Bernie Sanders’ New Racial Justice Platform Wins Praise From Black Lives Matter Activists

[uhnope]

Source: Thinkprogress

After activists from the Black Lives Matter movement repeatedly disrupted speeches by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) over the past few weeks, the popular and populist presidential candidate released a comprehensive racial justice platform and hired a young racial justice activist as his national press secretary.

The platform, which has won praise from several prominent voices in the Black Lives Matter movement, focuses on different forms of violence against people of color in the United States: physical violence from law enforcement and extremist vigilantes, the political violence of voter suppression, the legal violence of the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, and the economic violence of crushing poverty. Sanders lays out several proposals to address each form of violence, from passing “ban the box” laws to prevent hiring discrimination against people with criminal records, to outlawing for-profit prisons, to restoring the gutted protections in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Though Sanders has been involved in civil rights work since his college days, he has come under pressure from black activists since launching his bid for president. Having represented the overwhelmingly white state of Vermont for most of his life, Sanders has often struggled to specifically address racial justice issues with the urgency the movement is demanding — an urgency fueled by the fact that an unarmed black person has been killed by police, on average, every nine days this year.

The activists who interrupted Sanders’ speech in Seattle over the weekend said his “blatantly silencing response” at the Netroots Nations conference in July — when he reacted to an interruption from Black Lives Matter by threatening to leave instead of listening to their message — as their motivation. The Seattle leaders blasted both Sanders and his supporters for failing to show concern about the forces harming people of color in their own community, from the school-to-prison pipeline to police violence to gentrification.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/08/10/3689728/after-repeated-protests-bernie-sanders-releases-racial-justice-platform/

[candelista]

1. I guess he had to do something.

Otherwise his speaking opportunities will continue to be shut down by BLM's fascist tactics.

[arcane1]

2. Now maybe some DUers will climb down off his ass.

Assuming that they were serious about this issue in the first place.

[dgibby]

4. Not a chance.

Now they'll bombard us with "too little, too late", and "he only did it to get the votes, he never really cared". BTW, I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

[magical thyme]

5. from parts of DU, the opposition and in the minds of the Marissa's of the world, yes

from the rest of the world, no.

Symone Sanders is awesome. She's an awesome speaker and she's already instructing audiences what to do if any activists try to disrupt again.

TOGETHER. WE. STAND.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. Don't worry. They'll find something else to triangulate on.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. They will find something else

[Jack Rabbit]

3. K/R

Good for Bernie.

[CharlotteVale]

6. K&R

[PatrickforO]

7. This is great. Fits right in with

what he's been saying.

The really good thing, though, is that he was patient, listened and responded.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

10. Posting a bit - looks like he was listening

Physical Violence

Perpetrated by the State

Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Samuel DuBose. We know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. The chants are growing louder. People are angry and they have a right to be angry. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

Perpetrated by Extremists

We are far from eradicating racism in this country. In June, nine of our fellow Americans were murdered while praying in a historic church because of the color of their skin. This violence fills us with outrage, disgust, and a deep, deep sadness. Today in America, if you are black, you can be killed for getting a pack of Skittles during a basketball game. These hateful acts of violence amount to acts of terror. They are perpetrated by extremists who want to intimidate and terrorize black and brown people in this country.
Addressing Physical Violence

It is an outrage that in these early years of the 21st century we are seeing intolerable acts of violence being perpetuated by police, and racist terrorism by white supremacists.

A growing number of communities do not trust the police and law enforcement officers have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police sworn to protect and serve our communities, is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. We need a societal transformation to make it clear that black lives matter, and racism cannot be accepted in a civilized country.

We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies.
We must invest in community policing. Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together. Among other things, that means increasing civilian oversight of police departments.
We need police forces that reflect the diversity of our communities.
At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter we will reinvent how we police America.
We need to federally fund and require body cameras for law enforcement officers to make it easier to hold them accountable.
Our Justice Department must aggressively investigate and prosecute police officers who break the law and hold them accountable for their actions.
We need to require police departments and states to provide public reports on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody.
We need new rules on the allowable use of force. Police officers need to be trained to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people who have mental illnesses.
States and localities that make progress in this area should get more federal justice grant money. Those that do not should get their funding slashed.
We need to make sure the federal resources are there to crack down on the illegal activities of hate groups.

[ejbr]

11. Will they now interrupt his next rally to complain that others are not following suit? n/t

[Valhallakey]

12. Seems like a good opportunity for GOP mischief as well

Keep this going, focus on the Democratic candidates. By Nov next year this should fester enough to suppress turnout by PoC for whomever is the eventual nominee. Next president is from the GOP? Just curious does anyone else think that GOP operatives will try to exploit this seeming rift between progressives and the BLM movement? Good tactic, used for eons, keep em fighting each other while we unite to win - seems like a no brainier if I were one of those operatives.