On Wednesday night (Feb. 24), a Black Lives Matter activist halted Hillary Clinton’s address during a fundraising event. Ashley Williams held up a sign that read “We have to bring them to heel,” which was a statement made by Clinton in 1996 when she talked about at-risk youth.
“We want you to apologize for mass incarceration,” Williams said, later calling for Clinton to apologize to Black people. The pair mildly engaged in a back-and-forth debate while attendees asked Williams to allow Clinton to speak.
The reason for Williams’ protest stems from Clinton’s views on a bill that called for stricter policing on gang members, CNN reports, which surfaced during her husband, Bill Clinton’s presidential re-election run in ’96. In a video uncovered by C-SPAN, the then first lady said, “We need to take these people on. They are often connected to big drug cartels. They are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called ‘super-predators.'”
Clinton later continued, “No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”
Watch the occurrence unfold below.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LqLfvQfuvsA