Posted on 04/29/2015 6:46:59 PM PDT by markomalley
President Barack Obama announced that he has no intention of appearing in Baltimore, Md., the city 43 miles from his White House residence which has been besieged by violent riots in the wake of the April 19 death of Freddie Gray.
Obama said he may visit Baltimore “once things clear up.” For now, though, he believes he should stay away because of the tense atmosphere and the massive police presence combating rioters.
The president made the statement on Wednesday morning during in an interview on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show,” according to CNN.
In the interview, Obama also condemned the high level of violence seen in Baltimore in recent days, calling the violence and looting “counterproductive.”
“The kind of violence, looting, destruction that we saw from a handful of individuals in Baltimore, there’s no excuse for that,” the president told Harvey. “That’s not a statement. That’s not politics. That’s not activism. It’s just criminal behavior.”
He addressed what he believes are the root causes of the rioting in the interview as well.
“If you send police officers into those situations where the drug trade is the primary economy and you say to them basically your job is to contain that and arrest kids and put them in jail when those police officers know [it’s not going to fix things], then it’s not surprising you end up with a situation of enormous tension between those communities and those police officers,” Obama opined.
Obama’s solution to the plague of violence in Baltimore is to build a huge, cradle-to-grave government apparatus to watch over people. He called for “a political movement” to assist people in poor communities from the time they are born which would include early childhood education, infrastructure spending and new drug sentencing laws.
In lieu of visiting riot-torn Baltimore on Wednesday, Obama dropped in for a surprise visit at a Teasim cafe. Teaism is a small chain of Asian-inspired restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area hawking tea as “art and love” — “not just commerce.” Menu items include golden monkey tea and lavender lemon mint tea as well as kale salad, a grass-fed burger and a handful of bento boxes.
A Time reporter, Zeke Miller, was at the restaurant. He attempted to report the event using his mobile phone and an app called Periscope. However, the effort fizzled when Obama demanded that Miller stop filming and Miller complied.
Elijah Cummings showed up. Good for him... he’s out there in the middle of the mess telling kids to go home.
I’m impressed.
He feared that he might be asked to throw out the first pitch at Camden Yards this afternoon.
His Mom Jeans were in the wash.
No problem. Hop on AF1, and fly in by way of Hong Kong.
: )
It’s only money. Plays gonna Play YO!
taxpayers are honkies anyway, YO!
Looked like more than a handful.
Even Jimmy Carter had enough balls to go to Three Mile Island when it could have gone critical.
Homie got his lean on, his drAnk on, and his ‘47 on. His Emperor on...His Reggie on...
Stylin’ my man. Stylin’
Less fallout possible at 3NI
3 M I
And look what happened.
Not just that, many blacks are disappointed with Obama; he is no hero to them anymore. He is viewed as a white liberal at this point; within a year of his election, my black co-workers who had hung his pictures in their cubicles quiety took them down and started bellyaching about the vactions and nice cars they used to have. Many of them had a brief flirtation with middle-class living when the Obamaconomy pulled the rug out from under them.
Gonna watch a moooovie.
Se ya in da hood.
Agree ... in this forum he can't win ... he shows up and will be ridiculed; doesn't show up same thing. I sure as hell don't carry any water for Obama but this is a no win situation for the 'anointed one'.
“Obama needs to be wearing a body cam 24/7”.
Instead of body cams he and every other politician should wear lie detectors that record 24/7.
“Children of LBJ”...
But now after 50 years, it’s really GRANDchildren and GREAT-grandchildren.
How long will it take to dig our way out of this mess?
But, but, but he is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. That must mean he is an expert on soothing the situation.
Supporters of Raila Odinga(BARAK OBAMAS FIRST COUSIN), the leading presidential challenger, rallied in Kibera, a slum near Nairobi.(According to the NY Times, this is a "rally")
Mr. Odinga’s (BARAK OBAMAS FIRST COUSIN, WHO HE CAMPAIGNED IN KENYA FOR)followers tried to march from Kibera to Nairobi.
A supporter of the presidential challenger Raila Odinga (OBAMAS FIRST COUSIN, WHO HE CAMPAIGNED FOR IN KENYA IN 2006) in Kibera, a sprawling slum near the capital, Nairobi.
Odinga supporters riot in December 2007(ODINGA IS BARAK OBMAMS FIRST COUSIN, OBAMA CAMPAIGNED FOR HIM IN KENYA IN 2006)
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