Where Is America’s Black President While Baltimore Burns?

Where are America’s true black leaders while Baltimore burns?  I understand that the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was fatally injured while in police custody, is a serious problem which must be investigated.  But what we’re witnessing–the multiple injuries, the thousands (millions?) of dollars of damage, the looting and vandalism, the destruction to the city’s reputation for years to come–is not “justice.”

What’s happening is that enraged vigilantes and opportunistic thugs have had their rage fueled by outside agitators who seize the moment to engender racial violence. The rioting, burning and looting that followed Freddie Gray’s death was certainly to be expected. But what is happening is not only unproductive (living in a burned-out city for years to come is not ideal, right?), but it’s also unjust–in fact, it’s Injustice Squared. Most of the people hurt by a riot have absolutely nothing to do with the death of Freddie Gray.

So where are our nation’s black statesmen, whose voices can bring calm in this storm?

I mean, shyster race-baiter Al Sharpton is heading to the besieged city. Of course, his plan is not to calm the storm, but to stoke the flames: He’s planning a protest march.  On the website of his National Action Network, Sharpton said:

“I have been asked by many in the Baltimore area since day one to get involved in the justice for Freddie Gray movement….  It is my intention to come and have a meeting with grassroots activists and faith leaders to schedule a two-day march in May from Baltimore to Washington. The march will bring the case of Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Eric Harris to the new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. Ms. Lynch, in her new role that we all supported, must look and intervene in these cases. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Baltimore’s black mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, was no more help as the businesses and shops which make her city great were looted and burned.  Instead of defending innocent citizens and shop-owners from the punches and the smashed windshields and the Molotov cocktails, she promised that the protesters could have “space” to destroy.  Rawlings-Blake said:

“While we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on. We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well. And we work very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that’s what you saw.”

President Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, finally spoke out on Tuesday. Did he tell the violent mob to go home, to wait for the criminal justice system to do its job, to honor the American Constitutional and criminal justice system which is arguably the world’s best? No–so far, Obama’s approach has been to criticize police harrassment of young blacks in America’s cities.  In a televised statement, the President said:

“We have seen too many instances of what appears to be police officers interacting with individuals, primarily African Americans, often poor, in ways that raise troubling questions. And it comes up it seems like once a week now, or every couple weeks. And so I think it’s understandable that, and more importantly moms and dads across the country, saying this is a crisis.”

Do you hear his plea for the criminal activity to stop, for arsonists and thieves and bullies to go home, or to pray to God that law and order will prevail, that justice will be served?  I didn’t hear it, either. What I heard was more fuel for the fire–another black politician agreeing that yes, there is good reason for citizen revolt.  The case hasn’t yet even arrived in court, although it most certainly will; but already, this racially divisive President “knows” that the police are at fault. As one reporter stated, he has once again thrown the police under the bus.

The great civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about a time when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.  Dr. King infused the civil rights movement with a greater moral and philosophical purpose, by insisting that God’s law and love truly did conquer all and through his advocacy of nonviolent direct action, the process of challenging societal wrongs via protest marches, boycotts, and sit-ins, among other strategies, without the use of violence, he was able to bring an initially reluctant America closer to the dream of true equality for all races.

“I have consistently preached,” Dr. King said, “that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.”  The National Endowment for the Humanities explains that King appealed to the local black population to use the courts and not the streets to secure civil rights. He counseled “law and order and common sense,” not demonstrations that “incite to hatred and violence,” as the most prudent means to promote justice.

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I lived through the 1967 Detroit riots, among the deadliest civil unrest in modern American history.  The riot was sparked when Detroit Police raided a “blind pig,” an illegal after-hours drinking club, and arrested 82 patrons.  The street protests lasted four days. At the end, 43 people were dead and another 1,189 injured.  More than 7,200 arrests were made, and 200 buildings were destroyed.

But the response from elected officials following that riot was strikingly different from what we’re seeing this time in Baltimore.  In 1967, Michigan’s Governor George W. Romney ordered the Michigan National Guard into Detroit; and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent Army troops to aid in what quickly became a peacekeeping mission.

President Johnson sent troops to an American city “with the greatest regret.”  Law enforcement, he noted, is a local matter. He expressed his conviction that the Federal government should not intervene, except in the most drastic of circumstances. But Detroit burning, in July 1967, was a drastic circumstance.  President Johnson wasted no time before exercising his Presidential authority to do what must be done, to regain control over what was then America’s fifth largest city.  He said:

The fact of the matter, however, is that law and order have broken down in Detroit, Michigan. Pillage, looting, murder, and arson have nothing to do with civil rights. They are criminal conduct. The Federal Government in the circumstances here presented had no alternative but to respond, since it was called upon by the Governor of the State and since it was presented with proof of his inability to restore order in Michigan.

We will not tolerate lawlessness. We will not endure violence. It matters not by whom it is done or under what slogan or banner. It will not be tolerated. This Nation will do whatever it is necessary to do to suppress and to punish those who engage in it.

I know that with few exceptions the people of Detroit, and the people of Newark, and the people of Harlem, and of all of our American cities, however troubled they may be, deplore and condemn these criminal acts. I know that the vast majority of Negroes and whites are shocked and outraged by them.

So tonight, your President calls upon all of our people, in all of our cities, to join in a determined program to maintain law and order—to condemn and to combat lawlessness in all of its forms—and firmly to show by word and by deed that riots, looting, and public disorder will just not be tolerated.

In particular, I call upon the people of the ravaged areas to return to their homes, to leave the streets, and to permit the authorities to restore quiet and order without further loss of life or property damage. Once this is done, attention can immediately be turned to the great and urgent problems of repairing the damage that has been done.

I appeal to every American in this grave hour to respond to this plea.

Mr. Obama needs to take his cue from his predecessors, Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson, and not from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and their ilk. His job is not to give voice to the “wounded blacks” and to increase sensitivity to perceived “racial inequities,” continually harping and thus encouraging further division. He was elected by the entire United States, and his job is to represent all Americans and to work toward greater unity.

As Commander in Chief, it is his job to maintain order.

As leader of the Executive Branch of government, it is his job to uphold the men and women who serve–most of them, honorably–to keep our nation safe.

I am not–I repeat, NOT–advocating that we turn a blind eye to police injustice, if and where it exists. If mistakes were made, then extensive reeducation and training must ensure that mistakes are not repeated. If crimes were committed, the criminals (even if they are police officers) must be brought to justice. But it is more than time for the American President to quit bitching about racism and to be the leader this nation needs.