President Barack Obama said in a statement on Tuesday that the police shooting of a black teen in Missouri was “heartbreaking.” He also urged “reflection and understanding” amid tensions between protesters and police following the teen’s death.
The 18-year-old teen, Michael Brown, died Saturday. Protests, sometimes resulting in violence, occurred in Ferguson, Mo., outside St. Louis, on Sunday and Monday. Attorney General Eric Holder has directed the Justice Department to monitor the situation.
“The death of Michael Brown is heartbreaking, and Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family and his community at this very difficult time,” Obama said in the statement.
“I know the events of the past few days have prompted strong passions, but as details unfold, I urge everyone in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the country, to remember this young man through reflection and understanding,” he continued. “We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds. Along with our prayers, that’s what Michael and his family, and our broader American community, deserve.”
Fine. A bit safe, and a couple days late, but fine.
The crucial thing will be the DOJ inquiry, at any rate.
Obama should have been on TV, all channels, fifteen minutes after this happened, but, unfortunately, America, with 310 million people and a few cop crazy acts each and every day, that just wasn’t possible, given Isreal, and Gaza and Ukraine, and Iraq and a few other dozen problems Obama was dealing with.
But to hear Republicans speak, Obama should have been onto this before it happened. Two days later, it’s too late.Republicans always want that perfection in a president, and have no example since Lincoln, who, I guess for some Republicans, deserved to die, so they say.
It’s going to take more than a beer summit to sort this problem out.
Who wants to take bets on who’ll be the first Republican to claim that Obama was race-baiting, trying to gin up racial resentments, and somehow engaging in some form of racism by making this statement? Bonus points if that GOPer also claims Obama is somehow usurping the authority of the local police.
It should be mandatory to check the cops for any drugs. especially steroids.
So many of the police are looking like Mark McGuire and Sosa during their steroid fueled home run contest coupled with the hair trigger tempers makes for a strong circumstantial case for mandatory testing of them.
Generally against death penalty but the only reason I can argue against it for this murderer is that life with out parole would be a greater punishment for this uniformed thug.