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Recording reveals chokehold victim Eric Garner's daughter denouncing activist Al Sharpton: 'He's about money'

Recording was made by right-wing activists posing as supporters

Andrew Buncombe
Tuesday 24 February 2015 15:39 GMT
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The daughter of Eric Garner, the black New Yorker who died after being placed in a chokehold by police, has been recorded denouncing activist Al Sharpton and accusing him of being "about money".

In the days after Mr Garner’s death in July 2014 and the decision by prosecutors not to charge the police officers involved, Mr Sharpton was one of the most high-profile and outspoken supporters of the family

But staff from a right-wing group who posed as supporters of Mr Garner and his filmed his daughter, Erica Snipes, last month at a protest, found evidence that all was not well between Mr Garner’s family and the veteran activist.

“You think Al Sharpton is kind of like a crook in a sense?” the person posing as a supporter is heard asking Mr Garner’s oldest daughter.

“He’s about this,” says Ms Snipes replies, rubbing her fingers together.

“He’s about money with you?” the undercover person asks. “Yeah,” Ms Snipes responds.

The eight-minute video also includes interviews with other black community leaders and activists, most of whom had something negative to say about Rev Sharpton, who is often targeted by conservative for his liberal views.

The footage was recorded by members of an organisation founded by controversial conservative activist James O’Keefe and called the Project Veritas. There has been no public comment yet from Mr Sharpton.

Ms Snipes, 24, also complained that the Staten Island director of Mr Sharpton’s National Action Network, Cynthia Davis, scolded her for handing out street fliers about her father’s case that did not include the NAN logo.

“She started attacking me. ‘Oh, I see that you got this flier out, how come you didn’t add the logo?’ ’’ Ms Snipes said. “Al Sharpton paid for the funeral. She’s trying to make me feel like I owe them,” she adds.

There has been no immediate comment from Ms Davis. Ms Snipes told the New York Post that denied that she had accused Mr Sharpton of being a money grabbing.

“No, I didn’t say that I think Al Sharpton is all about the money,” she said. “They’re splicing and dicing stuff together. It was a distortion.’

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