On Wednesday, Black Lives Matter’s most prominent leader DeRay Mckesson told UPROXX that the violent actions of the movement’s rioters are justified, since “people take to the streets as a last resort.”
“So when I think about anything that happens when people are in the street, I always start by saying, ‘People should not have had to have been there in the first place,'” stated Mckesson.
Specifically prefacing her question with the recent violent and racist rioting in Milwaukee, which she referred to euphemistically as “recent Milwaukee unrest,” UPROXX interviewer Kimberly Ricci asked if Mckesson was bothered by the term “riot,” as he was apparently partial to the term “protest.”
Since many Black Lives Matter’s “peaceful protests” have undeniably turned into vicious riots, where arson, physical violence and chants of death to cops have become staples, Mckesson decided that his best response was to justify the rioters, instead of simply disavowing them and their reprehensible acts.
“What I know to be true is that people should not have had to feel like the only way for them being heard is by being in the street,” justified Mckesson. “And that is true across the country. I said that about Ferguson, I say that about Baltimore, I say that about Minneapolis, Chicago, every city in the country where people have taken to the streets.”
Mckesson continued his defense: “Remember, people take to the streets as a last resort,” he insisted. “They’ve made the phone call, they’ve tweeted, they’ve emailed, they’ve tried. And by the time people are in the street, it is because there is no other option.”
The leader then granted troubling blanket amnesty for all acts at the protests-turned-riots, since it’s supposedly society’s fault that rioters are even “there in the first place.”
“So when I think about anything that happens when people are in the street, I always start by saying, ‘People should not have had to have been there in the first place,'” he stated.
At the hands of Black Lives Matter, we have seen cop cars and gas stations set on fire; we have seen white media and locals targeted for beat-downs because of the color of their skin; we have seen local businesses looted and trashed; we have heard chants calling for dead cops.
So, why wouldn’t Mckesson disavow these actions instead of grant justification? If this “activist” is truly interested in peaceful protesting, why wouldn’t he distance his movement from those who disrupt with riot-like actions? Why in the world would he give cover to the actions of rioters?
Mckesson and other Black Lives Matter leaders were invited to the White House in July by President Obama after a racially motivated Black Lives Matter sympathizer murdered five Dallas police officers who were manning a Black Lives Matter protest. At the meeting, Community Organizer-in-Chief Obama praised Mckesson and the other leaders for their “outstanding work.”