After protesters from the “Black Lives Matter” movement claimed that Bernie Sanders has not paid enough attention to race issues in Seattle, Wash., last weekend, Sanders made it a focal point during his stop in Boone, Iowa, on Saturday. 

The Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate addressed the issues of racism and police brutality in America and offered solutions for improvement during a town meeting at the Boone County Fairgrounds. 

Sanders named several police brutality victims to the large group of Iowa supporters, including Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Walter Scott.

“We know we still have a long way to go to overcome racism in America and that is something we must do,” Sanders said.

Sanders specifically spoke about Sandra Bland’s case in which the woman was pulled over for not using her turn signal. Bland was found three days later dead in her cell after hanging herself with a trash bag.

“You know and I know that if that was a middle-class white woman that would not have happened,” Sanders said.

The senator called for criminal justice reform and to end the militarization of local police departments. Sanders said most police officers do the right thing under high stress but said for those who don’t there needs to be action taken.

“When police officers, like anybody else, break the law they must be held accountable,” Sanders said.   

Sanders pledged there would be no president who would fight harder than himself to end institutional racism and reform broken criminal justice.

“We need to take a hard look at minimal sentencing,” Sanders said.

He said many peoples’ lives have been ruined by long sentencing for nonviolent crimes and these sentences have a huge effect on unemployment and youth unemployment.

Sanders said 51 percent of African-American high school graduates are unemployed. He said it is not a coincidence that because of these numbers the United States has a higher incarceration rate than any other nation.

“We are going to invest in jobs and education for our kids, not jails, not incarceration,” Sanders said.  

Sanders said it is important to make sure people have jobs, education, and housing when released from jails and prisons. He said that it is a lot less expensive than locking people up. The senator also called for all penitentiaries to be public.

“It is obscene that we have penitentiaries in this country run by private corporations,” Sanders said.   

The presidential candidate also touted removing big money from politics, ending income inequality, combating climate change and making public colleges tuition free.

Sanders is one of six Democratic presidential candidates. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been the frontrunner with Sanders in second. A recent Franklin Pierce University and Boston Herald poll showed Sanders ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire, 44 percent to 37 percent.