Posted on 11/24/2014 7:02:13 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
President Barack Obamas unwillingness to wade deeply into the thicket of passions, grievances, suspicions, and resentments that materialized after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, has disappointed some of his strongest supporters. His decision has been interpreted as a strategic retrenchmenta conscious determination not to polarize the publics impressions of Ferguson the way he did when he expressed a kind of racial solidarity with the parents of Trayvon Martin two and a half years ago.
The contrast between Obamas approaches to the Brown and Martin cases has always been overstated. Bracket one poignant but contentious sentenceIf I had a son, hed look like Trayvonand his responses to the two killings no longer seem so dissimilar. Even without an explicit presidential statement of commiseration, the public dialogue surrounding Browns killing polarized along depressingly familiar lines. Obamas most impassioned comments about Martin came only after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman, not before Zimmerman had been indicted.
We have now effectively reached the same point in the Michael Brown case. There is no verdict, because Darren Wilsonthe Ferguson police officer who killed Brownwont be charged with a crime.
The Grand Jurys decision has reignited protests in Ferguson, and political leaders of all levels, including Obama himself, are pleading for restraintmostly from the protestors themselves, but also from those whove taken up arms in anticipation of looting and riots. At the same time, Obama says hes going to wait and see how the public reacts to the news before deciding whether to visit Missouri.
But he should go regardless. This is Obamas first opportunity (for lack of a better word) to use the bully pulpit to steer the national agenda in a positive direction since the slaughter at Newtown, Connecticut, and its the first time since he became a national figure that hell be able to address a racially charged issue without an election in his future to deter him.
For the entirety of his presidency, and for much of his pre-presidency, Obamas been too encumbered by a real but vague set of hindranceshis ambition, his temperament, an idealistic sense of a presidents significance to the country, and an acute awareness of his position in the country's racial firmamentto speak about racial issues with the candor that his attorney general, Eric Holder, has exhibited.
Holder has by some tellings been Obamas emissary in places, including in Ferguson, where Obama believes his direct involvement would inflame rather than reduce tensions.
But the attorney general isnt the president. Holders on his way out. He's still technically overseeing federal investigations in Ferguson. And more to the point, the circumstances surrounding Michael Browns death evoke more complex, and perhaps less polarizing issues than those that brought about the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Martins killing was in some ways more racially fraught, or straightforwardly racial, than Browns. Zimmerman, Martins killer, wasnt a police officer; Martin wasnt suspected of a crime; and he was walking alone, in a predominantly white neighborhood. His killing sparked a debate about controversial gun laws, but his altercation with Zimmerman, the way the case was handled, and the verdict all spoke to racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and to an undercurrent of white vigilantism in conservative parts of the country. In the end, the story was about a zealot who killed an innocent black kid and got away with it.
Some of these factors apply to Browns killing and some dont. But the very complexities that distinguish Browns case from Martinsthat Wilson is a cop; that Brown was shot and killed at a distance with his hands in the air, according to some witnesses; that Ferguson police essentially turned on the residents they are paid to serve; that the overwhelmingly black community is governed by overwhelmingly white public officialsare what make Ferguson such a thorny issue. Theyre also the things that make it so urgent for the president, but particularly this president, to give them proper context.
Browns killing isnt just about local police procedure, or the militarization of police, but civil rights, a vast array of racial disparities in America, and the cardinal importance of the franchise, all of which are connected to one another. Obama is uniquely suited to trace those connections. He should do so, in Ferguson.
Megan Kelly reporting shots fired
Game on Homies!
Commie Agitator to speak directly.
Forget the facts. Forget the justice. Forget eight hundred years of the English jury system. Let’s all revert to clan-based blood feuds. I guess Obama would fit in well with Medieval jurisprudence, being a progressive Muslim and all.
Wait until Banki’s blue-helmeted UN baboons show up to punish Americans for our “human rights violations”. LOL!
Without the conscious help from white liberals, our cities wouldn't now be terrorized by black criminals. There should be a day of reckoning for white liberals as well as for black criminals.
Again with the “hands in the air” BS.
Blue helmets make good targets.
Sorry, Brian , but there aren’t any first class golf courses or fund raising venues in backwater Ferguson...
More drivel from the “Old Communism”.
He was planning on going, but then he realized he had an early tee time.
yeah obammy,
Go to Ferguson and see the reception you get.
You’ve done zero for the black voter ya butthead.
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