Do You Believe This Is Bernie Sanders?

[AGBF]

As the article accompanying this video says, Secretary Hillary Clinton has attempted to portray Senator Bernie Sanders as lacking commitment on racial inequality. This old film of a student being arrested protesting segregation in 1963 in is purportedly of Bernie Sanders while a 21 year-old student at the University of Chicago.

Do you think that the man being arrested in this film is Bernie Sanders? Do you believe he is committed to racial equality?

Here is some information.

"On Monday, a film company, Kartemquin Films, uploaded footage of a young man, wearing thick glasses, surrounded by police officers who grabbed him by his arms and carried him away.

The man looked like it could be Mr. Sanders, so the company asked the public and Mr. Sanders to help confirm whether it was. On Friday, Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Mr. Sanders’s campaign, and Tad Devine, a senior adviser to the campaign, said Mr. Sanders had said it was him. What sealed it was the watch the man is wearing; Mr. Sanders recalled owning a watch like that, Mr. Devine said.

...​

The video was shot by Jerry Temaner, one of the co-founders of Kartemquin Films. Mr. Sanders was charged with resisting arrest."

Link to rest of article and video of the arrest...http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/20/man-captured-on-film-being-arrested-in-a-1963-protest-is-bernie-sanders-his-campaign-says/?login=email&hpw&rref=politics&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&mtrref=www.nytimes.com

AGBF

 

[sonnyjane]

Based on what's out there, yes, I believe it's him. They have a newspaper article corroborating who was arrested on that day, and he was a student there at the time. I read another article earlier today that the Chicago Tribune I believe saw his student ID from the time and that it does match up.

Funny, usually being arrested is a bad thing for candidates but in this case, it's being used to support how passionate he was about the cause.

 

[AGBF]

Funny, usually being arrested is a bad thing for candidates but in this case, it's being used to support how passionate he was about the cause.

I do not know if the video shows Bernie Sanders, but I do know that if it does, I applaud him. I immediately thought of the song by Ann Feeney (made famous by Peter, Paul, and Mary), "Have You Been To Jail For Justice?". It is not about being a criminal and trying to escape punishment; it is about civil disobedience. That means breaking the law and accepting the consequences in order to effect change to a society you love. The lyrics to the song are below.

Anne Feeney – Have You Been To Jail For Justice?

Was it Cesar Chavez? Maybe it was Dorothy Day
Some will say Dr. King or Gandhi set them on their way
No matter who your mentors are it's pretty plain to see
That, if you've been to jail for justice, you're in good company

Have you been to jail for justice? I want to shake your hand
Cause sitting in and lyin' down are ways to take a stand
Have you sung a song for freedom? or marched that picket line?
Have you been to jail for justice? Then you're a friend of mine

You law abiding citizens, come listen to this song
Laws were made by people, and people can be wrong
Once unions were against the law, but slavery was fine
Women were denied the vote and children worked the mine
The more you study history the less you can deny it
A rotten law stays on the books til folks like us defy it

The law's supposed to serve us, and so are the police
And when the system fails, it's up to us to speak our peace
It takes eternal vigilancefor justice to prevail
So get courage from your convictions
Let them haul you off to jail!