In a short period of time, BLM has proved to be amazingly effective and influential. Despite having little funding and relatively few activists, the movement has helped inject the issue of police misconduct and the broader racial bias of our criminal justice system into the political debate. There’s been no sudden upsurge of racial profiling, arrests, beatings and killings of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement officers. Instead – thanks in part to BLM — Americans have simply become more aware of the problem. The names of the victims of police abuse – Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland and others — have been seared into the national consciousness.
No politician has captured the spirit of Occupy like Bernie Sanders. Can he do the same with Black Lives Matter?