Last Thursday in Philadelphia, former President Bill Clinton, was interrupted by “Black Lives Matters” protesters in the middle of a speech supporting his wife’s, Hilary Clinton campaign.
AP
Former President Bill Clinton defended his wife’s use of the term “super-predator”.
Protesters were carrying signs displaying the message “CLINTON crime bill destroyed black communities”. Seeing as how Hilary Clinton is depending largely on the black vote, the former president thought it appropriate to take more than 10 minutes to confront the protesters.
“Here’s the thing. I like protesters, but the ones that won’t let you answer are afraid of the truth.” Clinton’s attempt to appeal to the protesters did him no justice.
The bill the protester’s referred to was signed by Clinton in 1994 in response to the rising rate of gang violence, which also made for longer sentencing for nonviolent offenders; protesters were highly upset about the latter.
Clinton defended his wife, stating, “she was the first one to say ‘let’s get these people out of prison.’”
He admitted to his and the Senate’s mistake at the time, but that still did not satisfy the mob as they called the bills for “crimes against humanity.”
The same bill included a ban on assault weapons, more money for police officers, and more funding for out-of-school activities for inner-city children.
Clinton argued that the Black Lives Matters protesters’ anger was misplaced, saying they were “defending the people who killed the people you say lives matter.”
Clinton went on to make more logical points but the protesters were not willing to accept his claims. His biggest transgression was defending the term “super-predator,” which Hilary had used to describe gang leaders, not realizing that phrase has been deemed dehumanizing.
Since then the former president has admitted to regretting his response to the crowd “… that doesn’t mean that I was the most effective in answering it.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton recalled his mindset before and after the passing of the bill in question “Why hasn’t anyone been doing anything about it, but then when the bill came out we felt it would go too far.”