Black Lives Matter Activist Roughed Up at Trump Rally

Says he was punched, kicked after Donald said, 'Get him the hell out of here'
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 22, 2015 12:21 PM CST
Black Lives Matter Activist Roughed Up at Trump Rally
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala.   (AP Photo/Eric Schultz)

A Black Lives Matter protester locked horns with Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, and neither one of them emerged very happy from the encounter, reports the Washington Post. Mercutio Southall Jr., who the Post describes as a well-known activist and the founder of the Birmingham chapter of Black Lives Matter, began chanting at a Trump rally, prompting Trump to tell security to "Get him the hell out of here, will you, please?" A scuffle apparently ensued as security moved to remove Southall, cell phone video was recorded, and Southall emerged saying that he had been roughed up considerably as well as been called racial slurs. A woman in the video shouts repeatedly, "don't choke him!"

"I got punched in the face, I got punched in the neck. I got kicked in the chest. Kicked in the stomach. Somebody stepped on my hand," Southall tells CNN. A Trump rep on Saturday said "the campaign does not condone this behavior," but Trump himself appeared less apologetic in comments Sunday, per CNN. Southall "was so obnoxious and so loud, he was screaming. I had 10,000 people in the room yesterday, 10,000 people, and this guy started screaming by himself and they—I don't know, rough up, he should have been—maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing," Trump said. Southall, for his part, says he intends to press charges. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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