There is no excuse for what the protesters did to Bernie.

[gobears10]

Today, Bernie Sanders was invited to an event in downtown Seattle celebrating Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Bernie was asked to come speak about praising the success of these programs and expanding them. However, before he could speak, the event was hijacked and shut down by individuals who are organizers for the ‪#?BlackLivesMatter‬ movement.

As Bernie was being introduced by rally organizers, a few BLM protesters (three women) got on stage and demanded the mic. The rally organizer didn't want to yield the mic, but Bernie went ahead and told the organizer to give the BLM protesters a chance to speak. Bernie stepped off to the side of the stage. The young woman at the mic first gave a sarcastic list of welcomes to Bernie "From Seattle, which was stolen from the Duwamish..." etc.

The speaking protester (claiming to the be co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter's Washington state division) brought up incarceration rates, gentrification, etc. in Seattle, and then asked for a four and a half minute moment of silence for Michael Brown. The crowd managed to keep quiet enough, and the moment of silence was held. The speaking protester then began to make accusations against Bernie and asked him to apologize for his behavior at the Netroots Nation conference, at which point the crowd grew very restless and wanted to listen to him speak. Then, the speaking protester said that Bernie and the white progressives in the crowd were all racists, claiming that they were "white supremacist liberals."

A rally organizer wanted to give the mic to Bernie, but Bernie wanted to resolve the protest, and the gave to mic to someone else (it liked like another rally organizer) who talked about how everyone in attendance was supportive of the BLM movement. However the BLM protesters were very aggressive, rowdy, and threatening, and made it clear that they wouldn't leave the stage until they got another chance with the mic. After several side discussions with campaign workers and others, Sanders appeared to have come to the conclusion that he would not have the chance to speak at the rally, and decided to leave the stage and then made a long walk weaving through the crowd shaking hands with supporters.

I support the overall goals of BLM, but I thought the actions of the protesters today were pathetic, shameful, and disgraceful. The protesters claimed that Bernie didn't say anything about criminal justice reform, but he talked about it in depth at the SCLC and the Urban League. The BLM protesters claim that the event was xenophobic and white supremacist, but that doesn't make any sense given the speakers (Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant was a speaker). Bernie probably has the strongest civil rights record in Congress, and has been explicitly focusing on structural racism. It makes no sense to me that the BLM movement is singling him out for disruptions and harsh criticism when Republicans and establishment Dems are given a pass.

Systemic racism is an important issue, and I hope BLM can find better leadership to pursue the cause. Code Pink slamming Condi is one thing, same with AIDS activists condemning Reagan, but this group taking their frustrations out on Bernie Sanders is BULLSHIT.

Jeb Bush said Black Lives Matter is politically correct nonsense. Ben Carson also said BLM is "PC gone amok." Yet, I haven't seen BLM interrupt them, calling them "white supremacists," or disrupt their rallies and events.

We've seen #BernieSoBlack, #RedefineProgressive blasting Bernie on twitter, etc. All of which I would have been okay with if BLM also targeted Hillary, and all the other candidates including the GOP ones, with the same level of criticism. But BLM has definitely singled him out to protest and disrupt. They haven't targeted Hillary at all. In fact, a BLM representative praised Hillary on MSNBC while basically calling Bernie Sanders a "phony."

I'm just very disappointed.