Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called for criminal justice reform and discussed the Black Lives Matter movement Saturday at the BET's Presidential Justice Forum. Sanders opened his speech at the bipartisan event by listing off what he called "horrible facts."
"I’m going to start with an issue that is on everyone’s mind, the continuing struggle for racial justice in America," Sanders said, reported Fusion. Sanders then listed off a number of statistics, such as black people being imprisoned at six times the rate of white people and one out of 15 African-American men being incarcerated.
"These are shocking statistics to say the least," Sanders said. "But before we even address those, we have to deal with the most urgent and obvious issue that needs to be addressed head on. And that is the killing of African-Americans by police or deaths while in custody."
“[People] must do more than just echo the phrase Black Lives Matter,” Sanders said. “We must put actions behind those words. Actions that will bring about the fundamental reform that is needed in the face of this crisis. Criminal justice reform must be the civil rights issue of the 21st century and the first piece has to be police reform. The killings of African-Americans has got to stop.”
GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders came to Allen University Saturday with very different views of the criminal justice system and what should be done to address its failings.
The two men and Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley, as well as representatives from other campaigns, appeared at Allen, a small historically black private university, for a presidential justice forum organized by 20/20, a group of black Democrats and black Republicans, to prod candidates to outline their plans for reforming the justice system and community policing.
The forum and the issues discussed, broadcast by Black Entertainment Television, have more than a passing relevance for South Carolina, which made national news this year with the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white North Charleston police officer captured by a cell phone camera, and the tossing of a black high school student across the floor by a white school resource officer, also captured by a cell phone camera.
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We must reinvent how we police America,” he told the mostly black audience. “Lethal force must be the last resort, not the first resort.”
Sanders' comments were punctuated by applause.
He proposed increased training of officers, providing the “carrot” of funding for police departments that seek reform. He said he wants to stop the criminalization of classroom misbehavior and to mandate federal investigations into cases in which unarmed people are killed by police or die while in custody.
A coalition of local union chapters came out Friday against national leaders at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders.
Labor for Bernie includes many local union chapters, notably some from within the SEIU. The coalition has used rallies and grassroots mobilizing campaigns to advocate for the Vermont-democratic socialist. Despite Bernie getting a lot of support from local chapters, national leaders at the SEIU announced an official endorsement of Hillary Nov. 17.
“SEIU’s decision to endorse Clinton is short-sighted and unprincipled,” a coalition email obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation declared. “It is based on a failed strategy of engaging in purely ‘transactional’ politics with corporate liberals. That’s why members who support Bernie Sanders are so understandably frustrated.”
Though the coalition consists mostly of local unions, the American Postal Workers Union, the United Electrical Workers and the National Nurses United also have representation. Former Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen is helping to lead the effort.
“Many feel that SEIU’s endorsement process was insufficiently responsive to rank-and-file sentiment,” the email continued. “Some are threatening to stop their voluntary contributions to SEIU political action funds.”
On the campus of Allen University, a small HBCU downtown here, Bernie Sanders gave a crowd at a criminal justice advocacy summit a lesson in the obvious: It’s not going well for him in the fourth state on the Democratic primary calendar.
But, Sanders said, there’s still time.
“We are going to do well in South Carolina, but we’re not doing well right now,”
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Sanders went so far as to say he could win South Carolina, though he said the victory would come as a surprise to many.
“I think we’re going to shock some people on Election Day, because I think we’re going to win here,” Sanders told a crowd in Columbia moments after officially filing the paperwork to be a candidate on the Democratic primary ballot.
He was more even more direct about his current chances at his first stop of the day, a Democratic party rally in Charleston.
“If the election were held today, I would lose,” Sanders said. “Fortunately for us, the election is not being held today.”
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday called criminal justice reform the "civil rights issue of the 21st century" and detailed a series of reforms needed in a nation where more inmates are behind bars than any other country and a disproportionate number of prisoners are minorities.
"For too long in this country politicians have used getting tough on crime as a wedge issue to win elections. It is clearly about time to start talking -- as we have in this election -- about the really disastrous effects of too many politicians trying to win too many elections by locking too many people up," Sanders told a forum on criminal justice reform at Allen University.
"And we should lay it all right out on the table." Sanders added. "People in American jails are disproportionately people of color. That's the reality in America today. That's a reality that has to change."
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Sanders also spoke about what he called an "endless stream of tragedies" that he said "screams out for justice" involving blacks killed by police during arrests or while in custody.
"The Black Lives Matter movement which has arisen in response to these deaths has done a needed and commendable job in raising public awareness of this issue. The proliferation of cell phone video has brought the reality of these deaths into the living room and onto the computer screens of people across this country. I know you have heard these names before but they bear repeating so we do not lose sight of the real human price being paid: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Samuel Dubose, Rekia Boyd and too many more. But people must do more than just echo the phrase Black Lives Matter. We must put actions behind those words. Actions that will bring about the fundamental reform that is needed in the face of this crisis," Sanders said.
After months of expectation, US senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has at last given what might be remembered as one of the landmark speeches of the 2016 election: an explanation and defence of his position as a “democratic socialist”.
Linking his beliefs to revered figures from US history such as Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Martin Luther King Jr, he attempted to show that socialism was not just a “route to economic fairness” but also “essential to American values”.
Perhaps most importantly, it provided Sanders with another opportunity to present his socialist ideas to a national audience, something that was once almost unthinkable in modern US politics.
Long demonised in American electoral politics, “socialism" seems to be resonating with many Americans upset by the country’s deepening economic inequality and insecurity – and it has the potential to expand the limits American democracy.
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If more and more US citizens are open to hearing from socialists – once seen as the mortal enemies of “freedom” and all things “American” – what else might they willing to consider? Sanders’s socialism is “breaking the mould” of established US politics and expanding the limits of its democracy. Indeed, he is proving that in 21st-century America, socialism is no longer the taboo it once was.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday filed to become the Democratic Party's nominee for president at state party headquarters in Columbia, according to a news release.
Shortly after filing, Sanders spoke to a rally of nearly 250 supporters outside of party headquarters. "I think we are going to shock some people on election day and win South Carolina," said Sanders.
Reg E. Cathey, best known for his recurring role as “Freddy” from Netflix's hit series “House of Cards,” introduced Sanders by announcing he was “glad to officially join the political revolution.”
State Rep. Terry Alexander (D-Florence), a chair of Sanders’ South Carolina leadership committee, also spoke.
Alexander, who supported of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2008, called Sanders the “type of honest, effective candidate who the people of South Carolina ought to listen to” and praised his lifelong fight for civil rights.
A Bernie Sanders supporter has taken an unusual approach to supporting the Democratic presidential candidate by plowing a roughly one-quarter of an acre area of his farm to spell out "Bernie."
“I was on my tractor one day and thought, ‘Well, I’ll just try this,'” Mike Pattavina told ABC News about the sign plowed into his soybean field. “It worked out pretty good.”
The 68-year-old farmer said the “B” alone is 60-feet tall. Pattavina said he “free-handed” the lettering and the plowing would not affect the field because the soybean had already been harvested.
Pattavina said he has farmed his whole life but this was the first time he has used his land for a political statement. He said his goals were simple.
“I just want people to see it, and maybe, hopefully, some people can see it from the air," he said. "Just to show support for Bernie.”
The Sanders supporter said he was moved to make the sign after he had a few traditional ones stolen from his yard.
“I thought, 'Well, I’d like to see them steal this one,'” he joked.
The Bernie News Roundup is a voluntary, non-campaign associated roundup of news, media, & other information related to Bernie Sanders' run for President.
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