Independent US Senator turned Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders headlined a campaign event to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Social Security and Medicare in Seattle, Washington on Saturday. However, before he could deliver his speech, protestors from the Black Lives Matter movement took over the podium and took away the microphone.
Sanders had begun by greeting the audience: “Thank you, Seattle, for being one of the most progressive cities in the United States of America.”
Ironically, Seattle has turned into a regressive failure in promoting those “progressive policies,” notably the $15-an-hour minimum wage hike which has driven businesses out and youth unemployment up.
Just after the moment he was praising Seattle’s progressivism, two black women with long, dyed hair braids ran up to the stage and blocked the podium. They stared at the crowd shouting “Black Lives Matter!,” then turned their focus back to Sanders and one of his assistants.
One of the protesters declared their intentions right away:
“If you do not listen to her, your event will be shut down right now.”
Scattered boos emerged from the crowd waiting to hear the Presidential candidate. A few white Americans were chanting with the two disruptive African-Americans: “Black lives matter!”
This is not the first time that Black Lives Matter associates have disrupted Sanders’ campaigning.
The two black women continued screaming and yelling, and Sanders’ associate acquiesced: “We’re going to let you on the mike.”
Marissa Janae Johnson, one of the women, announced that August 9th was the anniversary of “the ruthless murder of Michael Brown” – despite the fact that autopsies and court records prove that the African-American male Brown was the aggressor in the situation, which forced Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson to fire the fatal shots.
Instead of taking charge of the situation and resuming his speech, the Senator from Vermont stood off to the side, holding his hands clasped together and in front, looking over the crowd, most likely assessing the situation and deciding which course of action to take next.
Johnson continued to promote the BLM movement as though it were sweeping across the country, despite evidence suggesting a growing weariness with the rioting and anti-social behavior associated with the protests. This epic rant from an African-American Californian trying to get to work went viral last year, for example:
One of the candidates’ supporters onstage asked him not to back up, but he remained chagrined, then ultimately left the stage. With the BLM protesters, Sanders waved to his supporters, who chanted “Bernie! Bernie.” Then he left.
His sulking reaction was a telling distinction from another public event, an earlier raucous town hall which Senator Sanders had hosted in Vermont in 2014. During that meeting, he told interrupting participants to “Shut up!” or be removed because of his support for the state of Israel. “You’re entitled to your view. I am entitled to my view,” Sanders scolded the Cabot, Vermont town hall audience.
The Senator’s response to the situation elicited chiefly two divergent reactions on Facebook. From Penny Cash:
[I]n my opinion, BLM made a big mistake in shutting down Bernie Sander's at Westlake Park…They don't seem to realize his causes include theirs and that their lives matter along with all lives mattering.
To his credit on race relations, as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont Sanders had endorsed the African-American Reverend Jesse Jackson for President in 1984 and courted black voters in Birmingham, Alabama earlier this year.
After the event, another supporter reported on Facebook her concerns about Sanders’ leadership skills: “Why didn't Bernie Sanders act like a leader and defuse the situation and speak? I have supported him but I am no longer sure he is up for the challenge.”
The Washington Post reported a more promising outcome at his second Seattle event that day:
Hours later, Sanders, who has been drawing bigger crowds than any other presidential contender, drew his largest yet: about 15,000 at the college basketball arena where the Washington Huskies play.
Sanders will be speaking in Los Angeles, California on August 10th at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
