Obama says 'institutional constraints' kept him from commenting on killings of Black Americans

The fucked up thing is the thread title was 'Obama says 'institutional constraints' kept him from commenting on killing of Black Americans.

...not even acting on, but commenting on.

To reiterate:
I get a little of the same anger each time I see this thread title that I did hearing his rare public comments on the killings always quickly followed by a grand disclaimer about the "99% of officers who are good upstanding citizens, risking their lives everyday to keep us safe".

...A similar illogic as a teacher forcing a bullied kid to "shake hands and be friends" with their bully.
 
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The fucked up thing is the thread title was 'Obama says 'institutional constraints' kept him from commenting on killing of Black Americans.

...not even acting on, but commenting on.

To reiterate:
I get a little of the same anger each time I see this thread title that I did hearing his rare public comments on the killings always quickly followed by a grand disclaimer about the "99% of officers who are good upstanding citizens, risking their lives everyday to keep us safe".

...A similar illogic as a teacher forcing a bullied kid to "shake hands and be friends" with their bully.
yep
 
The fucked up thing is the thread title was 'Obama says 'institutional constraints' kept him from commenting on killing of Black Americans.

...not even acting on, but commenting on.

To reiterate:
I get a little of the same anger each time I see this thread title that I did hearing his rare public comments on the killings always quickly followed by a grand disclaimer about the "99% of officers who are good upstanding citizens, risking their lives everyday to keep us safe".

...A similar illogic as a teacher forcing a bullied kid to "shake hands and be friends" with their bully.
The president of the United States of America isn't going to broad negative comments against law enforcement in any general context and they shouldn't comment about a killing/murder investigation as it could taint the case....

Speaking at the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference yesterday evening, President Obama delivered the following statement:

"Some of you may have heard there was a decision that came out today by a grand jury not to indict police officers who had interacted with an individual with Eric Garner in New York City, all of which was caught on videotape and speaks to the larger issues that we’ve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year, and, sadly, for decades, and that is the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.

"And there’s going to be, I’m sure, additional statements by law enforcement. My tradition is not to remark on cases where there may still be an investigation. But I want everybody to understand that this week, in the wake of Ferguson, we initiated a task force whose job it is to come back to me with specific recommendations about how we strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color and minority communities that feel that bias is taking place; that we are going to take specific steps to improve the training and the work with state and local governments when it comes to policing in communities of color; that we are going to be scrupulous in investigating cases where we are concerned about the impartiality and accountability that’s taking place.

"And as I said when I met with folks both from Ferguson and law enforcement and clergy and civil rights activists, I said this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with for too long and it’s time for us to make more progress than we’ve made. And I’m not interested in talk; I’m interested in action. And I am absolutely committed as President of the United States to making sure that we have a country in which everybody believes in the core principle that we are equal under the law.

"So I just got off the phone with my Attorney General, Eric Holder. He will have more specific comments about the case in New York. But I want everybody to know here, as well as everybody who may be viewing my remarks here today, we are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust and a strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement.

"And I say that as somebody who believes that law enforcement has an incredibly difficult job; that every man or woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us; that they have the right to come home, just like we do from our jobs; that there’s real crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in and day out -- but that they’re only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system.

"And right now, unfortunately, we are seeing too many instances where people just do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly. And in some cases, those may be misperceptions; but in some cases, that’s a reality. And it is incumbent upon all of us, as Americans, regardless of race, region, faith, that we recognize this is an American problem, and not just a black problem or a brown problem or a Native American problem.


"This is an American problem. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem. And it’s my job as President to help solve it."
 
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The president of the United States of America isn't going to broad negative comments against law enforcement in any general context and they shouldn't comment about a killing/murder investigation as it could taint the case....

Speaking at the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference yesterday evening, President Obama delivered the following statement:

"Some of you may have heard there was a decision that came out today by a grand jury not to indict police officers who had interacted with an individual with Eric Garner in New York City, all of which was caught on videotape and speaks to the larger issues that we’ve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year, and, sadly, for decades, and that is the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.

