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Anger On Both Sides At Bernie Sanders Rally
Q13 FOX News
SEATTLE -- Anger and frustration continue on both sides after a handful of protesters hijacked a rally at Seattle’s Westlake Park featuring democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
Just as Sanders took the stage to speak on Saturday, two women stormed the podium, identifying themselves as leaders of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Organizers of the event gave in after the women repeatedly demanded to speak before Sanders, who listened to what they had to say, and then left without delivering his remarks.
Responses to the incident on social media were swift and divisive.
Some supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement were disgusted with how the mostly white crowd reacted. Some in the audience had booed the protesters, while others shouted during 4 ½ minutes of silence for Michael Brown, a young black man killed by police last year.
“Black people in America are fighting for their lives,” Seattle-based freelance writer Ijeoma Oluo wrote in The Seattle Globalist. “These protests aren’t just about an election, these protests are about a voice — a voice (that) will no longer be silenced. There will be more protests and more disruptions, and they will happen with more candidates. But this is bigger than the next four years. This is bigger than politics. It may make some people uncomfortable, it may make some people angry — and if it does, you should ask yourself, why weren’t you angry already?”
On the other side, some accused the protesters of acting like bullies – hijacking and ruining an event that thousands of people stood in the hot sun to see.
“What the Black Lives Matter activists did was wrong, plain and simple, and we're not racists for pointing it out,” KIRO Radio host Jason Rantz wrote on MyNorthwest.com. “Your skin color doesn't mean you're above reproach or criticism, no matter how much you want to try to silence people, many of which, at least on Saturday, were already on your misguided side. Your skin color doesn't give you a pass to behave like clowns. Your skin color is no more an excuse for your outrageous actions than it is for a racist's bigoted actions.”
Rantz called the protesters “classless cowards.”
A more measured response came from Washington State Senator Pramila Jayapal, who, in a guest editorial for the Stranger, wrote that the rally left her “feeling heartbroken.”
“Bernie Sanders was a guest in our city—invited by a multiracial coalition to speak on some very important issues,” wrote Sen. Jayapal, who spoke at the event just before Sanders took the stage. “Enormous amounts of work went into yesterday's event and it was so important to talk about preserving and expanding Social Security and Medicare. None of the papers today are covering those issues, because they were eclipsed by what happened. That's not necessarily "wrong"—it just is what it is. But here's what I would have loved to have happen: after the protesters were able to get the mic and say their piece and have the 4.5 minutes of silence for all the black people who have been killed, I would have loved for Bernie Sanders to take the mic and respond. And also to speak about Social Security and Medicare too. Here's what I would love even more: for the Sanders campaign and BLM nationally to sit down and talk about an agenda on racial justice that he can use his presidential platform to help move. Imagine rolling out that agenda and inviting black people to talk about it on stage with him. Now that excites me.”
If anything came out of Saturday’s disruption, it could be a page on Bernie Sanders campaign site addressing his views on racial justice. The page, as The Stranger pointed out, was added after the incident at Westlake.
“We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color,” the page reads. “That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.”
Sanders went on to detail his thoughts on issues of race and how he plans to address those issues if elected.