A couple of weeks ago, some Bernie Sanders' supporters claimed that Black Lives Matter activitsts and protesters were in the tank for Hillary Clinton or were intentionally undermining Bernie since Bernie had been protested twice. While statistically, the differences were irrelevant, there was this sense that Bernie was being targeted. After all, he had been protested twice. Hillary had not been protested. O'Malley had been protested once.
So.
Now.
Hillary was protested twice. Once on August 18th,but the protesters arrived too late to gain entry into the venue. They had to be satisfied with a meeting.
And then, again today.
Two Democratic candidates. Similar interactions with Black Lives Matter. Each time handled completely differently.
Bernie's first protest at Netroot Nation: He ceded the mic and then walked away.
Hillary first protest: The protesters could not get in but she met with them anyway.
Bernie second protest in Seattle: He ceded the mic and then walked away.
Hillary's second protest: She recognized the protesters, told them she'd keep talking and offered to meet with them personally later.
Two protests. Two different ways of handling it.
But someone somewhere should be satisfied that Bernie is not the only Democratic candidate being protested. Bernie's has had two protests and now Hillary has had two protests. Now, perhaps we can move on to the important issues. After all, as Black Lives Matter said long ago, no one is going to be ignored and everyone will be protested.
For me, I do not care how often Democrats are protested. I do care how they handle the protesters. I do not care if the protesters annoy people. I figure . . . protest as often as necessary until every Democrat gets it and starts taking immediate and aggressive actions to stop the killings by cop.
Speeches are good but action is even better. For me, there are two important issues?
One, Blacks are STILL being murdered by cops almost daily and without any hope of this stopping or redress unless actions is taken. Too few cops are charged or convicted.
Two, the protests and protesters are successful. Two candidates have written racial justice platforms. Bernie Sanders. Martin O'Malley. While Hillary doesn't have a written platform, data on her can be readily found.
There have been successes on moving legislation forward,with civil rights organizations, legislators and other moving forward and being active.
Furthermore, either Black Lives Matter or an affiliate has put out their own powerful platform.
And, the DNC passed a resolution today to support the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2015. It took protests and the threat of protests to force the DNC to do this little bit. It's done. But it is not enough. It's merely a good start.
For the first time in decades, something is finally being done by Democrats in charge and if that means, candidates are embarrassed, I say PROTEST ON.
Traditional civil rights organizations are getting on board. Indeed, diarist rexymeteorite reports:
Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act
1. We crowd-sourced the Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act in about seven weeks at Daily Kos. More than 700 Kossacks supported us. We also created state version of the Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act.
2. We sent the law to all the NAACP branches. At least one local branch forwarded the proposed law to the national headquarters in Washington, DC. Hilary Shelton, the successor of Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP, wrote to tell us they wanted to promote our law and add it to the three laws they had already been promoting. Now they have four laws to promote.
3. We sent the finalized version of our federal bill to all of the members of the Black Congressional Caucus and to the leadership of the Progressive Caucus.
4. We sent our law to the American Civil Liberties Union, which responded "We want to partner with you."
Moreover, in that same diary, we see that public opinion is changing for the better.
Things are getting done because folks realize Black Lives Matter activists and their allies are serious and won't be silenced and put in the back of the bus.
I'm loving it.
So, we have Democrats finally waking up. FINALLY, after so many deaths, it took protests to move this forward. Now, more protests and actual action. What kind of action? Resolutions in both Houses of Congress. Legislation like the Michael Brown Over-Policed Act. And, Presidential action like stopping Homeland Security from surveiling Black Lives Matter activists, charging the FBI and DOJ to investigate any and every death that Blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics suffer at the hands of the police.
Maybe if there is one more protest, there'll be one less death at the hands of the police. It's worth it, given what is at stake.
Until the system works, families left behind have the civil lawsuits as their only remedy since the cops are not going to jail and the prosecutors, grand juries, judges and juries are letting them off. The system is set up to ensure that Black Lives do not Matter. The protesters are shouting the opposite and it's working.
Those are the important issues and not that Candidate X was protested X times and Candidate Y was not. To me that is just too much pettiness when people are dying every day.
Black Lives Matter.
Protest on.