On Tuesday February 19th the New York Post ran a cartoon (above) that depicted two police officers standing over the bullet riddled body of a chimp with a smoking gun in one of their hands.The text bubble overhead reads : "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill". The cartoon is supposed to play off two news story's that were current at the time. President Obama signing the stimulus bill and the Chimpanzee attack in Connecticut that left a woman fighting for her life.
Shortly after the Post hit the shelves it was blasted as racist by many readers including Reverend Al Sharpton. He and many others felt it was an attack on Obama's skin color and African-Americans in general. Cartoonist also weighed in their opinions saying that not did they find it racist but also that gunfire and cruelty to animals is not tolerated anymore, not since 9/11. They added that the cartoonist Sean Delonas shouldn't be blamed as it was at the editors discretion to add the satire.
The New York Post issued this apology. "Wednesdays Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a Chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created significant controversy. The cartoon was supposed to mock the ineptly written stimulus bill but it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama - as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This was most certainly not the intent, to those offended by the image we apologize".
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