Black Lives Matter Activist: 'Fry 'Em Like Bacon' Chant Was In 'Playful' Context

Ken Shepherd
September 1st, 2015 9:03 PM
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The "Pigs in a blanket. Fry 'em like bacon!" chant by Black Lives Matter activists this weekend at the Minnesota State Fair was taken out of context, organizer Trahern Crews told MSNBC's Chris Hayes tonight, insisting that the chant was sort of an inside joke, given in a "playful" context between activists and the cops who were escorting the marchers. 

As you can see from the video embedded below, it seems even Hayes has trouble buying that malarkey, even as he doesn't really call out Crews for it. 

MSNBC
All In with Chris Hayes
September 1, 2015; 8:21 p.m. Eastern

CHRIS HAYES: A chant captured on video this weekend at a march in St. Paul over the weekend has added fuel to the fire.

BILL O’REILLY from Aug. 31 edition of FNC’s O’Reilly Factor: Just hours after Deputy Darren Goforth was murdered in Houston, allegedly by a black man, there was an anti-police demonstration at the Minnesota State Fair by Black Lives Matter.

DEMONSTRATORS at Black Lives Matter march: Pigs in a blanket. Fry 'em like bacon! Pigs in a blanket. Fry ‘em like bacon!

HAYES: That video picked up on Fox News and elsewhere led  to criticism the movement was advocating violence against law enforcement.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK, August 31 edition of FNC’s Fox & Friends: Kevin, why has the black lives movement, the Black Lives Movement not been classified yet as a hate group?

O’REILLY, Aug. 31 Factor:  I think they're a hate group. They hate police officers.

JUAN WILLIAMS, ibid: Well, they have strong feelings about --

O’REILLY, ibid: No, they hate them. They want them dead. Pigs in a blanket is dead.

They're a hate group, and I'm going to tell you right now,  I’m going to put them out of business.

HAYES: Joining me now, Trahern Crews, he’s an organizer for Black Lives Matter St. Paul, a Green Party candidate for the St. Paul City Council War 1.

Um, Mr. Crews, I want you to respond first to that chant that was captured on tape there. What is your reaction? There are people who see that and say it's incitement, it’s a call to violence, it’s dehumanizing at the very least.

Do those activists, do you, do Black Lives Matter activists hate police officers?

TRAHERN CREWS: No, not at all. And I want to put that chant in context. We had a great demonstration that day. It was very exciting. It was so exciting that I think the police who were along escorting the marchers wanted to be a part of the march or a part of the demonstration. So on the way back, the officer leading the parade kept talking into his microphone and saying things to the crowd, like, stay off the medium [sic], do that, he was laughing and joking with the marchers, so then the marchers kind of started chanting that towards him. It was more playful than anything. So --

HAYES: So that was -- you're saying, that was in a playful context, that chant?

CREWS: Exact-- at that particular demonstration, yes. That was. Because, and the officer was laughing and joking along with the protesters.

HAYES: People --

CREWS: And, and, and he, and the officer also said, when they started chanting, he said back into the microphone, everybody loves bacon.