Two hundred people once again picketed in front of the New York Post office on Thursday, protesting a controversial cartoon published in the newspaper's Wednesday edition, according to a report seen on www.ny1.com.
The Page Six political cartoon published on Wednesday depicts a chimpanzee shot dead with a police officer standing over its body and saying, "We'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."
The cartoon by Sean Delonas came out after a crazed chimpanzee was shot to death in Connecticut for violently attacking a friend of its owner.
State and local lawmakers first picketed outside the New York Post building on Wednesday in protest of the political cartoon they say is "blatantly racist." They called on the paper to apologize, and demanded it fire the cartoonist and the editor who approved it, Xinhua reported.
Soon after the issue hit newsstands, the Rev. Al Sharpton -- and other black opinion makers like CNN's Roland Martin -- blasted the cartoon as an attack on U.S. President Barack Obama's skin color and African-Americans in general.
"Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama and has become synonymous with him, it is not a reach to wonder: Are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?" Sharpton said.
However, the cartoonist called Sharpton's charges "ridiculous," the report said.
In a statement, the Post says, "The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist," according to the report.