“As long as they’re peaceful, I think they’re necessary,” Obama said during an interview that aired on BET Monday. “When they turn violent then they turn counterproductive.”
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“Power concedes nothing without a fight, that’s true , but it’s also true that a country’s conscious has to be triggered by some inconvenience,” Obama said. “The value of peaceful protests, activism … is it reminds the society this is not yet done.”
Obama’s statements echo sentiments of Attorney General Eric Holder, who said in an interview with TIME that this could be a seminal moment.
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