"And there’s going to be, I’m sure, additional statements by law enforcement. My tradition is not to remark on cases where there may still be an investigation. But I want everybody to understand that this week, in the wake of Ferguson, we initiated a task force whose job it is to come back to me with specific recommendations about how we strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color and minority communities that feel that bias is taking place; that we are going to take specific steps to improve the training and the work with state and local governments when it comes to policing in communities of color; that we are going to be scrupulous in investigating cases where we are concerned about the impartiality and accountability that’s taking place.

"And as I said when I met with folks both from Ferguson and law enforcement and clergy and civil rights activists, I said this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with for too long and it’s time for us to make more progress than we’ve made. And I’m not interested in talk; I’m interested in action. And I am absolutely committed as President of the United States to making sure that we have a country in which everybody believes in the core principle that we are equal under the law.

"So I just got off the phone with my Attorney General, Eric Holder. He will have more specific comments about the case in New York. But I want everybody to know here, as well as everybody who may be viewing my remarks here today, we are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust and a strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement.

"And I say that as somebody who believes that law enforcement has an incredibly difficult job; that every man or woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us; that they have the right to come home, just like we do from our jobs; that there’s real crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in and day out -- but that they’re only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system.

"And right now, unfortunately, we are seeing too many instances where people just do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly. And in some cases, those may be misperceptions; but in some cases, that’s a reality. And it is incumbent upon all of us, as Americans, regardless of race, region, faith, that we recognize this is an American problem, and not just a black problem or a brown problem or a Native American problem.


"This is an American problem. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem. And it’s my job as President to help solve it."
I'm talking about his comments he made to the nation in the wake of Mike Brown's death and the protests thereof, that everyone saw.

I wish he'd said as much as you quoted above from that speech.

However this:
"And I say that as somebody who believes that law enforcement has an incredibly difficult job; that every man or woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us; that they have the right to come home, just like we do from our jobs; that there’s real crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in and day out -- but that they’re only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system."

...Is almost the equivalent of folks during the war in Iraq saying that the troops are over there fighting for our freedom.
 
I'm talking about his comments he made to the nation in the wake of Mike Brown's death and the protests thereof, that everyone saw.

I wish he'd said as much as you quoted above from that speech.

However this:
"And I say that as somebody who believes that law enforcement has an incredibly difficult job; that every man or woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us; that they have the right to come home, just like we do from our jobs; that there’s real crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in and day out -- but that they’re only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system."

...Is almost the equivalent of folks during the war in Iraq saying that the troops are over there fighting for our freedom.
show me a president or presidential candidate who will ever make harsh confrontational comments against law enforcement?

You guys seriously think some Malcolm X or Fred Hampton type is gonna run for president???
 
show me a president or presidential candidate who will ever make harsh confrontational comments against law enforcement?

You guys seriously think some Malcolm X or Fred Hampton type is gonna run for president???
bruh these cats think a sitting President will go ham at law enforcement ? they think they voted in Malcolm X with total only 12% of the american votes ! where in the world has that ever happed ? not even in ethnically homogenous countries where the population is 95% of one major ethnicity! these cats dont read or understand logic or they chose not to so as to keep the fraud going, they can only prosper in an environment of irrational thinkers, its why they have to bring up strawmen arguments and manufactured outrage to keep the fraud going! FoxNews style much
 
show me a president or presidential candidate who will ever make harsh confrontational comments against law enforcement?

You guys seriously think some Malcolm X or Fred Hampton type is gonna run for president???
Yeah I think they would and they have.

Get elected though? A whole other story.

I didn't expect him to say more than he said considering how he disavowed Rev Wright and Farrakhan.

Still was irritating.
 
He doesn't even understand. Any kind of independent thought or critical analysis is foreign to him
i don't see critical analysis...much of it is just random complaining...like stuff about a person who isn't president anymore. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

heath-ledger-slow-clap.gif
 
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Stating facts isn't complaining.

Ignoring the past is cool tho?
making statements that give the impression that gays can do things or got things blacks didn't is not a fact..its disingenuous

and cherrypicking things from the past with little or altered context is cool???
 
making statements that give the impression that gays can do things or got things blacks didn't is not a fact..its disingenuous

and cherrypicking things from the past with little or altered context is cool???
It's clear you don't read as I've noticed from our interactions before. I states multiple times that Obama did more for gays than blacks. That's not disputable. I posted facts to back up my claim. Anything else you got out of that is your own projections because you want the narrative to fit what you are running with. I don't care what gays can do or not do. Obama like biden clearly had a LGBT agenda and I'm sure it's out of self interest politically. That's it.
 
