Bernie Sanders sidelined in Seattle as Black Lives Matter activists invade stage
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Version 0 of 1. Related: Black lives don't matter, apparently, to Republican candidates for president | Steven W Thrasher The Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders was shoved aside by several Black Lives Matter activists and eventually had to leave an event in Seattle without giving his speech. Sanders was just starting to address several thousand people gathered shoulder to shoulder at Westlake Park when two women took over the microphone. Organizers could not persuade the two to wait and agreed to give them a few minutes. As Sanders stepped back the women spoke about Ferguson and the killing of Michael Brown and called for four minutes of silence. When the crowd asked the activists to allow Sanders to speak, one activist called the crowd “white supremacist liberals”, according to event participants. After waiting about 20 minutes Sanders himself was pushed away when he tried to take the microphone back. Instead he waved goodbye, left the stage with a raised fist salute and waded into the crowd. He shook hands and posed for photos with supporters for about 15 minutes and then left. The rally at Westlake Park had been organized as a birthday celebration for social security, Medicare and Medicaid. Related: American, socialist and proud: meet Bernie Sanders's supporters Sanders spoke later on Saturday night to a packed crowd at the University of Washington campus about his commitment to criminal justice reform as well as addressing income equality. “No president will fight harder to end institutional racism and reform criminal justice system,” he told the cheering crowd at Hec Edmundson pavilion. “Too many lives have been destroyed by war on drugs, by incarceration; we need to educate people. We need to put people to work.” Related: Bernie Sanders: structural racism needs to end for economic justice to succeed | Sabrina Hersi Issa Sanders later issued a statement on his website expressing his disappointment about the interruption. It’s not the first time that Black Lives Matter activists disrupt the Vermont senator’s event. At a town hall for Democratic presidential candidates in Phoenix in July, protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement took over the stage and disrupted an interview with Sanders and the former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley. |