Image Credit: AFGE via Flickr
Chaos broke out at a Bernie Sanders speech Sunday when two Black Lives Matter protesters took the stage and confronted the independent presidential hopeful.
The event, which took place at Seattle, Washington’s Westlake Park, was held to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Social Security. Sanders, the event’s featured speaker, was in the middle of thanking Seattle “for being one of the most progressive cities in the United States of America” when the pair of protesters stepped on stage.
The protestors began pushing for a chance to speak… in no unclear terms. They threatened to “shut down” the event unless they were given the opportunity to speak, even though Sanders had been scheduled to speak himself.
A few minutes and a long shouting match later, they got their chance to speak to the crowd. They talked about prevalent racism in the city of Seattle and held a four and a half minute moment of silence for Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was killed by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri a year ago Sunday.
The protests? Perhaps ill-timed, but fair. The moment of silence? Definitely a respectful, meaningful gesture. But it was these protesters’ choice of event and candidate to “attack” that has even allies of the movement wondering… why?
For those who may not know, Bernie Sanders has a long history of supporting the civil rights movement. He took part in sit-ins, got arrested, and even participated in the 1963 March on Washington—and his progressive agenda shows no sign of deviance from this path. So the fact that this pair of protesters chose his event to disrupt (no matter how good their intentions) is confusing, to say the least.
Watch the video below and decide for yourself—did these protesters take it too far? Or were they completely justified in their behavior?