# Why are Black Lives Matter activists disrupting Bernie Sanders' appearances and what effects? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 9, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345 "2015-08-09T00:04:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/161 "2015-08-13T07:02:09Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > What isn’t high minded is apologizing for past successes because that’s the way the wind seems to be blowing NOW. What successes? And even if you’re right, that harsh, mandatory sentencing laws and the crackdown on drugs did have some successes, if it’s not successful anymore, it’s still time to change. One doesn’t just dogmatically cling to something because it once was a good idea or accomplished some good at some point. Of course “the way the wind seems to be blowing NOW” is important! If something stopped working, it should be changed. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/162 "2015-08-13T07:08:17Z")
Most of us agree on making some changes now. What we don’t agree on is apologizing for sharply reducing the scourge of violent crime. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/163 "2015-08-13T07:15:51Z")
In a rally in Los Angeles, Sanders had his newly-hired young black female press secretary introduce him and he said that attacking institutional racism was one of his primary goals as a candidate. Also since the BLM dustups, Sanders changed his website to include a racial justice platform. Maybe - just maybe - those who were bringing the issue to the attention of Sanders were just young and used to dealing with people who would just throw them out (like what happened recently with Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton) so they did like a lot of young, passionate people do - they got overly excited. But they made a point and Sanders listened and he’s made changes because of it. Now, some detractors will scream about how Sanders kowtowed to protesters and how horrible that is. But pay them no mind. Sanders was fighting for racial justice decades ago. Possibly living in and representing a constituency that was 95% white caused him to forget about that fight, but those protesters didn’t cause him to change as much as remember what he always stood for. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/164 "2015-08-13T07:16:55Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Most of us agree on making some changes now. What we don’t agree on is apologizing for sharply reducing the scourge of violent crime. You have a citation that the war on drugs and mandatory sentencing is the cause of any reduction of violent crime? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/165 "2015-08-13T07:24:04Z")
It’s not exactly controversial that harsher sentencing has reduced crime. Hard not to reduce crime when we’re not letting violent criminals out without serving their time, which is what we used to do. > **[Six Social Sources of the U.S. Crime Drop - The Society Pages](https://thesocietypages.org/papers/crime-drop/)** > > The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota > [@](#): > > Economist Steven Levitt attributes up to one-third of the total decline to incarceration. Rising rates of imprisonment thus account for at least some of the crime drop in the 1990s and 2000s, with scholars attributing anywhere from 10 to 30% of the decline to America’s incarceration boom. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/166 "2015-08-13T07:33:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Most of us agree on making some changes now. What we don’t agree on is apologizing for sharply reducing the scourge of violent crime. I cited specifically that the War on Drugs does not allocate federal money towards violent crime arrests/suppression, only drug arrests and related activity. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/167 "2015-08-13T08:03:18Z")
We agree on the war on drugs, except for it being racist. Nanny statish, yes. Racist, no, at least not in intent. In terms of how it was actually enforced, definitely racist. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/168 "2015-08-13T12:09:31Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > The Reagan campaign involved all kinds of rhetoric about Welfare Queens and appeals for Law and Order against those criminal black people. Shrouded in innuendo? Sure. But it was definitely there. I’ll get more detailed later when I have time. But the rhetoric was followed up with the mass incarceration of black people, the gutting of public housing, huge increases to law enforcement funding for what turned out to be shady practice. > > What misdeeds can you point to that follow on the heels of the dems’ ‘middle class’ rhetoric? Ending welfare. Because that’s not for the middle class. We could probably read the party’s\* opposition to single payer \*as part of this as well. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/169 "2015-08-13T12:37:33Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > That’s not good enough. “The Democrats suck and use racist, coded language, the Republicans just use it more.” Dude, you’re in a Bernie Sanders thread. That man’s career is based on calling the Democrats useless and wrongheaded, then working with them out of pragmatism, because his own movement has largely been successful only in Vermont. _So far._ ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/170 "2015-08-13T12:41:13Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Maybe the protestors realize that increasing the minimum wage, as the economic creationist Bernie Sanders advocates, will increase already sky-high unemployment among black youth. > > Sanders should be taken to task for using big government to keep individuals from participating in voluntary exchange. We actually have econometric data comparing _laissez-faire_ to New Dealism. Guess which one is more economically prosperous and stable. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/171 "2015-08-13T12:47:27Z")
