#BlackLivesMatter’s Weekend with Bernie

 

Over the weekend, a handful of #BlackLivesMatter activists took over the podium at a Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle and proceeded to berate the crowd with a litany of racial grievances while a frustrated Sanders stood aside. We’ve got a great discussion on the matter going on on the Member Feed (Not a member? There’s an easy way an easy way to fix that.) Warning: video contains some brief uses of language outside Ricochet’s Code of Conduct:

This is likely not the last time this will happen. As such, Republicans need to think hard about how they’ll respond should a something similar happen at their own rally. A few quick thoughts:

  • Notice how much the (leftist) crowd hated this stunt: for every cheer, there seemed to be two boos and a jeer, (not to mention that one “How dare you!” from one of the attendees). Think of how wonderful it would have been to do an interview with the woman who said that under the headline “Activists made my hippie grandma cry for attending a Bernie Sanders rally.” These kids have the potential to be a fetid albatross around the Democratic Party’s neck if this is played right.
  • If this is played wrong ,they have the potential to do enormous harm, especially once they start trying this at Republican rallies. Nothing would play into their hands better than for than to be violently evicted, tasered, or pepper-sprayed on the orders of a bunch of white — or “white Hispanic” — male Republican politicians. I don’t know enough about security to comment much further, other than to say that any Republican candidate who hasn’t already met with his security detail to discuss this likely isn’t sharp enough to be president.

Over to you, Ricochet.

Published in Policing, Politics
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  1. Klaatu Inactive
    Klaatu
    @Klaatu

    If I were a candidate, I would be prepared to cut the mic and have a manners lecture prepared to deliver to those rude enough to interrupt.

    • #1
  2. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    She forgot to say, “Welcome to Seattle, one of the whitest cities in the nation.”

    • #2
  3. Nick Stuart Inactive
    Nick Stuart
    @NickStuart

    Looked darn close to assault. Note how they’re female blacks. At some point there’s going to be a violent pushback on these tactics (and these are deliberate planned tactics) and it’s not going to be pretty (not advocating it, just predicting it.).

    Have a raised speakers platform where access can be controlled.

    Don’t have rallies in uncontrollable public spaces.

    • #3
  4. Austin Murrey Inactive
    Austin Murrey
    @AustinMurrey

    Nick Stuart:Have a raised speakers platform where access can be controlled. Don’t have rallies in uncontrollable public spaces.

    This is pretty much all there is to it – although the people making these “brave” stands are limited to preaching to the choir and are getting on people’s last nerve.

    Part of the reason for Bernie Sanders’ rise is that he is pretty blunt about what he believes and even the progressive left seems to be getting tired of the grievance mongers.

    • #4
  5. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    I believe that the vast majority of American voters want to see order restored immediately. They do not want to see protesters take over an event. They want security to prevent the protesters from seizing the podium and microphone in the first place, and, failing that, to retake them immediately, peacefully if possible, but with force if not possible.

    Would the Secret Service allow this to happen at an event where the president was going to speak? Would the spectacle of the protesters being tackled, cuffed, and carted off be met with applause or condemnation?

    The Republican candidate in your hypothetical should just do what the Secret Service would have done, and then, once order is restored, give an impromptu speech explaining how important civility is for public discourse, and how awful it would be for a bunch of white protesters to try to pull a stunt like this at a rally being held by a black speaker. Explain that if these people can hijack an event, so can others, and civil discourse breaks down. You end up with armed guards surrounding the stage as if it’s a black panther rally.

    I think people will understand that civility requires order.

    • #5
  6. Ion Inactive
    Ion
    @Ion

    Always have Bette Midler’s “From a Distance” on que and immediately drown out the protesters with this song at top volume.

    • #6
  7. Terry Mott Member
    Terry Mott
    @TerryMott

    Ion:Always have Bette Midler’s “From a Distance” on que and immediately drown out the protesters with this song at top volume.

    Or maybe some Slim Whitman.

    • #7
  8. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Ion: Always have Bette Midler’s “From a Distance” on que and immediately drown out the protesters with this song at top volume.

    #MicOffDon’tTase?

    • #8
  9. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    I think the perfect response would be to cut the mic, then address them through a separate loudspeaker system and say something along the lines of:

    “Yes, Black Lives Matter, this is an important issue to you that I wish to address. After this rally is completed I would love to speak with you, hear your issues and figure out how we can move forward together and address them.”

    Basically be the bigger person. If that doesn’t shut them up (it won’t) at least the next step of dragging them out will play better.

    • #9
  10. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Man With the Axe: The Republican candidate in your hypothetical should just do what the Secret Service would have done, and then, once order is restored, give an impromptu speech explaining how important civility is for public discourse, and how awful it would be for a bunch of white protesters to try to pull a stunt like this at a rally being held by a black speaker. Explain that if these people can hijack an event, so can others, and civil discourse breaks down. You end up with armed guards surrounding the stage as if it’s a black panther rally.

