Finding his way back into the headlines, 58-year-old former President Barack Obama found a silver lining in today’s protests over the May 25 chokehold murder of 46-year-old George Floyed by 44-year-old Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin. Obama wanted to contrast today’s protests with violent demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago at the height of the Vietnam War. Obama was about six years old so he only read or heard about what happened with protests went viral in 1968, the same year Dr. Martin Luther King and Atty. Gen. Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. “I’ve heard some pople say that you have a pandemic, then you have these protests, this reminds people of the ‘60s and the chaos and the discord and distrust throughout the country, . . “ Obama said. Obama worries that 1968 ushered in conservative President Richard Nixon (R-Calif.) into office.
Obama dealt with his share of racial confrontations with white police forces, including the deaths of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin Feb. 26, 2012, 44-year-old Eric Garner, and 18-year-old Michael Brown Aug. 9, 2014. When a black militant with an AK-47 assault rife murdered five Dallas police officers July 7, 2016, the cycle of violence had come full circle with law enforcement paying the ultimate price. “I have to tell you, although I was very young . . . I know enough that history to say there is something different,” Obama said today in a virtual town hall. Obama urged police reform to collective bargaining agreements, advising that district attorneys and U.S. prosecutors to revise criteria for criminal prosecutions. Obama wanted to make sure that he didn’t think the same conditions exist today that ushered conservative Presidient Richard Nixon into office.
Obama said Nixon ran on a “law and order” platform back in 1968, with Vietnam War protests turning society upside down, scaring the establishment. When you listen to 73-year-old President Donald Trump, you hear much talk about law-and-order, the same spiel given by Nixon to capture the white silent majority. “You look at the protests and that was a far more representative cross-section of American on the streets peacefully protesting who felt moved to do something because the instance they had seen injustice,” Obama said. Obama mentioned nothing about protesters torching St. John’s Episcopal Church across from the White House. Nor did he mention protesters defacing the Lincoln Memorial, not to mention widespread riots, looting and arson, conspicuously omitted in Obama remarks. Most of the looters and arsonists didn’t look like a broad national coalition.
When Obama talks of a “broad coalition” he’s kidding himself. Most of the protesters were driven by Black Lives Matters and other African American advocacy groups, blaming white cops for the lion’s share of deaths in the black community. Data shows that most black deaths are not from white police officers but gang warfare inside blighted inner city communities. Whether admitted to or not, there’s more shooting in Chicago’s South Side in a given day or weekend than all the blighted urban areas around the country. When Obama retired from public office Jan. 20, 2013, he and his wife Michelle didn’t return to their home in Chicago’s South Side, they took up residence in Washington, D.C.’s very white, very rich Kalorama neighborhood mansion with Jeff Bezos and Jared Kushner as neighbors. Yet if you listen to Obama, he’d have you believe he’s part of the hoi polloi marching in the streets.
Obama ignores completely in his remarks the widespread looting, arson and destruction taking place by what he calls a “broad coalition.” He says nothing to rioters or looters, only talking in vague generalities about reforming the criminal justice system. When you consider the unemployment before the Covid-19 crisis was at 3.5% nationwide, more minorities were working and prospering than ever before. After listening to his infections disease experts and shutting down the workforce around the country, Trump watched his roaring economy plummet into near depression, leaving unemployment close to 20%. Obama has no real plan for criminal justice reform or ending the inequality seen in the black community, anymore than he did when he lived at the White House. Protesters think Obama’s one of them but he’s clearly part of the elite celebrity crowd that’s above it all.
Talking about police brutality, “systemic racism” or criminal justice reform sounds good during and after race riots. But the truth is that civil rights are set back when rioting, looting, arson and anarchy take to the streets. White Americans feel less inclined to align themselves with African American causes, after watching property destroyed and national monuments defaced. Today’s announcement by the Minnesota Attorney General to change Floyd’s killer’s charge to second-degree murder and to charge the three other officers at the crime scene with accessory to murder should help end the violent street demonstrations. But when it comes to criminal justice reform, ending poverty or improving opportunities for African Americans, it’s a long-term proposition. Obama can talk all he wants about a “broad coalition” but no responsible member of society supports riots, looting, arson and anarchy.
