A Really Dumb Idea

You have to wonder why on earth a New York City Councilman would want to name a street after one of the worst human beings in the city's history. But sure enough, Councilman Al Vann thinks it's a good idea to honor racial arsonist Sonny Carson.

Kudos to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for blocking a bill that would have renamed a Brooklyn street after racist and urban terrorist Sonny Carson.

Councilman Al Vann, who introduced the bill, says he expects the council eventually to approve it, given that the renaming has the support of Community Board 3 and the council "routinely" approves such designations.

We hope that this time councilmembers show a little more common sense.

Since his death in 2002, many New Yorkers may have forgotten just who Sonny Carson was. But his record of hate dates back to the contentious 1968 school strike on Ocean Hill-Brownsville, where he stood out for his demagoguery.

A decade later, he was convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder and served a stretch in prison.

Carson's backers claim this is when he changed, devoting his life to fighting drugs and police brutality. But those who followed his career knew otherwise.

In 1990, Carson personally led the campaign of boycott and physical intimidation against Korean-owned delis in Brooklyn's black neighborhoods, marching with signs that read, "Don't Shop With People Who Don't Look Like Us."

Defy the boycott and you were spat upon and threatened: "In the future," he said, "there'll be funerals, not boycotts."

A year later, he hailed the Crown Heights lynch mob that killed Hasidic scholar Yankel Rosenbaum, saying he was "very proud" of what had happened.

Accused of anti-Semitism, he replied: "I'm anti-white - don't limit my anti's to one group of people."

Carson was among many thugs (does the name Al Sharpton ring any bells?) who ran amok during the disastrous David Dinkins administration and the notion he'd be given such an honor is nauseating.

This bill needs to be scuttled forthwith.