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The Baton Rouge Advocate

July 7, 2016

Rev. Al Sharpton is coming to Baton Rouge to meet with the family of Alton Sterling, the long-time civil rights activist revealed in a blog post Thursday for the Huffington Post. A date for his visit was not specified.

Sterling, a black man, was fatally shot by a white police officer in a Baton Rouge convenience store parking lot Tuesday after officers reportedly responded to a disturbance call.

“While responding to the rallying cry in Baton Rouge, I was shocked to see yet another incident in Minnesota, this time involving the death of Philando Castile by police — whose aftermath was also caught on video,” Sharpton said in the post.

He said such tragedies are “a national problem that requires national reform of police culture and the criminal justice system itself. Nothing short of that will turn this calamity around.”

Sharpton’s National Action Network web page posted a letter from Baton Rouge’s the Rev. Shelton Dixon, senior pastor of Greater Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, asking Sharpton to come to Baton Rouge.

Citing the National Action Network’s “long track record of assisting families who are victims of police misconduct,” the letter says, “We are seeking the involvement of an organization like National Action Network because we want to ensure that the fight for justice will continue even when the cameras go away.”

Rachel Noerdlinger