Rev. Barber Equates 'Violence' to Opposing Liberal Policies

bradwilmouth | July 2, 2020
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Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog

On Wednesday's Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS, the show gave a forum to far-left minister, the Reverend William Barber, to complain about the attention given to the violence perpetrated by some left-wing protesters in which he ridiculously tried to equate opposition to liberal policy positions to violence.

Contributor Mike Brown put together a pre-recorded segment in which he began by fretting over some news reports using the word "violent" while recalling the activities of rioters.

He soon went to Barber, and, after the reverend declared that he is himself nonviolent in his own protests, Brown then cued him up to undermine complaints about rioters: "Reverend Barber says that if the media wants to cover this violence, then they also need to cover this violence."

On screen was first shown a clip of rioters overturning a car, followed by a clip of voters waiting in line in Georgia as polling places had difficulty running a primary election smoothly.

Then came a clip of Reverend Barber proclaiming:

REVEREND WILLIAM BARBER: And America needs to be real careful with who she calls "violent" because when you deny health care, that's violent because people die. When you deny living wages and 700 people a day die from poverty, that's violence.

After Brown cheered him on, injecting, "Okay, you preaching now," Reverend Barber added:

REVEREND BARBER: You undermine voting rights -- have mercy, Jesus -- that folks died for, and then because you suppress the vote people get elected who then protect violent police departments, that's violence. My job is to say to America: "Justice is the absolute deterrent for riots and for social unrest."

Reverend Barber is notably a frequent guest on MSNBC's AM Joy show on weekends.

Brown then went to liberal activist Kimberly Jones, who was recently praised by Oprah Winfrey for a rant that went viral among liberals:

BROWN: And to get to justice, we've got to fix the system. Activist Kimberly Jones -- who went viral last month -- explains the problem facing black Americans using white people's favorite capitalist American pastime: Monopoly,

After a clip of Jones likening the last 400 years in the U.S. to a game of Monopoly in which whites held back blacks so they could not acquire any wealth to build up, she then proclaimed: "And they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge!"

Brown was then seen speaking with Jones, and commented: "I will never be able to look at Monopoly the same way again, ever. I will never trust that white man in the monocle and the little moustache -- I will not trust it -- I will not."

The segment promoted comparisons between rioters and some of the patriots who founded America, and then Brown brought in Patrisse Collors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, to cheer for defunding police departments:

CULLORS: This conversation about defunding the police, we're winning. We are actually winning. So we have the opportunity at every single level from our local to our state to our national level to divest out of the ways in which black people have largely been harmed.

Her claim that African Americans have been harmed by police ignores the fact that, between 2006 and 2014, violent crime -- much of which hit the black population -- dropped almost every year, with police officers being crucial to that decrease. The overall number of homicides dropped from 17,309 in 2006 to 14,164 in 2014.

But, after the anti-police sentiments that were stoked in 2014, violent crime became substantially worse, with homicides rising to 17,250 a year by 2016.

The number of African Americans killed in homicides increased from 6,095 in 2014 to 7,881 in 2016 before starting to drop again.

For context, police officers kill about 1,000 suspects a year, of whom about 250 are black.

The segment which preposterously likens conservative policy positions to violence was sponsored by All State and Liberty Mutual.

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Wednesday, July 1, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS:

MIKE BROWN: Reverend Barber says that if the media wants to cover this violence, then they also need to cover this violence.

REVEREND WILLIAM BARBER: And America needs to be real careful with who she calls "violent" because when you deny health care, that's violent because people die. When you deny living wages and 700 people a day die from poverty, that's violence.

BROWN: Okay, you preaching now.

REVEREND BARBER: You undermine voting rights -- have mercy, Jesus -- that folks died for, and then because you suppress the vote people get elected who then protect violent police departments, that's violence. My job is to say to America: "Justice is the absolute deterrent for riots and for social unrest."

BROWN: And to get to justice, we've got to fix the system. Activist Kimberly Jones -- who went viral last month -- explains the problem facing black Americans using white people's favorite capitalist American pastime: Monopoly,

KIMBERLY L. JONES, PROTESTER: And for 400 rounds of playing Monopoly, I didn't allow you to have any money -- I didn't allow you to have anything on the board -- I didn't allow for you to have anything. And then we played another 50 rounds of Monopoly, and everything that you gained and you earned while you were playing that round of monopoly was taken from you. And they are lucky that what black people are looking for is equality and not revenge!

BROWN: Listen you just woke a lot of people up. Some of us are still napping, For one, I will never be able to look at Monopoly the same way again, ever. I will never trust that white man in the monocle and the little moustache -- I will not trust it -- I will not.

JONES: You shouldn't trust him.

BROWN: I shouldn't trust it.

JONES: As a game, I don't think that it is winnable. I think that what's going to happen is we're going to have to create a new board.

BROWN: And creating a new game board is something we've seen work throughout history. It's even considered patriotic.

REVEREND BARBER: American history was started with a riot -- we would describe it that way today.

PATRISSE CULLORS, CO-FOUNDER OF BLACK LIVES MATTER: No taxation without representation.

BROWN: But we learned this from y'all. We thought this was safe -- this is what we're supposed to do.

BROWN: We're using the same patriotic tactics across the U.S. today, and, surprise, those strategies still work.

CULLORS: This conversation about defunding the police, we're winning. We are actually winning. So we have the opportunity at every single level from our local to our state to our national level to divest out of the ways in which black people have largely been harmed.

BROWN: We accomplished a lot in just five weeks, but there is so much more to come, and it is going to take everyone -- especially you, white people.

JONES: Racism is not a black problem that white people need to empathize with -- it's a white problem they created that they need to fix.

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