Do violent crime statistics count rapes of inmates by prison guards? Just asking questions. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/172 "2015-08-13T12:50:21Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > We actually have econometric data comparing _laissez-faire_ to New Dealism. Guess which one is more economically prosperous and stable. 🆒 That depends on how you define laissez-faire and how you define New Dealism. Does it count the parts of the New Deal that were struck down? The parts that went away after WWII? Does it count the Great Society? If you’re arguing that we’d be more prosperous without Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare…😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/173 "2015-08-13T13:10:01Z")
I believe that Nixon dismembered the Great Society. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/174 "2015-08-18T17:40:47Z")
> [@](#): > > In a rally in Los Angeles, Sanders had his newly-hired young black female press secretary introduce him and he said that attacking institutional racism was one of his primary goals as a candidate. Also since the BLM dustups, Sanders changed his website to include a racial justice platform. > > Maybe - just maybe - those who were bringing the issue to the attention of Sanders were just young and used to dealing with people who would just throw them out (like what happened recently with Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton) so they did like a lot of young, passionate people do - they got overly excited. > > But they made a point and Sanders listened and he’s made changes because of it. A huge point. Hillary’s people gave a video of her meeting with #BLM after the rally on August 11 to the media. Is the Clinton campaign playing catch up to Bernie? Seems that way. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/175 "2015-08-18T18:18:21Z")
Gotta admit, the video makes Clinton look good to me. She was right about nearly everything she said. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/176 "2015-08-18T19:04:31Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Gotta admit, the video makes Clinton look good to me. She was right about nearly everything she said. I’m not so sure. It looked a bit like a page out of Veep with the staffer telling them how little time she had. The “meeting” wasn’t a sit down, it was a honk and wave. And substantively It certainly wasn’t anything that black voters haven’t already heard. Although with her getting a little testy I was happy for the spark. At least with Bernie he’s sat down with them and their input has given rise to his racial justice platform. Hillary will have to do some laps to get to where Bernie is at this point ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/177 "2015-08-18T19:18:28Z")
Bernie doesn’t have the Clinton administration in his history. Hillary can flip flop on issues from those years, but she can’t allow BLM activists to call her husband’s policies racist. And frankly I doubt many average African-Americans would regard his policies as racist. They love the guy. BLM basically comparing him to George Wallace isn’t going to hurt Clinton with African-Americans, it’s going to hurt BLM with African-Americans. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/178 "2015-08-18T19:28:55Z")
I have been given to understand that Clinton lost some grouond with African Americans with the [Welfare Bill.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/welfare/stories/wf082396.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/179 "2015-08-18T19:41:14Z")
Yeah, I have no idea where you got the idea that BLM thinks Hillary’s or Bill’s policies are racist. The Civil rights act is what Hills and Bill hang their hats on, which is where most Americans find themselves. Unfortunately it isn’t enough in this age of killing unarmed black persons for traffic violations. A racial justice platform has to go further to protect basic human rights. Many communities have this or have started this, but Bernie’s campaign spells it out. He wants to demilitarize police forces, have body cameras on every police officer, ban prisons for profit, expand early voting, restore the voting rights act, invest in community policing, increase civilian oversight of police, re-enfranchise those who have lost their right to vote from a felony conviction, require public reports for all police shootings and those in police custody, and end the war on drugs. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/180 "2015-08-18T19:45:44Z")
> **[Black Lives Matter videos, Clinton campaign reveal details of meeting | CNN...](https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/politics/hillary-clinton-black-lives-matter-meeting/index.html?eref=rss_topstories)** > > Hillary Clinton and Black Lives Matter activists had a frank and at times tense discussion last week behind closed doors, and thanks to video released Monday, the American public is now hearing exactly what the two sides said to each other. > [@](#): > > The activists, led by Daunasia Yancey, founder of Black Lives Matter in Boston, pressed Clinton on her family’s role in promoting “white supremacist violence against communities of color.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345.md?page=10)