Bernie Sanders Met with Don't Shoot PDX Activists After Sunday's Rally

Portland Mercury:

Dont Shoot PDX activist Marcus Cooper is reporting on Facebook that he and five others were invited to sit down with Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, following a gigantic rally at the Moda Center. According to Cooper's Facebook post, Sanders sat down with the six activists—including Teressa Raiford, who was arrested earlier that day following an action to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown's killing in Ferguson—and listened to their concerns about his failure to address institutional racism as a campaign platform. Cooper—the same activist who was arrested in May when a teen opened fire at an unsanctioned Last Thursday celebration and later had his charges dropped—reports the group spoke with Sanders, his wife, and Sanders' newly-hired press secretary, Symone Sanders. "We asked how much time he had, and he said he had a flight to catch early... So I said OK," Cooper writes. "Then he said, 'What's your solutions'... I said first and foremost we are not here to attack or protest against you nor are we here to say we support you. I am here to speak out and educate you as much as I can with the platform of privilege that I have, and this is what I would like you to do as well." The Sunday rally came one day after Sanders appeared in Seattle, where two activists took the microphone and disrupted the event. Sanders ended up leaving without speaking in Seattle. Amid concerns the same would happen in Portland, Symone Sanders, who introduced the senator in Portland, warned attendees there might be a disruption, and requested that the crowd be ready to chant "we stand together" if it happened.

Don't Shoot PDX activists were present during the rally, as seen in the above photo, and they chanted for most of the event, but the crowd was too loud for them to be heard over the earsplitting cheers. They also remained to the side of the stage and didn't attempt to commandeer the microphone. Cooper writes that Sanders told the activists on Sunday that he wasn't "going city to city to discuss ... individual topics." "We reminded him that going from city to city and not discussing what the cities are facing but yet using your platform to discuss about those other issues is equivalent to silencing their screams," he writes. "We address that dialogue needs to happen but only with direct action. People are being massacred and there is no time for just more speeches. Bernie didn't have a response." Cooper says the group suggested Sanders "reform the police" by placing them on on-call status, similar to a fire department. "You don't see (fire fighters) driving around profiling for suspected houses to be on fire," Cooper writes. "WE reminded them that talking is one thing, but (the) platform that he has is a privilege and using that privilege with a direct action would bring direct results." Cooper's post certainly got direct results: As of now, his 10-hour-old post has been shared 39 times, has garnered 88 likes, and has created a long comment thread.

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