    This is the wrong play. It will just make the hypothetical Republican look like he is lecturing people. It will play well to the white Grandma’s and extremely poorly to the young and the non-white.

    • #10
  11. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Jamie Lockett: It will just make the hypothetical Republican look like he is lecturing people. It will play well to the white Grandma’s and extremely poorly to the young and the non-white.

    People who think that it’s okay to take over a rally by force and there’s nothing the authorities can do about it are not open to listening to or voting for a conservative candidate. There are many millions of young people out there who are aching for someone in authority to show some backbone.

    Let’s hope it’s not Donald Trump who is the only one who gets this.

    • #11
  12. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Man With the Axe: People who think that it’s okay to take over a rally by force and there’s nothing the authorities can do about it are not open to listening to or voting for a conservative candidate. There are many millions of young people out there who are aching for someone in authority to show some backbone. Let’s hope it’s not Donald Trump who is the only one who gets this.

    I’m not talking about convincing these idiots. But there are a lot of persuadable people that would see that footage and be turned off by it.

    • #12
  13. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Jamie Lockett:

    Man With the Axe: People who think that it’s okay to take over a rally by force and there’s nothing the authorities can do about it are not open to listening to or voting for a conservative candidate. There are many millions of young people out there who are aching for someone in authority to show some backbone. Let’s hope it’s not Donald Trump who is the only one who gets this.

    I’m not talking about convincing these idiots. But there are a lot of persuadable people that would see that footage and be turned off by it.

    I think there’s some truth in both of these. The #BlackLivesMatter folks do not have instant sympathy (again, witness the booing, jeering, and general offense taken by the Sanders crowd). However, they can likely hijack sympathy — with some help from Clinton — if we respond in a way that makes them look like the victim.

    This is going to be tough.

    • #13
  14. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Jamie Lockett: But there are a lot of persuadable people that would see that footage and be turned off by it.

    Would you be turned off by it?

    What do these “persuadable people” want the authorities to do? Let the bad guys win?

    • #14
  15. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    In general I’m turned off by any politician who tells me how I should behave.

    • #15
  16. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Jamie Lockett:In general I’m turned off by any politician who tells me how I should behave.

    So, I guess you would be turned off by these words in which a politician urged people to behave in a nicer way than he imagined they were contemplating:

    “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

    • #16
  17. Mike Hubbard Inactive
    Mike Hubbard
    @MikeHubbard

    Does anybody remember the short lived Occupy Wall Street folks?  Whenever a gaggle of them would try to interrupt someone, the speaker would simply ask the crowd to applaud if they’d rather hear him than the occupy goons.  Eventually, OWS gave up.  I suspect that the right will figure out how to handle the #BlackLivesMeanWeCanBeObnoxious crowd soon enough.

    • #17
  18. Bereket Kelile Member
    Bereket Kelile
    @BereketKelile

    This video doesn’t have the confrontation when they took the mic but Sanders said “let’s be reasonable,” to which they replied with an ironic, blood-curdling scream,”we are being reasonable.” Hard not to laugh out of schadenfreude.

    • #18
  19. Bereket Kelile Member
    Bereket Kelile
    @BereketKelile

    We are being reasonable!!!

    https://youtu.be/6BnbwUT7lBg

    • #19
  20. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Man With the Axe: So, I guess you would be turned off by these words in which a politician urged people to behave in a nicer way than he imagined they were contemplating: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

    Sigh. I dunno how do you feel about this:

    If a man wants to succeed in his work, that is, to achieve the anticipated results, he must bring his ideas into correspondence with the laws of the objective external world; if they do not correspond, he will fail in his practice. After he fails, he draws his lessons, corrects his ideas to make them correspond to the laws of the external world, and can thus turn failure into success; this is what is meant by “failure is the mother of success” and “a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit”.

    Or perhaps we should just stop with the ad verecundiam?

    • #20
  21. Arizona Patriot Member
    Arizona Patriot
    @ArizonaPatriot

    1.  I really want to see them try this on Chris Christie.  I think he’ll refuse to give up the microphone, and will give them a terrific tongue-lashing without being disrespectful.

    2. I’d like to see a candidate with the chutzpah to say:

    “You are not going to advance your cause by acting like thugs.  If you storm the stage forcibly and try to drag this mike out of my hand, you’re acting like a criminal.  You will be treated as a criminal.  This is something that mush-minded Leftists don’t understand.  Peaceful protest does not mean trespassing or bullying.  If you don’t understand the difference, then you will be the ones starting the violence, and I’m here to tell you that you won’t be the ones that end it.  We will end it for you, and you won’t like the ending.”

