Obama, Ferguson and . . . the U.N.? By Jason L. Riley
http://online.wsj.com/articles/political-diary-obama-ferguson-and-the-u-n-1411680776
President Obama’s decision to reference the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., during a United Nations speech on foreign affairs Wednesday raised eyebrows, and not just because the investigation is ongoing.
After spending the bulk of his remarks discussing the ethnic and religious disputes that fuel so much of the world’s terrorism, the president mentioned the Ferguson shooting and then added, “So, yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions” and “like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.”
Politico reported that it was “unusual” for the president to reference “domestic U.S. shortcomings during a speech devoted to international issues.” Asked for an explanation, a White House official said the president wanted to acknowledge that the U.S. is “not perfect.”
Well, neither is Mr. Obama’s analogy.
Tensions between the police and low-income black communities are not based on race or ethnicity. They are based on the fact that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime in America—almost all of it directed at other blacks. Police don’t go into these communities to shoot blacks; they are there, by and large, to stop blacks from shooting each other. They are there because that is where the 911 calls originate. And for their troubles they now have the president of the United States all but comparing them to terrorist groups.
This is the latest example of the president exploiting Ferguson to rile up black voters, whom Democrats fear will stay home in November. It is of a piece with the multiple, redundant federal investigations into the shooting. The Obama administration knows full well that Bull Connor doesn’t run the Ferguson police department, but it will to pretend that’s the case to score political points with the president’s base.
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