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CANTON -- The Cleveland office of the National Action Network will ask NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to cancel the Aug. 3 NFL Hall of of Fame game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Washington Redskins.
NAN President, the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the cancellation request is in response to a lack of response from Canton Mayor William J. Healy II regarding NAN's previous allegations of police misconduct in the Canton police department.
NAN's Cleveland chapter office is located in Solon and the chapter president is Richard Jones.
"Over the last few years, the National Action Network has received numerous complaints regarding police misconduct in the Canton Police Department. Despite the intervention of (the) Reverend Al Sharpton and a host of broken promises by the city leaders, the situation has not improved," Jones wrote in a letter faxed to the media Tuesday.
Adam Herman, Healy's communications director, said the NAN request for the NFL cancellation comes as "quite a surprise."
"We have a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning with Richard Jones and (Canton) Police Chief Dean McKimm here at City Hall," Herman said.
Herman said arrangements for Thursday's meeting were made Monday.
Also puzzling, Herman said, was the fact that a meeting with Jones and the Canton safety director was already set up in February "but Jones cancelled it."
"We want to address these alleged situations and we hope that Jones will not cancel Thursday's meeting," Herman said.
Also in his letter, Jones cited the Canton police department's lack of action and/or discipline regarding a December incident involving Canton Patrolman Richard Hart.
Jones stated that NAN will "publish the contact information for Roger Goodell, Gene Upshaw, Troy Vincent and every African-American player in the NFL and ask that our brothers and sisters around the world call, fax and bombard these men with the simple request that the NFL hold the city of Canton to the same standard that it held Adam 'Pacman' Jones, Chris Henry Terry 'Tank' Johnson and Michael Vick too."
Upshaw and Vincent are on the NFL PLayers Association executive committee. Jones states that the NFL is 75 percent African-American.
CANTON -- The Cleveland office of the National Action Network will ask NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to cancel the Aug. 3 NFL Hall of of Fame game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Washington Redskins.
NAN President, the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the cancellation request is in response to a lack of response from Canton Mayor William J. Healy II regarding NAN's previous allegations of police misconduct in the Canton police department.
NAN's Cleveland chapter office is located in Solon and the chapter president is Richard Jones.
"Over the last few years, the National Action Network has received numerous complaints regarding police misconduct in the Canton Police Department. Despite the intervention of (the) Reverend Al Sharpton and a host of broken promises by the city leaders, the situation has not improved," Jones wrote in a letter faxed to the media Tuesday.
Adam Herman, Healy's communications director, said the NAN request for the NFL cancellation comes as "quite a surprise."
"We have a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning with Richard Jones and (Canton) Police Chief Dean McKimm here at City Hall," Herman said.
Herman said arrangements for Thursday's meeting were made Monday.
Also puzzling, Herman said, was the fact that a meeting with Jones and the Canton safety director was already set up in February "but Jones cancelled it."
"We want to address these alleged situations and we hope that Jones will not cancel Thursday's meeting," Herman said.
Also in his letter, Jones cited the Canton police department's lack of action and/or discipline regarding a December incident involving Canton Patrolman Richard Hart.
Jones stated that NAN will "publish the contact information for Roger Goodell, Gene Upshaw, Troy Vincent and every African-American player in the NFL and ask that our brothers and sisters around the world call, fax and bombard these men with the simple request that the NFL hold the city of Canton to the same standard that it held Adam 'Pacman' Jones, Chris Henry Terry 'Tank' Johnson and Michael Vick too."
Upshaw and Vincent are on the NFL PLayers Association executive committee. Jones states that the NFL is 75 percent African-American.
