Shortly after being sworn in as our 44th President, Barack Obama had an occasion to comment on an incident which occurred in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
After police responded to reports of a possible break-in at a house in that city , the individual who was found at the scene initially angrily refused to provide any identification. Following a verbal confrontation, during which he refused to step outside and speak with the officer, the man was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct. At that time he produced an ID from Harvard University. He was in fact the owner of the residence, a professor at Harvard, and a friend of Barack Obama.
When Obama heard about the confrontation he stated:
“I think it’s fair to say. Number 1, any of us would be pretty angry. Number 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, Number 3 … that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.”
For the next eight years our country was led by an individual who had an obvious racial chip on his shoulder. Instead of bringing us together as a nation, being the first minority president, the actions of his administration almost systematically drove us apart. In incident after incident, Eric Holder’s Department of Justice fanned the flames of racial discord when police were involved in the death of an individual who happened to be black. For instance, consider the case of Michael Brown. Even though it was later proved that the shooting was completely justified, the attack on a police officer by Brown, which resulted in his death as he tried to wrest the officer’s firearm away from him while resisting arrest, caused days of rioting and looting in Ferguson, Missouri. The riots caused millions of dollars of property damage. Much of it to minority owned businesses in the city. Other riots in other cities where police were involved in the deaths of criminals who were black caused more damage and destruction. Fear and chaos reigned, common sense did not. Victim mentality and promotion of violence and rioting continued to be spread by groups like “Black Lives Matter”, The Southern Poverty Law Center, Antifa and others. People who waited to hear the facts about the various incidents, giving the police the benefit of being innocent until proven guilty were branded as bigots and racists.
The latest example of this is the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Video seems to clearly show that a white police officer acted in such a manner as to cause the death of Floyd by placing his knee and body weight on the victims windpipe, although he was already subdued and handcuffed behind his back. That three other officers didn’t intercede when the prisoner was pleading that he couldn’t breath is all the more shocking. The officers involved were all fired, and charges against them are pending. Is that enough for the black community? Apparently not.
Yesterday, riots broke out in that city, and buildings were looted and burned. It’s Ferguson, Baltimore and other American cities consumed by senseless violence all over again. These incidents are taking on a very ugly racial tone. Is there any other racial group in this country that routinely resorts to rioting and looting to redress their grievances against society? Latinos? Asians? Caucasians? Anyone? No, only African-Americans.
Black leaders around the country would be wise to use their influence to extinguish the flames before they consume their own neighborhoods. Other races of Americans will not allow their communities to be destroyed by lawless rioters, and the police will not allow themselves to become targets for crimes only a few of them have committed. Justice and the rule of law must be allowed to prevail. We simply cannot allow a mindset of “Them and Us” to develop between law enforcement personnel and the populace they are sworn to protect and defend.