Tag: Police Shooting

The Dallas Police Memorial: Obama’s missed opportunity

Obama Dallas
Photo Courtesy: WALA-TV/Mobile, Ala.

Barack Obama knows an opportunity when he sees one. It puzzled me when his highly anticipated “healing speech” fell flat on a number of fronts. Even worse, the president couldn’t stay away from his favorite rhetorical vehicles and his agenda.

The speech seemed fine, albeit unremarkable, at the get go.

Usually, a speaker kicks off with a joke to relax the crowd. Obama’s Stevie Wonder/Michelle/Chief Brown joke seemed more about relaxing himself. Decide for yourself if it was appropriate for the situation.

But there were the usual and appropriate things in Obama’s speech about police officers killed in the line of duty. The emotional references to family, service, and selflessness we’ve heard at all too many police funerals.

None of this was terrible, and I thought the president might get it. Does he finally get there are times to stay away from politics. Does he get this wasn’t the moment to scold and lecture America? This was the moment to honor five dead cops who were killed doing their jobs.

About a quarter of the way through the speech the president could no longer stifle his instinct to use any tragedy, any event, anything to push his narrative du jour.

“And then around nine o’clock, the gunfire came. Another community torn apart; more hearts broken; more questions about what caused and what might prevent another such tragedy.”

– Barack Obama; July 12, 2016

I knew the speech had turned.

And then soon after, this little gem:

“We turn on the TV or surf the Internet, and we can watch positions harden and lines drawn and people retreat to their respective corners, and politicians calculate how to grab attention or avoid the fallout. We see all this, and it’s hard not to think sometimes that the center won’t hold and that things might get worse.”

The president fails to mention that many of the offending opiners, and some of the most bombastic, are put out there by the White House.

And for at least the second time Obama used the, “I’m here to insist that we are not as divided as we seem” line. An odd thing to say at a memorial for five slain officers. How much more divided do we have to be?

But Barack was just warming up. He was about to employ one of his favorite tactics: “Because I said so.”

“As a society, we choose to under-invest in decent schools.”

As if there can ever be enough money for schools. Any politician who doesn’t agree loses.

Fact: We spend about $70 billion a year on education at the federal level alone.

“We allow poverty to fester so that entire neighborhoods offer no prospect for gainful employment.”

Fact: While the military continues to take the lion’s share of our budget, we spend more than $62 billion on housing and community.

“We refuse to fund drug treatment and mental health programs.”

Fact: We spend $66 billion on Medicare and health.

It’s easy to say we need to do more. But who’s been president for nearly eight years? “The buck stops here.” No?

Still, up until this point it was the president’s usual speech. Then came this doozy:

“We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than to get his hands on a computer or even a book.”

My stomach sank and my ass liked to bite the seat. The Internet exploded into ridicule. As fact as you can hit send, people like Sean Davis of “The Federalist” were on the president’s case.

Social media became a cornucopia of call-out.

Why the hell did Barack Obama go there?

Statements like that may sound and feel good to the president’s most rabid supporters, but even the rational faithful know it hurts the chances of having a real dialogue about the issue anytime soon.

“Don’t do stupid shit,” was, at one time, the motto of this White House.

I’ll let that one sit there.

I think the president had to bring up race. I know many were upset with that, but it’s impossible to unravel what happened in Dallas from race.

Maybe the surprise of the day, for me, came from none other than former president George W. Bush.

While still not no orator, Bush’s words felt real.

“At times, it seems like the forces pulling us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together. Argument turns too easily into animosity. Disagreement escalates too quickly into dehumanization. Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our best intentions. And this has strained our bonds of understanding and common purpose.”

– W; July 12, 2016

And like all things real and true, his words left me a little enlightened, and a little ashamed.

 

Barack Obama’s Alternate Reality

“Who are ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”  

That Chico Marx line from the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup” could well sum up President Barack Obama’s reaction to the slaughter of innocents.

Before the shock of a radical Muslim attack that killed 14 people at a Christmas party in San Bernardino wore off, Obama was blaming guns despite what the killers had to say: They swore allegiance to ISIS.

“Just after the shooting began, Malik went on Facebook and pledged her allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the emir of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, the militant group that says it has established a caliphate in Syria and Iraq, according to law enforcement officials. A Facebook official confirmed the posting, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.”

– The Washington Post; December 4, 2015

Straight from the horse’s mouth, as we used to say.

But never mind what the radicalized Islamists told us. Here’s what the president wanted to talk about.

Not only was San Bernardino all about guns and the end of due process to the president, Attorney General Loretta Lynch carried his message even further. Lynch saw fit to stifle free speech. Is there something about the Bill of Rights this administration hates?

In the middle of his murder spree inside the Pulse nightclub, Omar Mateen couldn’t wait to tell us why he was bent on killing as many Americans as possible. So he called 911.

When it was announced that Mateen made the call, the Obama administration’s first reaction was to try to block the public from seeing his true motives. The “most transparent administration,” as the president likes to tout, finally relented to political and media pressure. Like the massacre in San Bernardino, Obama would rather the terrorist’s motives for killing 49 people remain unknown.

