BERNIE’S BROWNSHIRTS: How Bernie Sanders supporters shut down a Donald Trump rally in Chicago.

When Ja’Mal Green, a prominent black activist and Bernie Sanders supporter in Chicago, saw that Donald Trump was coming to the University of Illinois Chicago, he knew what he had to do. “Everyone, get your tickets to this. We’re all going in!!!! ‪#‎SHUTITDOWN‬,” he posted on Facebook last week.

Little did he know they actually would shut it down.

Friday night, hundreds of protesters invaded Trump’s rally while thousands more marched outside, leading the candidate to abruptly cancel the event due to safety concerns. The night spun out from there, as angry Trump fans clashed with protesters, who saw the shutdown as a victory.

Protesters interrupt virtually every Trump speech. But what made Chicago different were its scale and the organization behind the effort. Hundreds of young, largely black and brown people poured in from across the city, taking over whole sections of the arena and bracing for trouble.

And as the repeated chants of “Ber-nie” demonstrated, it was largely organized by supporters of Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate who has struggled to win over black voters, but whose revolutionary streak has excited radicals of all colors.

“Remember the #TrumpRally wasn’t just luck. It took organizers from dozens of organizations and thousands of people to pull off. Great work,” tweeted People for Bernie, a large unofficial pro-Sanders organization founded by veterans of the Occupy movement and other lefty activists.

Organizing to shut down a campaign rally? Sounds like a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights.