Soon after the Democratic Party officially nominated Hillary Clinton as its presidential candidate, holdouts who refuse to accept Sanders’ bow out of the race took a new, tone deaf tactic.
On the first day of the convention, the Sanders delegates echoed Donald Trump supporters’ chant to “lock her up,” which reverberated through the Republican National Convention last week. On Tuesday, some predominantly white “Bernie or Bust” protesters borrowed another popular slogan — this one associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
This is happening in the media tent, not in the convention hall. #DNCinPHL #ImNotWithHer pic.twitter.com/wyxnz6omqV
— jelani cobb (@jelani9) July 26, 2016
“No justice, no peace” was borne in response to police who kill African Americans with impunity. Few police officers, even in the more high profile cases of brutality or excessive force highlighted by Black Lives Matter, have been held accountable in any meaningful way.
The Sanders supporters took over the DNC’s media tent with tape over their mouths and signs with this slogan, protesting that the media was not giving them sufficient coverage.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein piled on, telling “refugees” from the “tyranny” of the DNC to meet her in a nearby park to regroup:
We are in FDR Park at Pattison & Broad ready to meet up with refugees from #DNC tyranny #DNCwalkout #Demexit https://t.co/BkFSRMx5MJ
— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) July 27, 2016
The delegates told Buzzfeed News they compared their movement to the March on Washington led by Martin Luther King, Jr. “The March on Washington was an example of a movement at a high point, and I’d say this is one of those,” a Vermont delegate said.
Meanwhile, mothers of black men and women killed by police took center stage to talk about their children and the racist system that shaped their lives.