At a Saturday afternoon rally in Seattle, Washington, Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
was shut down by screeching Black Lives Matters protestors.
As Sanders was speaking, two women surrounded his podium and said they would shut the event down if they were not allowed to speak. When an attempt was made to ask the women to “be reasonable,” they began shouting. Soon, avowed socialist Sanders was forced to leave the stage where he shook hands with many white well-wishers in the audience.
WATCH:
The Seattle Times reports:
Some in the mostly white audience booed and hissed as they urged protesters to let the senator talk. A few yelled for police to make arrests. One activist on stage replied the Seattle crowd was proving they were “white supremacist liberals.”After denouncing the crowd, the activists demanded 4 ½ minutes of silence in memory of Michael Brown, the black man shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri a year ago. While rally organizers stood and raised their hands in support, some in the crowd yelled profanities.After the few minutes of silence, the protesters said they wanted to hold Sanders accountable for failing to address their concerns when he was similarly interrupted at a town hall for liberal activists in Phoenix last month.
Sanders quickly issues a statement via Twitter:
I am disappointed that two people disrupted a rally attended by thousands at which I was invited to speak about fighting to protect Social Security and Medicare. I was especially disappointed because on criminal justice reform and the need to fight racism there is no other candidate for president who will fight harder than me.
The protesters put out a statement on Facebook that reads in full:
Today BLM Seattle, with the support of other Black organizers and non-Black allies and accomplices, held Bernie Sanders publicly accountable for his lack of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and his blatantly silencing response to the#SayHerName #IfIDieInPoliceCustody action that took place at Netroots this year.Bernie’s arrival in Seattle is largely significant in the context of the state of emergency Black lives are in locally as well as across America. The Seattle Police Department has been under federal consent decree for the last three years and has been continually plagued by use-of-force violations and racist scandals amongst their rank and file. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has refused to push any reform measures for police accountability, not even the numerous recommendations of his self-appointed Community Police Commission. The Seattle School District suspends Black students at a rate six times higher than their white counterparts, feeding Black children into the school-to-prison pipeline. King County has fought hard to push through a plan to build a $210 million new youth jail to imprison these children, amid intense community criticism and dissent. The Central District, a historically Black neighborhood in Seattle, has undergone rapid gentrification over the past few decades, with Black people being displaced from the only neighborhood that we could legally live in until just years ago. While white men profit off of the legalization of marijuana, our prisons are still filled with Black people who are over-incarcerated for drug offenses.This city is filled with white progressives, which is why Bernie Sanders’ camp was obviously expecting a friendly and consenting audience for today’s campaign visit. The problem with Sanders’, and with white Seattle progressives in general, is that they are utterly and totally useless (when not outright harmful) in terms of the fight for Black lives. While we are drowning in their liberal rhetoric, we have yet to see them support Black grassroots movements or take on any measure of risk and responsibility for ending the tyranny of white supremacy in our country and in our city. This willful passivity while claiming solidarity with the #BlackLivesMattermovement in an effort to be relevant is over. White progressive Seattle and Bernie Sanders cannot call themselves liberals while they participate in the racist system that claims Black lives. Bernie Sanders will not continue to call himself a man of the people, while ignoring the plight of Black people. Presidential candidates will not win Black votes without putting out an explicit criminal justice reform package. As was said at the Netroots action, presidential candidates should expect to be shut down and confronted every step along the way of this presidential campaign. Black people are in a state of emergency. Lines have been drawn in the sand. You are either fighting continuously and measurably to protect Black life in America, or you are a part of the white supremacist system that we will tear down in the liberation of our people.On this, nearly the one year anniversary of the ruthless murder of Mike Brown, we honor Black lives lost by doing the unthinkable, the unapologetic, and the unrespectable. Out of radical love for our Black brothers and sisters, we put our lives and our bodies on the line to testify to their persecution and resilience. We join together in Black love to #SayHerName and declare that #BlackLivesMatter, understanding that our love will disrupt the complicity and corruption of our anti-Black society; GOP, Democrat, and otherwise.There is no business as usual while Black lives are lost. We will ensure this by any means necessary.With the strength of our ancestors and for the future of our children,Black Lives Matter Seattle Co-FoundersMarissa Johnson and Mara Willaford#BowDownBernie (and Kiss their ass)
#SayHerName
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody (listen to the Police)
#NotOneMoreDeportation (If they are Illegal come back the right way)
#FreePalestine (if their terrorist i would tell you to go fuck yourself)
#MikeBrown (was a criminal or a thug that committed in a crime)
#BlackLivesMatter (all lives matter )
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2015/08/08/bernie-sanders-forced-off-seattle-stage-by-black-lives-matter/
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