Roland Martin Grills Bill Clinton #BlackLivesMatter Protesters: What Do You Want the Clintons to Do?

[MrWendel]

http://www.mediaite.com/online/roland-martin-grills-bill-clinton-blacklivesmatter-protesters-what-do-you-want-the-clintons-to-do/

by Tommy Christopher



As former President Bill Clinton addresses the fallout from his exchange with #BlackLivesMatter protesters in Philadelphia on Thursday, News One Now host Roland Martin welcomed those protesters, Rufus Farmer and Erica Mines, to find out more about why they protested the former president. President Clinton took heavy criticism for things like telling the protester to “hush up” and for defending a remark that Hillary Clinton has already apologized for by accusing the pair of defending gang leaders, but has since expressed regret over his part in the exchange.

On the substance, though, Clinton spent a lot of time defending the 1990s policies the duo were protesting, and on Friday morning, Roland tried to drill down on the specifics of their grievances.

He began by asking why they weren’t protesting others who supported the law, such as Vice President Joe Biden, who authored and pushed the 1994 crime bill. “Vice President Biden does deserve criticism for it,” Farmer replied, “Vice President Biden was not the one in Philadelphia yesterday.”

Erica Mines also added that they have issues with others, including Senator Bernie Sanders and members of the Congressional Black Caucus at the time, who supported the bill.

(More in link)

[Thinkingabout]

1. Bernie Sanders voted for the bill, so he will probably be on the protest list.

[Hekate]

2. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. Will you?

I'm starting to feel pretty cynical about the BS campaign.



Watch the birdie

[Thinkingabout]

4. If they dont then I see they as being paid by the sanders campaign or one of the

The super PACs.

[BlueCaliDem]

8. Well, Bernie's national press secretary is a BLM protestor, Symone Sanders.

Strange that BLM protesters are only appearing at Clinton rallies, and not Bernie's. Hm.

[Thinkingabout]

10. Yes, leave little Bernie alone, still does not help him with POC.

[BlueCaliDem]

12. Exactly! Which is why I guffawed when I heard Jeff Weaver say that polls are showing that

Bernie can beat any Republican while Hillary can't. So...African-Americans - who, by huge margins, support Hillary Clinton and NOT Bernie - are somehow nonexistent in those polls? How do they make that claim when Hillary is 2.5 million votes ahead of Bernie in the popular vote and nearly 1 million ahead of Trump??

The math just doesn't add up for Jeff Weasel Weaver, to make that claim. It's outrageous and ridiculous. Yet I heard him repeat it on the Halperin and Heilemann show this afternoon, and he did it with a straight face, too, although you could see Halperin look doubtfully.

[Thinkingabout]

13. Math still works at my house,

Don't need to lie about the results. I am thinking the will be saying the same thing for a long time.

[IamMab]

3. The problem with their excuse is that Sanders was in Philadelphia recently too, but not protested.

So that seems like a specious argument. It's an attention-seeking stunt with no actual impact on anything. But hey, these two got to be interviewed on TV!

Black people elevated out of poverty by their actions: None.
Black people release from prison due to their actions: None.
Black people whose quality of life improved because of their actions: Only theirs.

Enjoy the 15 minutes, kids.

[FrenchieCat]

15. I will respectfully disagree....

I believe they have been relatively effective!

But, I think they need to concentrate on the now and the future, and insure that the criminal justice platform of both candidate address some of their concerns.

I was talking to my daughter about this, as she is an original active member of the organizing overall movement, as she was on the ground in St. Louis. She said the "movement" is made up of many more groups than just BLM....and that protest isn't the only tool in the box. She mentioned a young man, currently running to become Mayor of Baltimore, and that the goal is to organize inside and outside of the political arena.

We both agreed that the important thing, in order to truly make a difference, is to not totally alienate those who would be allies, as that's not going to get anyone what they are demanding in the long game, which is supposed to be a revised criminal Justice System.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with protesting, and keeping the conversation active, but discussion with all sides listening, negotiation and change must be the goal.

She credits the movement (as she calls it) for the Mayor of St. Louis deciding not to run for re-election, the voting out of both the Chicago and Baltimore prosecutors, the establishment of a criminal justice reform platform from Sanders (Clinton already had one), and the meeting that have had with the President.

[MSMITH33156]

5. That interview was embarrassing

and this was the problem with Occupy Wall Street.

There is a real problem with the criminal justice system and the way that African Americans are mistreated by the system.

But just saying "we have a problem, we have a problem" and not offering coherent solutions or having some idea of what you'd like to see happen means that nothing comes of it.

They're pissed off about a bill that is 20 years old. But when he asks what they would like to happen, it was crickets. He had to ask repeatedly while they couldn't answer, finally they said apologize. Which, never mind that Bill and Hillary have said they were wrong, that's not even important.

You know what an apology does? Absolutely nothing to solve the real problem.

Protesting presidential candidates will get you attention, it won't get you reform. And the biggest mistake several of these BLM protesters made was aligning themselves with Bernie Sanders who (1) voted for the damn bill they're complaining about and (2) makes them into a political football.

They need to be candidate agnostic. They need to come up with a platform. I went to their official web site, look at this:

http://blacklivesmatter.com/guiding-principles/

There's no substance here. Saying you're committed to equality 20 different ways doesn't do a damn thing. You can change some hearts for sure, but if you want societal change, you need to change LAWS. Where is their plan to change laws?

And, here's the real challenge. This is a state more than federal challenge. Yes the Crime Bill they are complaining about was federal, we have 2.2 million people in prison, only 200k are actually in federal prison. Every single other one has a local or state law at issue, which means you have to fight it on that level.

If you want to do that, you cannot do it by aligning with Bernie Sanders. Good luck doing that than going into Texas and getting reform there.

They need a platform, bite sized, point-by-point of the reforms they want. Specifics. And then you get that into the mainstream, you get the candidates to agree or disagree with it. Their goals are so lofty and obvious right now, even Trump can say, "sure I'm committed to a fair justice system." Who isn't?

The lesson of Civil Rights is you have to drag the country, kicking and screaming to change. And you do that with laws, not with attention grabbing stunts WITHOUT the substance behind it. You need both. But much like with Occupy Wall Street, they seem to only be able to disrupt, and not be able to translate the attention the disruption gains into any salient change.

It's so frustrating because these are good people protesting a grave injustice that they shouldn't have to deal with. But this goes nowhere until they actually come up with solutions.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

6. I think Apologies are respectful and civil as well as a moral act.

It mainly offers respect which can go a long way in restoring one's confidence. And confidence is key to action.

[SharonClark]

14. Thank you for the excellent post.

[Her Sister]

7. They seemed to just want to target HRC

Just watched the video. Find it suspicious that they could not answer Roland Martin questions of why not targeting Biden who is Pres Obama's Vice President or Sanders who actually signed on it too? Nah, not buying. They targeted HRC, IMO!

[BlueCaliDem]

9. I agree. I hope they prove me wrong by heckling Bernie's rallies, but I won't hold my breath

since the Sanders' campaign's national press secretary is also a BLM protester.

They are not doing their movement any favors.

[Her Sister]

11. Yes it backfires b/c voters like me find them suspicious right away

and then we just don't appreciate what seems like favoring one candidate while protesting the other. Feels like just wanting to dirty one candidate in the press! It looks manipulative in a way that legitimate protests should not be. What? They want BS nominated?