Posted on 04/29/2015 3:38:51 AM PDT by markomalley
Just hours after a powder keg of racial tension in Baltimore exploded into violence, looting and destruction, President Obama once again urged America to do some soul-searching and commit to helping impoverished black communities gripped with unemployment, drug addiction and educational inequality.
It was the similar soul-searching message the president sent nearly three years ago in 2012 amid a national firestorm over the slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Florida.
But if America has done any deep thinking over the issue, there have been few tangible results and president's policing task forces have done little to heal the nation's open racial wounds.
Since Martin's slaying, a string of deadly clashes between police and black men have continued, spurring community outrage and violence throughout the country.
After Michael Brown's killing by a police officer in Ferguson, and the weeks of violence, rioting and protests that erupted there, Obama appointed an 11-person task force to make recommendations on 21st Century Policing polices to build trust between law enforcement and black and minority communities around the country.
But so far the task force, like many toothless Washington blue-ribbon commissions, failed to shift the dynamic and become a catalyst for any real change.
Late last year, Eric Garner, whom police confronted for allegedly illegally selling cigarettes, died in a police chokehold. And already this year, Walter Scott was shot five times in the back by police in South Carolina and Freddie Gray mysteriously died from spinal injuries suffered while under police custody in Baltimore.
There have been more than a dozen incidents in a year and a half around the country — all with similar themes — frustrations with police brutality and the lack of opportunity in blighted urban communities.
National Urban League President Marc Morial reacted to the civil unrest in Baltimore by declaring the racial tensions sweeping across the country a "state of emergency of tremendous proportions," arguing that the riots and deep anger in the black community show a lack of faith in the local and national political systems to adequately respond.
"It's imperative that we address the outrage that fuels the unrest and heals the rifts between police and the communities they serve," he said.
Few could have predicted that racial riots would mark the final years of America's first black president's time in office. But Obama has mostly appeared penned in by the crisis, worried that if he wades in too deep he will prejudice the legal outcome of the cases and stoke more division.
On Tuesday as the smoke cleared in Baltimore, Obama continued the balancing act.
While he said there was "no excuse" for Monday's violence in Baltimore and perpetrators should be treated as criminals, he also called on America to come together to address the underlying problems of unemployment, drug addiction and fatherless homes.
Still, he offered few concrete prescriptions other than "soul-searching," complaining that he didn't expect the Republican-controlled Congress to dig into the issue of black inner-city poverty.
"Now, I'm under no illusion that out of this Congress we're going to get massive investments in urban communities, and so we'll try to find areas where we can make a difference around school reform and around job training and some investments in infrastructure in these communities and trying to attract new businesses," he said, noting that sentencing reform for non-violent drug offenders could also help those convicted of lesser crimes get jobs.
The president also talked about communities where investment and manufacturing have been shipped way just minutes after extolling the virtues of a massive new trade deal that many on the left and some on the right blame for killing jobs that many of blue-collar communities like Baltimore once depended on.
In passing, the president mentioned new Justice Department grants or communities who want to purchase body cameras.
After Scott's killing earlier this month, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said body cameras could have helped and touted a $75 million Justice Department grant announced earlier in the year that would help law enforcement agencies across the country purchase body cameras.
Obama's budget calls for $97 million to help communities buy them, but the White House has failed to amplify the issue as a major priority.
The White House, at times, also has sent mixed messages about its role in trying to quell racial unrest – even as early as Monday.
Confronted by questions about the protests in Baltimore before they turned exceptionally violent on Monday, Earnest seemed to suggest there was very little role for the president and the federal government to play.
"This is fundamentally a local issue," he told reporters.
While the president's policing task force made recommendations he said the fate of every city's response rests in their local leaders.
"There does need to be local elected leaders and local law enforcement leaders to confront this challenge and to demonstrate some determination about trying to build bridges with the citizens that they're sworn to protect," Earnest said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a sternly-worded speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, echoed the president's call for criminal justice reform and more education and job training investments in impoverished communities.
But he too has done very little to back up his rhetoric with action.
"No American should ever feel that their life is not valued," Reid said Tuesday on the Senate floor.
He also highlighted several bills that would reform the nations sentencing laws. Congress enacted the laws after a national crime wave in the 1980s that both liberals and libertarians now decry as flooding the nation's prison population.
"It's easy to believe the system is rigged against you," he said.
Reid did not mention, however, that while serving as majority leader from 2007 to 2014, he did not bring any sentencing reform measures to the floor, including a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., for debate and a possible vote.
Obama said...all the kid was doing was pushing drugs. Hell, I did that all through college.
a “state of emergency of tremendous proportions,”
not just an emergency, but a tremendous emergency...so kinda like, well, you know, an emergency then.
IIRC the election was Tuesday, November 4, 2008, and firearm sales began their upward trajectory on Wednesday, November 5, 2008.
Millions have expected this outcome. Only surprise is that the rioting took this long to begin.
FIRST, you must HAVE a soul.....................
The left’s meme on race is falling apart in Baltimore. Black mayor, black majority of residents, black majority in the police force, criminal died of injuries (origin unknown) after arrest by black police officer.
He’ll be looking for a while...
Obama is too busy exploiting poor minorities and damning capitalism to “search his soul” for the obvious solutions.
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Obama said nothing about doing “soul searching” himself.
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