Obama's Frightening Ferguson Fiasco

Obama's Frightening Ferguson Fiasco

08/19/14

Robert W. Merry

The Presidency, Domestic Politics, Law Enforcement, United States

In the past, the president has been quick to weigh in on issues regarding race. Waiting until all the facts of a case are confirmed may be a better approach.

One must ask what President Obama was seeking to accomplish by weighing in, early on, on the matter of the sad death of young Michael Brown at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Here we have that combustible combination of law enforcement, criminal justice, racial tension, personal tragedy, street demonstrations with attendant looting and national attention. Predictably, the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be on hand to foment racial anger among Ferguson’s African American residents, as they always do in such circumstances, long before anyone really knows what actually happened. For those charged with bringing the community of Ferguson through such a thicket, it was going to be difficult enough without any further complications.

And yet it is in just such circumstances that President Obama seems most intent on adding further complications. That’s what he did the other day in adding his voice to those grappling with this incendiary development. To understand just how sadly meddlesome the president was, consider his actual words in their entirety:

The local authorities, including the police, have a responsibility to be open and transparent about how they are investigating that death and how they are protecting people in their communities.

On one level this is merely a truism, a simple statement of the responsibility of local officials. Hence, on that level, it is gratuitous. But, coming from the president of the United States in a matter of such delicacy—and before the officials with direct responsibility have had a chance to investigate the matter effectively—it carries serious weight beyond the truism. It implies that the president, with his greater moral authority, needs to weigh in because of implied or presumed limitations on the part of those with the actual responsibility for dealing with this complex and potentially dangerous situation. He goes on:

There is never an excuse for violence against the police or for those who would use this tragedy as cover for vandalism or looting.

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