Black Lives Matter St. Paul organizer Trahern Crews stated that protesters chanting “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” was “more playful than anything” on Wednesday’s “All In With Chris Hayes” on MSNBC.
Crews was asked, whether “Black Lives Matter activists hate police officers?” In light of the video showing activists chanting “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon.”
He answered, “No, not at all. And I want to put that chant in context. We had a great demonstration that day. It was very exciting. It was so exciting that I think the police who were along escorting the marcher[s] wanted to be a part of the march, or a part of the demonstration. So on the way back, the officer leading the parade kept talking into his microphone and saying things to the crowd, like, ‘stay off the medium,’ do that, he was laughing and joking with the marchers, so then the marchers kind of started chanting that towards him. It was more playful than anything.”
Crews added that “at that particular demonstration” the chant was playful and “the officer was laughing and joking along with the protesters.” He added, “the officer also said, when they started chanting, he said back into the microphone, ‘Everybody loves bacon.'”
Crews also argued, “I don’t think it’s fair at all for people to connect any police murders to Black Lives Matter. But — and we — you know, we send the condolences out to the two police officers who were killed over the weekend, but you cannot connect those murders to Black Lives Matter, but we can connect Marcus Golden’s murder, who was killed here at St. Paul by the St. Paul police, we can connect that murder directly to the St. Paul Police Department. we could connect [Tamir Rice’s] murder directly to the Cleveland Police Department. We could connect Eric Garner’s murder directly to the New York Police Department. So I think there’s a big difference with what they’re trying to say about — say right now.”
Crews concluded that the Black Lives Matter movement can be sustained, “as long as we stay on the — you know keep focusing on the conditions that are leading to violent crime and police murder. We can’t — we have to — police brutality is an extension of institutional racism. Police brutality enforces institutional racism. So we have to start dealing with institutional racism to deal with black-on-black crime. Black-on-black crime is a result of institutional racism.”
(h/t Newsbusters)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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