Friday, July 08, 2016

President Obama, Governor Dayton fan Flames of Racism after Police Shootings


Early reports are that two officers have been shot at a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas.

Image from Youtube

President Obama, once again, could not wait or ask for calm after an interracial shooting that appeared questionable on first reports.  It is impossible to know how this one will turn out, but it is absolutely irresponsible for the President to fan the flames of racism with remarks mere hours after the shooting, before numerous questions have been answered or any serious investigation has been undertaken.  From the nytimes.com:
In his comments, President Obama made a point of emphasizing that protests and outrage after that shooting and one in Baton Rouge early Tuesday morning that was captured on video, did not constitute a bias against the police, saying that, “to be concerned about these issues is not to be against law enforcement.”

“I would just ask those who question the sincerity or the legitimacy of protests and vigils and expressions of outrage, who somehow label those expressions of outrage as ‘political correctness,’ I just ask folks to step back and think,” he said. “What if this happened to somebody in your family? How would you feel?”
The point is that we do not know precisely what happened yet.  It is a rush to judgement.  It is impossible to know this early.  President Obama has a habit of rushing to judgement when  cases that might be white on black make the news.  He has been repeatedly wrong. He was wrong about the arrest of Henry Lois Gates. He was wrong about Treyvon Martin.  He was wrong about Michael Brown in Ferguson.  He was wrong about Freddie Gray. When there are questionable shootings of white people, no remarks are forthcoming.  The president did not call for an investigation when Eric Scott was shot in Las Vegas. Scott's shooting may be remarkably similar to the recent shooting in Falcon Heights.  He did not ask people to feel what it might be like to be one of Lavoy Finiicum 's family.

He has been all too willing to jump to racist conclusions about White police officers.  His intemperate remarks have driven the country into disparate racial groups that are more divided than at any time since the middle 1960's.

His words  have inflamed emotions and almost certainly lead to attacks on police officers.  It is breaking that two officers have been shot at a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas, Texas.

I wonder if President Obama will ask us all to wonder what it would be like to be a member of those officers' families.  It appears that the President does not think that police lives or white lives matter. 

Governor Dayton of Minnesota has been just as bad.  Mere hours into the investigation of the Falcon Heights shooting, long before conclusions can be legitimately drawn, he is jumping to them and inflaming racial tensions.  From the washingtonpost.com:
 ST. PAUL, Minn. — Following a fatal police shooting in a quiet suburb that rapidly rippled across the nation, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said in no uncertain terms Thursday that Philando Castile ended up dead at least in part because he was black.
These Democrat politicians do the nation a great disservice by exacerbating tentions instead of seeking calm and deliberate investigations.  Rushing to judgement undermines the rule of law.


©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just do not think it is anything having to do with racism. I think people are just damn tired of abusive police officers that throw you to the ground and then put a knee in your face or your back and beat you senseless for a damned traffic citation or for any excuse to be the bullies they are. clearly I have no pity for the cops. it is sad that things have had to go this far but there are just too many videos on U-Tube showing how disgusting so many of them are. the old saying is that payback is hell seems to be catching on. when the police refuse to clean up their act and get rid of the bullies because of the blue wall, well they have brought this retaliation on themselves. I think this latest shooting was a target of opportunity and had nothing to do with the BLM march. I think it was a terrorist attack and probably a false flag. If it was a real case of terror attack there would have been many more shooters and far better prepared to kill many more. cops got their butts kicked and it was just a false flag. think about how bad it could have been if it were an organized real attack. Dallas would need a lot of new faces and a fleet of new vehicles. Real terrorist would have done a lot more damage. An M-79 could have made a waste land out of that area.