President Obama told reporters at a White House news conference on Tuesday that the media ignored peaceful protests in the city until violence erupted, and gave his views on the broader problems facing American cities.
“Frankly it didn’t get that much attention,” Obama said of the peaceful movement sparked by the death of black man Freddie Gray, who died in police custody. “One burning building will be looped on television over and over and over again. The thousands of demonstrators who did it the right way, I think, have been lost in the discussion.”
The President added that unrest in cities like Baltimore will not go away until solutions are found beyond law enforcement.
“This is not new, and we shouldn’t pretend that it’s new,” he said.
“If we think we’re going to send police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise there — without as a nation and society saying what can we do to change those communities, to help lift up communities, and give those kids opportunity — then we’re not going to solve this problem,” he added.
“We’ll go through the same cycles of periodic conflicts between the police and communities, and occasional riots in the streets. And everybody will feign concern until it goes away,” Obama added. “Then we’ll go about our business as usual.”
The President said that he sensed a lot of police forces have realized “they’ve gotta get their arms around this thing and work with the community to solve the problem,” adding that his administration was looking to help.
“I’m under no illusion that under this Congress we’re gonna get massive investments in urban communities,” he said, but promised to try and work with the Congress on economic solutions to help cities implement solutions.
He apologized to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for taking so much time during their joint news conference.
“That was a really long answer, but I felt pretty strongly about it,” he concluded.
Part of the problem in Baltimore is total lack of jobs for younger people…trade deals aren’t going to help that. Lack of work along with police brutality is the perfect recipe for riots. The new governor is tough on rioters as he should be but he’s also just lowered funding for education and increased funding for jails. Exactly the wrong move.
This President has done more with less help from Congress than any of his predecessors.
Once again, the adult in the room.
And speaking of irresponsible journalists, that slithering toad Leslie Blitzer has been treating the events in Baltimore as though they are the latest incarnation of “Grand Theft Auto”, and anyone at CNN who had the abysmally braindead idea to send that fucking moron Don Lemon into the field really needs to be fired and find work as an attendant in a gas station bathroom.
BAM! I’m going to shamelessly repost what I posted earlier, because it jives perfectly with BO here hehe:
“Trippin said: I think that we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King”
Precisely. Whenever this happens, the MSM and the know-it-alls and the blathering nincompoop politicians all lament the “violence” and the “self-destruction” and how “counterproductive” it is and something something opining in ways that indicate a knee-jerk tendency to latch onto explanations that have as their premise that there is something endemic, something inherently wrong with these communities that they resort to these “tactics” and this “behavior” in order to express their frustration. This time they seem to have hardcore latched onto this “where are their parents” talking point meme, but it takes other forms as well.
The reality is this: everything they are saying shows just how much they are part of the problem. The fact is we are talking about communities who are consistently and ardently expressing themselves in peaceful ways, approaching the government and their representatives and community leaders in the appropriate manner AND THEY ARE CONSISTENTLY AND SYSTEMATICALLY IGNORED in response. Ralph’s 100% on the money when he uses the word “NEGLECT” in his post. These simpering asshats on the boobtube and in the papers and the conservative jackholes who use this as their opportunity to belittle and demean these communities are, in fact, merely highlighting just how much ignorance is birthed from said neglect. They wax surprised and horrified and ask idiot questions about why these communities don’t protest and seek redress of their grievances in a peaceful manner BECAUSE THEY HAVE FAILED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE 99.999% OF THE TIME DURING WHICH THESE COMMUNITIES ARE DOING JUST THAT. They’ve been ignored the whole fucking time they’ve been doing exactly what these dimwitted fucktards are now sitting around wondering “why don’t they do that instead of throw a riot?” And the ignorance is WILLFUL. It’s on purpose. By deliberately ignoring years and years of and instance after instance of these communities making peaceful attempts to bring attention to their plight and use legitimate processes and avail themselves of their “representative” gov’t in order to get the help that is needed, these fuckers in the MSM and the GOP and what-not get to finally, at long last, turn their attention to the situation ONLY when there’s a riot and ask oh-so-smugly “why can’t they do this peacefully?” as if there is something intrinsically…nay, GENETICALLY…wrong with these communities that they are incapable of civilized discourse and debate. It’s then all used as the excuse for continuing to neglect the underlying problems and continuing to ignore the myriad peaceful pleas that have been and continue to be made and, most importantly, to tell themselves that they’re not bad people for going back to ignoring the whole situation because “look at how awful those people behaved…how can they expect us to make an effort to help when they act like that?”
The watched pot never boils. The ignored pot boils over. It’s that fucking simple.
If there’s been one characteristic I’ve admired with Obama, it’s his constant encouragement to zoom out, see the context, the bigger picture. We really need to start cultivating that quality more, or at least recognizing and admiring it when we find it sprinkled here and there among people in public life.