Merry Christmas!
I hope you have a wonderful day of fun, feasting, and family.
For several years, I have
run what amounts to a Holiday template post during Christmas week. After considerable thought, I decided to
deviate from that practice for today’s edition.
I understand all the reasons I normally opt not to create new material
are in full effect. It’s Christmastime
in the city, and the country, and all across the land. Very few people will be allocating time to
read a blog. Cool, you have to do what
you have to do!
However, this is a special moment in time. The nation is inundated with tensions and
hotspots, borne of organized responses to a number of incidents in which police
officers have killed unarmed civilians, and District Attorneys or Grand Juries
have not found probable cause to file charges against the officers in question.
Before going any further, I must stipulate, police
officers are not unequivocally the enemy…period. That is without caveat.
Simultaneously, it is absolutely imperative to enunciate,
as clearly as possible, the ranting of select Republicans notwithstanding, to
be anti-police brutality, is not to be anti-police. To be in favor of police reform is not to
favor killing, harming, or otherwise attacking police officers.
Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York, contends that President Obama is the catalyst for Ismaaiyl Brinsley's execution
of New York Police Officers Rafael Ramos, 40, and Wenjian Liu, 32, last Saturday in
Brooklyn. Before shooting the officers, the 28 year-old Brinsley shot his 29 year-old ex-girlfriend, Shaneka Thompson, in Owings Mills, Maryland, about 15 miles outside Baltimore. According to the former Mayor,
“We’ve had four months of propaganda, starting
with the president, that everybody should hate the police.”
Mr. Giuliani
has been particularly harsh not only in criticizing President Obama, but also
in tying him directly to a broader effort to foment racial dissension in America. He laid the foundation for that specter last month by placing the onus for
police treatment of blacks on black crime, citing the statistic that blacks
kill 93% of blacks that are murdered. As
I have noted previously, this factoid, viewed alone is deceptive as it relates
to degree of strength as a causal factor.
It totally ignores the fact that murder is typically a crime of passion
and/or convenience or accessibility. In
other words, the corollary is also true for whites. As a point of comparison, whites kill 84% of
whites that are murdered. In short,
whether you are black or white, if you are killed, the likelihood is that it
will be by someone of the same race as you.
Representative
Peter King, of New York, joins Giuliani in this version of the blame game. He argued, “Obama, de Blasio,
Al Sharpton and those in the media need to “stop the cop bashing and
anti-police rhetoric.” And the
drumbeat goes on.
Add conservative blogger Michelle Malkin to
the list. She proffered this sentiment:
“Obama used his bully pulpit this week to
bemoan the ‘real issues’ of discrimination by some police officers. But he said
nothing about the murderous strain of racial animus against America’s men and
women in blue.”
Then, there
is former Congressman Joe
Walsh (R-Ill.). He has been tweeting on this topic. In an e-mail
to The Washington Post Fact Checker, Walsh said he believes de Blasio, Holder
and Obama “have the blood of those two
NYPD cops who were killed this past weekend on their hands. All three
“responded by stressing how racist America still is, how understandable urban
black anger is toward the police, and how police need to re-train and reform.
They put all the onus on the police and created the clear atmosphere for people
to be angry at and disrespectful toward police. … What they should have
done is come out and say succinctly — ‘The judicial system has spoken,
respect the decision, cops are good, don’t resist arrest, never ever attack a
cop, and don’t you dare riot, loot, and burn.”
The Fact
Checker went to work to test the validity of these assertions. They looked at what President Obama said on
the deaths of Brown and Garner, with a focus on his statements from August,
immediately after Brown’s death. This would have been the beginning of
Giuliani’s calculation of four months.
It turns out that none of President Obama’s
statements speak any ill of police officers or condone violence among those
reacting to the deaths.
1.
In
President Obama’s initial statement three days after the shooting, he urged the public
against violence. Violence and unrest nonetheless erupted in Ferguson.
Protesters took to the streets, lighting structures on fire and looting stores.
Police officers responded with machine guns and other military-style equipment.
2.
President
Obama gave an update two days later, speaking directly to the violence in
Ferguson. He said he expressed
concern about the violence to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D). “There
is never an excuse for violence against police, or for those who would use this
tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting. There’s also no excuse for police
to use excessive force against peaceful protests, or to throw protesters in
jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights.”
3.
