Comments

1
Anything that only focuses on the single incident is just bullshit. The militarization of our police apparatus and the police immunity for killing and other bad acts IS the problem. Not one more frickin killing in a long list, that just happens to get people more riled up than usual. One more long smooth-the-waters fed investigation is just bullshit.

There needs to be an honest call for real cultural and institutional change - from "keep the [Black, Mexican, poor, etc] rabble in line" to "protect and to serve."

I do not accept that police should be held to the same standard as street thugs or mafia soldiers - who just happened to be equipped with modern military gear and possess immunity from conviction for their evil deeds.
2
He stopped far short of calling out the general actions of police in Ferguson


What do you want him to say?

"Okay you racists crackers I'm sending in the National Guard!"

He has to be diplomatic. As bad as that police department might be - they are all he's got. Good cops or bad cops - they are on one side of line and everybody else is on another. And they are the ones who have all the cards in holding order in that town and investigating themselves.

If Obama alienates the police (prematurely) before the JD has a chance to get in there and maybe talk to the few good cops - that's it. No investigation. They circle the wagons. Evidence is conveniently lost - if it isn't already. And the whole thing becomes about riots and not about bad cops who execute kids.
3
I want him to say that he is flooding the zone with Federal agents to ensure that police don't overstep their constitutional authority. That he is travelling with Eric Holder to Missouri to meet with the governor, attorney general, state police chief, and county sheriff to discuss de-escalation.

I think 4 days of riot police is worth getting on Air Force One.
4
I agree with @3.
5
@2
Obama doesn't have to say much.
He could take some action instead.
Such as making a big show of sending some of his people there.
The local cops would probably rein in their excesses if they knew that they might be hitting someone from the federal government who will be reporting back to Obama.
6
The Feds are the ones selling the local police and sheriff's offices all this gear and encouraging them to militarize their equipment and their outlook - encouraging them to see themselves as an occupying force in an alien landscape.

Maybe Obama should say we need to stop doing that, but his mind set is expressed in what he said about CIA torture last week, excusing people who "tortured some folks."

Nobody in authority there, and certainly no one on the ground, is afraid of Obama or the Feds. They all know that police never get convicted for killing when it can be remotely connected to the line of duty, even less so when the victim is a person of color or a hippy or whatever outgroup won't be properly represented or instructed on a jury, even if it gets to trial.

And they know there in Missouri, that the established order, all the way to the top, approves of this militarization. The authorities in Ferguson just screwed up the PR part of the process, by failing to hide the underlying immoral and anti-democratic nature of this militarization.
7
Perhaps they'll get a conviction for Brown's murderer, especially if they haven't been able to tamper with the forensic evidence in and on his body. The bullet evidence has good chance of making starkly clear which story is true.

But even if the cop doesn't get off with a racist jury or a light sentence from some kind of Twinky defense - without a sustained push, far more intense even than that so far in response to Ferguson, a conviction of one man will just function as a detraction from the ongoing and growing problem.
8
Remind me again what it took for the Seattle Police Department to be the target of a DOJ investigation and forced into a consent decree? Cause it seems as though Fulton is just a tad more egregious...
9
@2, Obama, as usual, could be saying a LOT more than he is (no, you don't have to misrepresent that by suggesting anyone wants him to sound like a Black Panther) and, as usual, he could be DOING a lot more than he is.

And no, he doesn't have to be diplomatic. That's absolutely ridiculous.
10
Today Barack decided to play it white.

Which is his choice.

But Ferguson doesn't GET that option.
11
@10 ftw. 'nuff said.
12
@9 Like what? Be specific. What is the magical set of phrases that will do... what ever it is you think it will do?

What incantation does he utter that will satisfy the dozens of conflicting political interests? What spell will not derail investigations and not ignite more problems?

There aren't any. This isn't a TV show. Speeches don't resolves this kind of shit in half an hour.

As the first black president of a completely hostile political climate he has to navigate a careful path or he could fuck this nightmare up even worse.

There is a chain of command and authority to which he is legally bound.

He HAS sent the DOJ investigators. He HAS consulted with - and presumably will send in - the FBI. I'm sure he has done more.

Short of declaring marital law or a state of emergency he has no authority to supersede any of the civilian authority in that town.

Like it or not he can't alienate the racists crackers that run the place. Not before the DOJ can investigate and understands what to do.
13
You have not quite figured out what he is up to yet...he wants to ruin this country both internally and internationally.

Please wait...

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