OBAMA COMPLAINS ABOUT BLACKS BEING ‘TARGETED’ BY COPS

In his address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation on Saturday, Obama said that mistrust of police corrodes America

Addressing the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual awards dinner in Washington on Saturday, President Obama pointed to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as an exposing the mistrust by blacks of the police. He said that “gulf of mistrust” has a “corrosive effect” on all of America.

Obama said, "Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness." He complained that significant racial disparities remain in the enforcement of law, from drug sentencing to application of the death penalty, to pulling people over.

Obama said mistrust of the police harms the communities that need law enforcement the most and makes black people reluctant to cooperate with the police.

I think it was a stretch to say that the turmoil in Ferguson exposed the gulf of mistrust that exists between blacks and the police. What was there to expose when it is an open secret that blacks do not trust the police? And the president was being disingenuous in complaining about the racial disparities in the enforcement of law.

Obama complained about drug sentences. I must admit that the harsh penalties for sales of crack cocaine have resulted in long prison sentences mostly for blacks. But that is because blacks were the ones who cornered the market on crack cocaine.

The president talked about the disparities in the enforcement of law, but he conveniently overlooked the fact that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of crime, especially violent crime. All you have to do is watch the daily TV news. Blacks make up only 12 percent of the population, but on news broadcasts you see more blacks than whites getting busted. And they’re not getting busted because they’re black.

Obama complained about blacks being pulled over. He must have been talking about tactics such as stop-and-frisk. While that particular tactic has reduced the number of black-on-black shootings, it has also caused some collateral damage by inconveniencing and offending some law-abiding black citizens. Then there is the politically incorrect racial profiling cops do when they pull over someone, black or white, who looks out of place in a particular location. It’s a good, longtime police practice, but it carries with it the same collateral damage that stop-and-frisk does.

And, of course, Obama complained about the disparity in death sentences. It hasn’t been too many years ago that blacks were indeed sentenced to death when whites committing the same crimes were given lesser sentences. But that has not been the case for some time.

Trust is a two-way proposition. In dealing with black lawbreakers, the hatred of police comes across loud and clear. I recall an incident shortly after I became a Riverside Sheriff’s officer. I arrested a black man - for what I cannot remember - and he snapped at me, “The only reason you’re fucking with me is because I’m black.” That was then and this is now – nothing has really changed much.

While I am sure most blacks do not hate cops, there are a significant number that do, and those are the ones the police often have to deal with. So, those cops mistrust blacks just like blacks mistrust cops, and Obama’s complaints aren’t going to change that.