Protesters objected to his institutional ties to Justice Dept. and views on police violence
Former FBI director James B. Comey was heckled throughout a speech Friday at Howard University by protesters who were focused not on his controversial history with President Trump or Hillary Clinton, but for his institutional connection to the Justice Department and FBI.
The two dozen protesters chanted “No justice, no peace,” during his entire, 15-minute appearance at the historically black university, effectively making it impossible for him to complete his remarks.
“Get out James Comey! You’re not our homie!” the group shouted, according to The Washington Post .
In the end, the crowd of around 1,000 people gave him a standing ovation.
Comey was addressing the group as holder of an endowed chair in public policy at the university, which is located in Washington, D. C.
Video posted on Twitter by members of the audience showed protesters standing in a group at the back of the auditorium, chanting and gesticulating with their arms.
“I love the enthusiasm of the young folks,” Comey said at one point, as the chants continued. “I just wish they would understand what a conversation is.’’
Comey, who was fired by Trump in May over what the president said was his unhappiness with the FBI director’s handling of the Russia probe, has become a lightning rod for supporters of both Trump and Clinton.
Clinton supporters objected to his public statements about the state of an FBI probe of the Democratic candidate during the 2016 presidential campaign, while Trump supporters backed the president’s firing over the FBI probe of any alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Ironically, neither topic was on the mind of the protesters.
Instead the activists issued a statement saying Comey “represents an institution diametrically opposed to the interests of black people domestically and abroad. While his tenure at the FBI has finished, his impact on our community remains.”
They particularly opposed his purported promotion of what some officials have called “the Ferguson effect” — a theory that the rise in violent crime is due to police fearing public criticism for being too violent, and therefore avoiding confrontations with criminals.
“No justice, no peace, no (expletive) police,” the protesters shouted at one point.
“James Comey represents an institution diametrically opposed to the interests of Black people domestically and abroad,” said HU Resist in a statement distributed at the convocation Friday, CNN reports . “The ‘Ferguson Effect,’ for example, is an outright racist lie designed to undermine Black Liberation Movement.”
At one point, Comey tried to tailor his speech, which was focused on what he called “the real world,” to the uproar in the audience.
“The rest of the real world is a place where it’s hard sometimes to find people who will listen with an attitude that they might actually be convinced of something,” he told them, according to Reuters .
“Instead, what happens in most of the real world — and about four rows in this auditorium — is that people don’t listen at all.”
