[link:http://www.thenation.com/article/bernies-burlington-city-sustainable-future/|

Stop the epidemic of cops murdering unarmed African Americans i.e.
prosecute killer-cops.

I frankly think Bernie was just stunned, and that the BLM's main target
was O'Malley (See Baltimore) and not Bernie, but Bernie got shouted
down too. To put it in context, here's what Bernie said to a gathering
of mostly Black Americans the day before the Phoenix dustup.

I think Bernie was basically stunned that he'd get shouted down by
peeps he's been fighting for, for decades, and just went into auto-pilot
mode, but came out swinging within few hours to an ethnically diverse
crowd of 11,000+, making essentially the same case he'd made in the
video.

Bad luck for Bernie to get caught in the same building with O'M.

Still Bernie could have handled it better. But hey nobody's perfect.

the debates by coming in with a canned speech and not bothering to answer the real questions. In fact, she did everything that way -- prepared speeches, and don't you dare get her off message. So far, all I've seen of Bernie is prepared, on-message speeches with his usual line-up of talking points. I'm sure he'll get better as he continues this process.

With all the touting of his grand town hall meetings, I expected more from him in terms of technique and decorum. I was kind of shocked at this brusqueness and how he blew BLM off.

Your conclusions are exactly what I was thinking. If the venue is being taken over like that, and you're a no-name to most outsiders who would be viewing this cold, try and engage on a productive level instead of bombasting your way to dominance just to give a canned speech you've already been giving. Try something different that suits the moment. If he gets this irritated at a relatively minor distraction, it's kind of a red flag, maybe not ready for prime time. Makes you wonder if he's ever watched Obama get heckled. He handles it supremely.

Your observation about his protest days is something to think about. How would he have wanted to be treated? How was he treated? Dismissively or with respect...because he was definitely dismissive.

I couldn't understand why he was so cranky and unwilling to at least try to address the hecklers. I expected him to put down his script, walk to the front of the stage, smile a little maybe, and make an earnest effort to relate to them as people with concerns.

I kept thinking about how perfectly President Obama handles hecklers, regularly.

It just kept running through my mind watching him.....that it was not the way to handle the situation.

He missed a golden opportunity to parlay that into a win/win for the BLM organization and his own presidential campaign. He diminished himself as far as I'm concerned.

During the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement women were told "Make coffee, you don't make policy".

My instant reaction was that I could just hear that coming out of his mouth as he didn't want to be bothered by what he likely considers side issues and he just wanted to get on with listening to himself.

I am going to go find my old "Women Make Policy Not Coffee" button and wear it in solidarity with BLM.

That's the impression he gave is that he was presented with "side issues." I have to say that it looked like he was making up his mind whether to leave the stage a couple times. Yikes. He had a bit of a powder keg demeanor up there as he was so irritated at being taken off message.

Great idea about the solidarity button!