Four
days later, President Obama spoke again
about Ferguson. He announced Attorney General Holder’s plan to
travel to Ferguson to meet with FBI agents, Justice Department personnel
conducting the federal criminal investigation into the shooting, and community
leaders “whose support is so critical to bringing about peace and calm in
Ferguson.” He added: “Giving into anger by looting or carrying guns and even
attacking the police only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos. It
undermines rather than advancing justice.”
4.
One
statement from this briefing seems to directly contradict claims that President
Obama immediately took the side of the protesters, thereby launching
“anti-police rhetoric”: “I have to be
very careful about not prejudging these events before investigations are
completed because, although these are issues of local jurisdiction, the DOJ
works for me, and when they’re conducting an investigation, I’ve got to make
sure that I don’t look like I’m putting my thumb on the scales one way or the
other.”
5.
Mr.
Holder quickly became the face of the administration responding to Ferguson.
He repeatedly talked about reducing tensions between law enforcement and
the community it serves. He and President Obama have spoken on the mistrust
toward law enforcement in minority communities, and their personal experiences
as men of African American descent. But neither has criticized police officers
of systemic racism, or called on the public to be outraged at police officers.
6. President Obama offered
one of his most pointed criticisms about police training and practices after
Ferguson during his December interview on BET,
but it’s a stretch to characterize that as “propaganda” for everyone to “hate the police”:
“The vast majority of law enforcement
officers are doing a really tough job,
and most of them are
doing it well and are trying to do the right thing. But
a combination of bad training, in some
cases; a combination in some
cases of departments that really are not
trying to root out biases, or
tolerate sloppy police work; a
combination in some cases of folks just not
knowing any better, and in a lot of
cases, subconscious fear of folks who
look different — all of this
contributes to a national problem that’s going to
require a national solution.”
7.
After
a grand jury decided not to indict officials in the case of Garner’s death, President
Obama said
“law enforcement has an incredibly
difficult job … there’s real crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in
and day out — but that they’re only going to be able to do their job
effectively if everybody has confidence in the system. And right now,
unfortunately, we are seeing too many instances where people just do not have
confidence that folks are being treated fairly.” He added that it was his
job as president to solve the problem of people not being treated equally under
the law.
8.
Giuliani
said leaders like Obama, Holder and de Blasio are perpetuating a myth that
there is systemic police brutality. Fact Checker found no evidence that Obama
and Holder believe police brutality is a systemic problem. However, Obama and Holder
have spoken about systemic mistrust among minorities about how they are treated
by police.
9. Ironically, Giuliani himself was once accused
of fostering an atmosphere of police violence. A Haitian immigrant who was
sodomized by New York City police officers claimed — then recanted —
that the officers invoked Giuliani’s name (“It’s Giuliani time!”) during the
assault. So the former mayor should be especially wary of making broad-brush
claims that the rhetoric of senior officials is to blame for the actions of
individuals.
10. Fact Checker concluded: “Mr. Giuliani has a point that there is
growing animosity among protesters toward police officers. That may have
contributed to the actions of individuals such as Brinsley. But the burden of
proof rests with the speaker. We combed through President Obama’s speeches and
can find no evidence of “propaganda” that “everybody should hate the police.”
The United
States of America is indeed a special place.
Law Enforcement Officers hold a unique place in our society. At their best, they do everything form the
mundane to the sublime to help ensure that our communities function
effectively, efficiently, safely and securely.
I stand first in line to thank them for their service. However, from time to time, some of them
cross the line, and we have far too many examples of that. When that happens, people of good will must
respond. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is
quoted as having said, “History will have to record that the greatest
tragedy of this period of social transition was not the clamor of the bad
people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
So while we
are at it, let’s not just push back on all that Obama hate; let’s show him some
well-deserved props for the following:
· Lower gas
prices (Actually under $2.00 in some places according to CNN)
· 5% economic
growth…strongest in ii years
· Stock Market
finished the day yesterday above 18,000 (first time EVER)
· More
Americans with health insurance
I salute you
Mr. President! To summarize,
conservatives have blamed President Obama for every ill in this country from
the abysmal Hurricane Katrina response (which occurred before his Presidency…and
under one of their own), to the failing economy (which he inherited, but is
continuing to rebound nicely), to the death of two New York police officers
last Saturday (See item 1-10 above). As
with most of the politically motivated rhetoric aimed at crippling him and/or
his agenda, a load of specious misinformation.
“Bring The Facts…Or Stay Home!”
I’m done;
holla back!
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