    “I agree that black lives matter, and all lives matter.  I’m happy to listen to you and talk to you at the right time and place.  But this is not that time or place, and if you try to take over this meeting by force, you will be met by superior force.”

    • #21
  22. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Bereket Kelile: We are being reasonable!!!

    Thanks for showing that. I had not previously seen the actual takeover of the event by these shrieking harpies and their goonish companion. Now, I’m more certain than before that allowing these people to hijack the event was a serious mistake. No sensible person watching that would have done anything but applaud if the protesters were wrestled to the ground and arrested.

    What have we become when such people are allowed to intimidate all the rest of us? This reminds me more than anything else of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Like all mob behavior, it only gets worse if it is not met with resolve and force.

    Or do we need to allow space for those who wish to destroy?

    • #22
  23. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    Jamie Lockett: Or perhaps we should just stop with the ad verecundiam?

    I’m not appealing to authority. I’m suggesting that a lecture on how to behave is not obnoxious when delivered with tact, and when it happens to be right.

    • #23
  24. John Penfold Member
    John Penfold
    @IWalton

    Some folks just get their meaning from meaningless gestures. But not always, today in Ferguson, the news and commentators and leaders speak of the peaceful nature of the protests and that brick throwers and shooters  and looters aren’t part of the “peaceful” protest.  What nonsense.  The protest is the vehicle and it is a purposeful and known vehicle.   But what is the real objective?  What do we know about their backing?   Or are we to believe that these good souls can’t know what will happen?  

    • #24
  25. Man With the Axe Inactive
    Man With the Axe
    @ManWiththeAxe

    I just happened to see this video, and I have to say I’m changing my mind about “black lives matter.” I don’t know how it was that I missed the ethical and philosophical basis of the movement, and how much truth it has to speak to all of us. But this particular statement of the “black lives matter” credo, and the moral authority of the speaker, have completely altered my thinking. Thank you, Frederick Young of Detroit.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6XviokosuI

    • #25
  26. Dean Murphy Member
    Dean Murphy
    @DeanMurphy

    Arizona Patriot:1. I really want to see them try this on Chris Christie. I think he’ll refuse to give up the microphone, and will give them a terrific tongue-lashing without being disrespectful.

    2. I’d like to see a candidate with the chutzpah to say:

    “You are not going to advance your cause by acting like thugs. If you storm the stage forcibly and try to drag this mike out of my hand, you’re acting like a criminal. You will be treated as a criminal. This is something that mush-minded Leftists don’t understand. Peaceful protest does not mean trespassing or bullying. If you don’t understand the difference, then you will be the ones starting the violence, and I’m here to tell you that you won’t be the ones that end it. We will end it for you, and you won’t like the ending.”

    “I agree that black lives matter, and all lives matter. I’m happy to listen to you and talk to you at the right time and place. But this is not that time or place, and if you try to take over this meeting by force, you will be met by superior force.”

    IF our candidates say “all lives matter” that will be the end of the discussion right there.  See what they did to Martin O’Malley for that one?

    Anything less than “hands up don’t shoot black lives matter” is going to be answered with verbal violence if not more.

    The object of these exercises, despite the protestations of those perpetrating them, is NOT to be heard, but to shut you up.

    • #26
  27. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Man With the Axe: I’m not appealing to authority. I’m suggesting that a lecture on how to behave is not obnoxious when delivered with tact, and when it happens to be right.

    It depends on who it is directed at and what the lecture is seeking to accomplish. Let me say that the circumstances surrounding your quote are vastly different than those in 2015.

    • #27
  28. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Bereket Kelile:We are being reasonable!!!

    Good Lord. I wish I had posted that one instead.

    • #28
  29. 6foot2inhighheels Member
    6foot2inhighheels
    @6foot2inhighheels

    Code Pink invaded a Ted Cruz speech recently.  Watch how he masterfully maintains control over the situation.

    • #29
  30. Bereket Kelile Member
    Bereket Kelile
    @BereketKelile

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:

    Bereket Kelile:We are being reasonable!!!

    Good Lord. I wish I had posted that one instead.

    Man With the Axe:

    Bereket Kelile: We are being reasonable!!!

    Thanks for showing that. I had not previously seen the actual takeover of the event by these shrieking harpies and their goonish companion. Now, I’m more certain than before that allowing these people to hijack the event was a serious mistake. No sensible person watching that would have done anything but applaud if the protesters were wrestled to the ground and arrested.

    What have we become when such people are allowed to intimidate all the rest of us? This reminds me more than anything else of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Like all mob behavior, it only gets worse if it is not met with resolve and force.

    Or do we need to allow space for those who wish to destroy?

    At least now we know what the Iranian negotiations looked like.

    • #30
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