The Clinton campaign requested the meeting be private, but BLM aren’t journalists, they’re under no obligation to honor that request.
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Clinton left after about 10 minutes of talking with the activists. Someone captured that New Hampshire encounter last week on video, which was later sent to Good magazine and published this week on the web. Specifically, the activists sought a personal statement of opinion on legislation pursued decades ago by former President Bill Clinton, the 1994 Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act. “That is our political position in this current election cycle”, said Elle Hearns, strategic partner in Black Lives Matter movement. Saturday Night Live comedian Cecily Strong made journalists promise not to “talk about Hillary’s appearance because that is not journalism” at the 2015 White House correspondents’ dinner in April.
Asked what she would do to strengthen gun-control laws across the country, Clinton said the current situation is “way out of balance” and that she is “not backing off of this fight”, mentioning the shooting in Charleston that killed nine black churchgoers.
Clinton fought back on numerous tactics Black Lives Matter uses to confront issues and candidates.
But she stated the one approach to relieve the consequences of deep-seated racism within the United States was to change authorities insurance policies. While she indicated she supported the group’s overall efforts, she criticized some of its strategy.
You can disagree with that assessment-plenty have, for sure, and I think it robs blacks of meaningful agency-and still acknowledge the ways in which a morass of laws, policies, and practices combine to make life far, far more hard for African Americans than white Americans.
Then, when Clinton challenged the activists to come up with policy solutions that they wanted from her, Jones, one of the activists, shot back with, “If you don’t tell black people what we need to do, then we won’t tell you all what to do”.
“I can only tell you that I feel very committed to and responsible for doing whatever I can”, she said, before noting she has spent much of her career focused on kids. “I don’t see any conflict between the legitimate protection of Second Amendment rights and protecting people from gun violence from people who should never have guns in the first place”, she said.
The protesters also asked Clinton to reflect on policies from the Bill Clinton administration that led to the dramatic rise in mass incarceration we see today.
Say what you will about Sanders, but at least he’s a consistent opponent of many drug-war and mass-incarceration programs.
The activist, clearly taken aback, said that they needed to talk to white people in order to change “white hearts”. In the released video, she said, “I don’t believe you change hearts”.
“I don’t believe you change hearts”, Mrs. Clinton replied. You’re not gonna change every heart.
At this tense moment a Clinton campaign staffer interrupted to tell the activists their time was running out.
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Yancey added all of Clinton’s opponents will soon have to answer the same questions.
