Mediaboss Marketing

The Rev. Al Sharpton addresses the congregation during services on Sunday at Charity Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston. PAUL ZOELLER/STAFF

In front of a somber mayor and a sheriff who later asked for salvation, the Rev. Al Sharpton said during a Sunday morning sermon in North Charleston that the city could set a new tone for American policing.

Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, appeared at Charity Missionary Baptist Church during a healing service for 50-year-old Walter L. Scott, an unarmed black man whose killing by a white North Charleston police officer was caught on video a little more than a week ago.

The service portrayed how community activists, from local ones to Sharpton in New York City, reacted to Scotts death and, in some cases, ultimately played a role in the arrest of the man who shot him.

It also came on a day when Malik Shabazz, a lead organizer of protests in Ferguson, Mo., who once led the New Black Panther Party, announced a mass demonstration at 5 p.m. Monday outside City Hall and vowed to take the struggle against police brutality to a whole new level.

During Sharptons sermon, Mayor Keith Summey and Police Chief Eddie Driggers sat near the front of the sanctuary and listened to the civil rights activist rail against police misconduct in the U.S. and refer to North Charlestons past as one pockmarked with social injustices. Two protesters stood outside the church on East Montague Avenue and carried signs about police abuses.

But Sharpton spoke passionately as he praised the city leaders for promptly firing Patrolman 1st Class Michael T. Slager when the video surfaced and for announcing the officers arrest on a murder charge. That set North Charleston apart from places like Ferguson and New York City, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and Eric Garner was choked to death by police officers who were not criminally faulted, Sharpton said.

When hes wrong ... we protest, he said of mayors like Summey. When hes right, we should have the same courage to say hes right.

Summey has been distraught and disappointed since he watched the video, he later said, but the service gave him some peace.

The rest is here:
Sharpton: In wake of Walter Scotts death, North Charleston could set new tone in policing nationwide