Talk:Michael Riccardi

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Michael Riccardi apology to Al Sharpton

http://kenya740.tripod.com/sharpton.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/v-pfriendly/story/143539p-127071c.html

Bnguyen 16:02, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Sharpton: City's attitude cuts deep

By JOHN MARZULLI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

He has forgiven the man who plunged a knife into his chest, but the Rev. Al Sharpton still feels he was stabbed in the back by the city and the NYPD. Despite a $200,000 payout to settle a suit charging cops failed to protect him at a protest march in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in 1991, Sharpton was irked by a city statement backing cops and admitting no liability.

"That was cold and insensitive," Sharpton told the Daily News yesterday. "The money is immaterial. There was no respect for the fact that my life could have been taken."

Sharpton said his assailant, Michael Riccardi, not only apologized to him during an emotional jailhouse meeting, but also asked forgiveness from the civil rights leader's family.

Riccardi served eight years in prison for the Jan. 12, 1991, attack, which occurred as Sharpton was about to lead a protest march in Bensonhurst one block away from where a black teen, Yusuf Hawkins, was slain by a mob two years earlier. "The man who stabbed me with the knife showed more sensitivity than the city," Sharpton fumed.

Despite a large contingent of cops on hand for the march, Riccardi was able to penetrate a police frozen zone.

"I think part of it was [the cops] didn't take seriously the threats and probably some of them didn't care," he said.

Sharpton, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for President, said most of the $200,000 will go to his lawyers and repay loans he was forced to take out at the time because he was unable to earn money preaching.

A spokeswoman for city Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo declined to comment on Sharpton's remarks

02:10, 13 September 2006 (UTC)