Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) said on Wednesday that President Obama must call off his “dogs” protesting police practices nationwide, enraging Black Lives Matter activists.
{mosads}“You know, since our president won’t say it, since he still hasn’t called off the dogs, we’ll say it,” Palin told listeners at the Stop the Iran Nuclear Rally in Washington, D.C.
“Police officers and first responders all across this great nation, thank you,” she added during the event on the Capitol’s West Lawn.
Black Lives Matter activists pounced on Palin’s remarks.
“The dehumanization of our movement is fully underway,” tweeted Shaun King, a member of the social protest organization. “Now we are animals.”
“And then there’s this,” tweeted Deray McKesson, another Black Lives Matter activist, alongside footage of Palin’s speech. “Sarah Palin. 2015.”
The Black Lives Matter movement sprang up last year following a series of high-profile incidents in which unarmed black men died during confrontations with police officers.
Its activists are now pressuring the crowded 2016 presidential field for sweeping criminal justice reform and greater racial equality nationwide.
Former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) both had Democratic presidential campaign events interrupted by Black Lives Matter members this summer.
GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly used those incidents as evidence the Democratic presidential field suffers from weakness.
“I think it’s disgraceful, the way they’re being catered to by the Democrats, and it’s going to end up kicking them you know where,” Trump said on Tuesday evening.
“I don’t think it’s going to end up good,” he added of Black Lives Matter activists. “I think they’re trouble. I think they’re looking for trouble.”