Here is Mateen’s response when the police dispatcher had asked for his name: “My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.” Sound familiar?

Faster than a speeding bullet, Obama blamed guns. Once again, sound familiar?

To admit Mateen’s act was ISIS inspired, a group he once called the “JV squad,” wasn’t politically palatable for the president.

Admitting that adherence to the principles of radical Islam was at the root of the worst terror attack on the United States since 9/11, destroys Obama’s ISIS narrative.

And now we come to Dallas. For the past eight years, Obama’s surrogates like Black Lives Matter and Al Sharpton have been telling black people the police are the enemy. Police deaths are up this year. Is it a coincidence?

In New York, attendees of a Black Lives Matters march chanted for “dead cops.”

Why did Micah Johnson shoot 12 police officers and two civilians? He wanted to “kill white people, especially white officers.”

Finally, under the intense weight of a narrative he helped create, Obama tried to dial it back.

But the damage has already been done in so many ways.

The cynical use of the Ferguson fantasy as well as the use of people of color being shot by police as political hammers have served only to divide the nation along hard racial lines. Especially when those stories don’t turn out to be what’s been pushed.

Yet, in an election year, dead cops and ISIS inspired attacks are not a good narrative for the president’s legacy.

So Obama goes back to old, reliable, “The guns made him do it.”

Radical Islam and race relations are both important subjects the nation must discuss. Both will be uncomfortable conversations for each side if an honest talk is to take place. The president’s insistence on seeing these issues through his preferred political lens is dangerous and non- productive.

Three times now, murderers have told the nation why they committed the atrocities they did. And three times Barack Obama has asked, “Who are ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”

 

© 2016 carlgottliebdotnet

Dallas

DMN Front Page
Photo courtesy: Ting Shen/Dallas Morning News

Nearly eight years into Barack Obama’s race baiting of America, he’s finally achieved his goal. Open warfare against, what he believes is, an irretrievably racist white society.

After the shooting of black men by police in Minnesota and Louisiana, Obama couldn’t resist the opportunity to do what he does best. Divide the nation by race and class.

This was part of his reaction to the shootings:

“All of us as Americans should be troubled by these shootings,” he continued. “These are not isolated incidents, they are symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system.”

Instead of waiting for the facts to come in, Obama couldn’t resist the opportunity to push his favorite narrative.

But later, once the consequences of his words became clear, at least five officers gunned down in Dallas with seven more wounded (as well as two civilians), Obama changed his tone, calling the police shootings “despicable.” But his prior words, like birds, can’t be called back once let loose. (Thank you mom.)

And to be sure Obama’s words have had consequences. One of the shooters wanted to, “kill as many white people as possible.”

Dallas Cops
Photo courtesy: Maria R. Olivas/Dallas Morning News

The president has assured the nation justice would be done. A hard sell after Hillary Clinton’s non-indictment for indictable offenses.

But never wasting a crisis, Obama wasn’t quite done. He wouldn’t be the political creature he is without pushing an agenda born of tragedy.

“Today is a wrenching reminder of the sacrifices they make for us,” Obama said of law enforcement officers. “We also know when people are armed with powerful weapons, unfortunately, it makes attacks like these more deadly and more tragic.”

Out of the other side of the president’s mouth Obama said he wanted Friday to “focus is on the victims and their families.”

“Focus on the families,” simply means change the narrative.

In an election year where Americans are worried about their safety and security, the killing of five police officers is political poison for Obama and his party. Spelled H-I-L-L-A-R-Y.

That’s why we’re hearing frantic calls from media to “not politicize,” Dallas.

If only someone had told Jesse Jackson, who couldn’t wait to blame… who else? Donald Trump!

You can’t have it both ways. The president’s surrogates have pushed the racist cop narrative so hard that demonstrators have called for violence. Why wouldn’t you if your leaders have convinced you police don’t care about your life?

But remember this video? Black Lives Matter led the New York street marches after police killed a black man in Staten Island. The chants of the crowd are clear. They want “dead cops.” They want “dead cops now.”

Yesterday, without all the facts, cable news fanned the flames of resentment for ratings. Emotion sells. Especially if it’s politically correct emotion. How could they so soon forget how wrong they were about Ferguson?

CNN
Photo courtesy: CNN

Look at what über-liberal Jonathan Capehart said about the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the false narrative that was pushed for months.

It’s time for media and Barack Obama to shut up and allow the system to work. It doesn’t always work, but it’s still the best legal system around.

The racial resentment they both foment just came back to bite them on their collective asses. It isn’t doing the nation any good either.

There’s a saying in journalism that applies to everything. “It’s more important to be right, than to be first.”

The deaths of five police officers in Dallas should be the turning point where media decides it isn’t going to report speculation and rancid, self-serving political opinions, especially in emotionally charged stories. I doubt it will be.

And as I mentioned above, media have already put out the message that this is not a time to politicize tragedy. Too bad they didn’t think of that yesterday.

 

© 2016 carlgottliebdotnet