The Rev. Al Sharpton will lead marches in Staten Island and Washington, D.C., within the next few weeks to draw more national attention to the recent increase in hate crimes in New York, he said yesterday.
“We’re going to bring out numbers like we’ve never seen before,” Sharpton said.
The announcement follows Staten Island DA Daniel Donovan’s decision to not charge Daniel Avissato, 24, and Mark Maleto, 21, both white, with a hate crime in the alleged attack on black victim Skylar McCormick, due to lack of evidence.
The two men pleaded not guilty to second-degree gang assault on McCormick, 20, who suffered a broken jaw. McCormick’s four white companions were not assaulted.
“If it wasn’t hate, why did you call him a racial name and not the others?” Sharpton said to an audience of more than 100 supporters in Harlem. “He was the only one beaten, he was the only one called the N-word.”