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Sharpton Hopes Civil Disobedience Will Be Peaceful

Plans More Protests Of Sean Bell Verdict

NEW YORK (CBS) ― There are new plans of massive demonstrations that could tie up large parts of the city. The protests, against the verdict in the Sean Bell police shooting trial, set for Wednesday, will stretch from Harlem to Brooklyn.

Organizers warn that police could be forced to make hundreds of arrests. Rev. Al Sharpton vowed to bring sections of the city to a stand still with a series of what he calls pray-ins. At a protest on Wednesday, he said to look for demonstrators to be on the knees, getting arrested.

"If you're not going to lock up the guilty in this town I guess you have to lock up the innocent," said Sharpton. "Where we go from there is anybody's guess," Rachel Noerdlinger, Sharpton's spokeswoman, said later, adding that wherever protesters end up, "they'll be arrested praying."

Large crowds are expected for the midweek acts of civil disobedience. For the massive pray-in, Sharpton is asking protesters to gather Wednesday at 3 p.m. in at least six places around the city: 125th Street and Third Avenue; 60th Street and Third Avenue; 34th Street and Park Avenue; Varick and Houston streets; One Police Plaza; and House of the Lord Church on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

Sharpton said the protesters would fan out from their meeting points, but he would not disclose their destinations.

Carol Taylor says she'll be there. "I was America's first black flight attendant," Taylor told CBS 2. "I'm 76 and a half years old and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."

Sharpton has promised to "close this city down" to protest the April 25 acquittals of three police detectives in the 50-shot barrage that killed the unarmed Bell on his wedding day in 2006. Two friends were wounded.

On Wednesday, demonstrators tied up traffic outside Madison Square Garden. Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell made this promise: "I will be there and everyone who's willing to support us please come out and we're going to do this peacefully like we always have."

Sharpton said that the planned pray-in is only the start of whatever actions are necessary to oppose the verdict. "It's going to be a long struggle, but the race isn't given to the swift or the strong, but to those who endure," Sharpton said.

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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