Hillary Clinton yelled over chanting Black Lives Matter activists during her speech at an African Americans for Hillary event in Atlanta on Friday afternoon, possibly their most contentious exchange to date.
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Protesters chanting “Black lives matter” and “Hell You Talm Bout” disrupted Clinton’s speech, with Clinton backers responding with chants of “Hillary, Hillary” and “Let her talk” to drown them out. All three Democratic candidates have each held meetings with Black Lives Matter-affiliated activists and have vowed during stump speeches and debate performances to prioritize criminal justice issues if elected. Clinton, who may have been prepared for the disruptions, reportedly affirmed the protesters’ greivances.
Hillary Clinton was interrupted multiple times Friday by Black Lives Matter protesters at her first “African Americans for Hillary” rally in Atlanta.
On Friday, Clinton also tweeted about ending “the era of mass incarceration”, eliminating “the disparity in sentencing between crack and cocaine, which disproportionately impacts African Americans”, and supporting legislation that would prevent employers from asking about an applicant’s criminal history, commonly known as “ban the box”.
Afterwards, Clinton said of the protesters: “I’m sorry they didn’t listen, because a few of what they’ve been demanding, I am offering”. “But as I told them then, we have to come together as a nation to make the changes that they are calling for”. The changes would build on a 2010 act of Congress that narrowed the disparity between crack crimes – which are concentrated among people of color – and powder crimes, which are more likely to involve white people. In her remarks, Clinton also called for nationwide use of body cameras by police departments.
Clinton said, “Charleston has been through a lot”. She asked NAACP Charleston Branch President, Dot Scott, and other members of the NAACP to work with democrats and republicans to pass reforms that would be felt in the streets of South Carolina. Clinton wants these background checks to be done later in the hiring process.
“We’re talking about two forms of the same drug”, she said.
The proposals kick off what Clinton’s campaign describes as an “extensive agenda” of criminal justice system reforms to be outlined in coming days, focusing on policing, incarceration and re-entry to society.
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Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights leader who had introduced Clinton, reportedly tried to convince the protesters to stop, before he and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed joined Clinton on stage in a show of solidarity.
