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Sharpton convicted of disorderly conduct

  • Story Highlights
  • Civil rights activist sentenced to time already served after arrest in May 7 protests
  • Crowds were protesting acquittal of New York City police in wedding day slaying
  • Hundreds crowded streets, closing Brooklyn Bridge and delaying Manhattan traffic
  • Sean Bell, 23, died in 2006 in a 50-bullet barrage hours before he was to be married
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton was convicted Wednesday of two counts of disorderly conduct stemming from a citywide protest in May in which hundreds of people were arrested.

Sharpton was sentenced to time already served after his May 7 arrest, said a spokeswoman for a New York Criminal Court for Manhattan.

The series of protests, dubbed a "Day of Civil Disobedience" by Sharpton, were coordinated demonstrations at various locations around New York City to express unhappiness with the acquittal of three police detectives in the shooting death of Sean Bell on his wedding day.

Hundreds of protesters crowded streets and blocked bridges, chanting and praying. The congestion momentarily shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and caused some traffic delays in lower Manhattan.

"In the spirit and teaching of Dr. [Martin Luther] King, we come to nonviolently say it's come to this point and we raise it to this level of attention and ask the federal government to step in," Sharpton said minutes before his arrest.

More than 200 people were arrested that day, and most were cited for disorderly conduct, police said.

Bell, 23, died in November 2006 in a 50-bullet barrage hours before he was to be married. The acquittal of the three New York City detectives on April 25 sparked outrage in New York and elsewhere.

Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, and Joseph Guzman, who was wounded by police during the incident, were among those arrested.

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