“I got 800 black people behind me. What the fuck are you gonna do?”
That’s the threat that was made to Brandon Blackwell, a white reporter with the Northeast Ohio Media Group who was covering a Black Lives Matter event at a public outdoor space on Sunday. The threat came after Blackwell was told to step away from where he was filming, specifically because he was white.
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer posted the complete 20 minute clip of Black Live Matter’s racially motivated intimidation of a reporter at the hands of Black Lives Matter activists who had participated in a three day long event called The Movement For Black Lives National Convening. Blackwell went to cover a protest where a large group of attendees had stopped police for arresting a 14-year-old black teen who had been passed out on a bus. The mob of Black Lives Matter activists had surrounded a police care and chanted lines from the writings of Marxist cop-killer Assata Shakur and the Communist Manifesto.
Breitbart News has previously reported that Shakur—who has been in exile in Cuba for 30 years after a violent prison escape—is one of the heroes of the Black Lives Matter movement. Blackwell tweeted:
While recording the event, Blackwell was ordered politely to step away because he was white. A few seconds after Blackwell began recording a talk by a woman wearing an “ASSATA TAUGHT ME” shirt representative said.
This is a people of African descent space. If you are not of African descent, please go to the outside of the circle.
Blackwell backed up but the crowd immediately turned hostile and told him to stop recording the public event. On the video, Blackwell says. Blackwell: I’m a reporter. Woman: That’s right. That’s why we don’t want you. We don’t want a reporter. “#M4BL attendees very upset that I’m broadcasting via Periscope right now. They are doing everything they can to block me,” Blackwell tweeted. Eventually, after ten minutes of having his camera blocked by the mob of activists, reporter Blackwell backs far away from the group but the intimidation continues. The group goes from blocking his camera to getting physical with Blackwell. Activist: “I got 800 black people behind me. What the fuck are you gonna do?” Blackwell: “Look, if you think you’re intimidating me, you’re not.” Activist: “What the fuck are you going to do?” Blackwell: “Stop… stop touching me. Does somebody want to grab this guy?” Activist: No one’s going to grab me! What the fuck?” Blackwell tweeted:
The video shows that another organizer finally stepped in and backed he free speech hating thug off of Blackwell.