A Rally of Stupidity

Who exactly benefits from a rally that would boycott local businesses at the height of the holiday season? It certainly isn't the businesses who would be affected by any such boycott. Many of them are minority owned and operated. Yet, the NAACP thinks that boycotting businesses that had absolutely nothing to do with the police shooting of Sean Bell is a good idea:

At a rally arranged by the state's NAACP chapter, one woman yelled, "Don't shop! That is the money that pays the cops' salary!" amid chants of "Don't shop! Boycott!"

Organizers said the aim was to force the NYPD to soften its tactics.

"We're trying to get a solution, not create more hostility," said NAACP adviser Valerie Cohen.

Shoppers mostly ignored the third straight weekend of protests since five cops fired 50 bullets at three unarmed black men leaving a Queens strip club, killing the groom-to-be, Bell, 23.

The march, from Jamaica Avenue and 168th Street to the shooting scene at Liverpool Street and 94th Avenue, began with some 200 people but picked up hundreds more en route.

Thankfully, most people recognized this rally for what it was - a publicity stunt and continued their patronage of businesses in the area.