Baptist Church and Rev. Ruben Diaz, were among a number of friends and notables visiting the Vieques Four. Walker and Diaz later joined Rubenstein at an impromptu press conference outside the prison where a hundred or so protesters have conducted daily vigils.

On Wednesday the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Abner Louima were among the visitors, and both voiced their concern about the situation. “This whole thing might backfire on the government,” Jackson said of the detention.

“They did nothing wrong…they don’t belong in jail,” Louima asserted.

But the major development of the day was an hour-long interview with Sharpton by Dominic Carter of NY-1. This was the first, and perhaps the last television interview Sharpton will give, and Carter elicited quite a moving reaction from his questions.

Unshaven and dressed in a beige jump suit, (and he is strip search after each visitor leaves) Sharpton became teary when discussing his family, and the endangered children of Vieques at the mercy of U.S. Navy bombing exercises.

“…When you get through all the headlines and hoopla,” Sharpton explained, after noting the disappointment his wife will have since his incarceration will delay their attempt to renew their marriage vows, “I’m a person, married with two children, that I’m in a building with alleged heads of mobs…and people who have done some outrageous things because I peacefully asked why they are bombing these people.

Becoming very emotional, Sharpton said he was disturbed when people don’t feel his genuinely concerned with issues, when he is sincere about his commitments. “You can disagree with me, and take your shot, but at what level do you at least start saying that [i] at least believe in what I’m doing?…when will people can to respect human life, what happens to the children in Vieques…What bothers me is that we reduce people to just chips on a political chess board,” Sharpton said with tears welling in his eyes.