He doesn't even understand. Any kind of independent thought or critical analysis is foreign to him
I hear you. I have zero beef with the Brotha. Just trying to understand where he was coming from.

i don't see critical analysis...much of it is just random complaining...like stuff about a person who isn't president anymore. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

heath-ledger-slow-clap.gif
The whole thread is about who's not President anymore. No? It's good to share perspectives about history and current events, even if they are in opposition sometimes.
 
It's clear you don't read as I've noticed from our interactions before. I states multiple times that Obama did more for gays than blacks. That's not disputable. I posted facts to back up my claim. Anything else you got out of that is your own projections because you want the narrative to fit what you are running with. I don't care what gays can do or not do. Obama like biden clearly have a LGBT agenda and I'm sure it's out of self interest politically. That's it.
With each president, it feels like we are constantly reminded of how far down the ladder our concerns and needs are. Some presidents more than others.
 
The president of the United States of America isn't going to broad negative comments against law enforcement in any general context and they shouldn't comment about a killing/murder investigation as it could taint the case....

Speaking at the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference yesterday evening, President Obama delivered the following statement:

"Some of you may have heard there was a decision that came out today by a grand jury not to indict police officers who had interacted with an individual with Eric Garner in New York City, all of which was caught on videotape and speaks to the larger issues that we’ve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year, and, sadly, for decades, and that is the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.

"And there’s going to be, I’m sure, additional statements by law enforcement. My tradition is not to remark on cases where there may still be an investigation. But I want everybody to understand that this week, in the wake of Ferguson, we initiated a task force whose job it is to come back to me with specific recommendations about how we strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color and minority communities that feel that bias is taking place; that we are going to take specific steps to improve the training and the work with state and local governments when it comes to policing in communities of color; that we are going to be scrupulous in investigating cases where we are concerned about the impartiality and accountability that’s taking place.

"And as I said when I met with folks both from Ferguson and law enforcement and clergy and civil rights activists, I said this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with for too long and it’s time for us to make more progress than we’ve made. And I’m not interested in talk; I’m interested in action. And I am absolutely committed as President of the United States to making sure that we have a country in which everybody believes in the core principle that we are equal under the law.

"So I just got off the phone with my Attorney General, Eric Holder. He will have more specific comments about the case in New York. But I want everybody to know here, as well as everybody who may be viewing my remarks here today, we are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust and a strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement.

"And I say that as somebody who believes that law enforcement has an incredibly difficult job; that every man or woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us; that they have the right to come home, just like we do from our jobs; that there’s real crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in and day out -- but that they’re only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system.

"And right now, unfortunately, we are seeing too many instances where people just do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly. And in some cases, those may be misperceptions; but in some cases, that’s a reality. And it is incumbent upon all of us, as Americans, regardless of race, region, faith, that we recognize this is an American problem, and not just a black problem or a brown problem or a Native American problem.


"This is an American problem. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem. And it’s my job as President to help solve it."
Like I said these dudes wanted Obama to be Malcolm X, Kwame Ture, etc...
That is not want you are going to get with a president because USA government is not The Nation of Islam, SNCC, the new or the old Black Pather Party, NAACP, etc...
 
With each president, it feels like we are constantly reminded of how far down the ladder our concerns and needs are. Some presidents more than others.
Our needs are more local than national.
What needs are needed from the federal government that can't be met from the state on down to the local government? We needs are needed from the government period that can't be met either from individual black folk or groups of black folk?
 
The president of the United States of America isn't going to broad negative comments against law enforcement in any general context and they shouldn't comment about a killing/murder investigation as it could taint the case....

Speaking at the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference yesterday evening, President Obama delivered the following statement:

"Some of you may have heard there was a decision that came out today by a grand jury not to indict police officers who had interacted with an individual with Eric Garner in New York City, all of which was caught on videotape and speaks to the larger issues that we’ve been talking about now for the last week, the last month, the last year, and, sadly, for decades, and that is the concern on the part of too many minority communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fair way.

"And there’s going to be, I’m sure, additional statements by law enforcement. My tradition is not to remark on cases where there may still be an investigation. But I want everybody to understand that this week, in the wake of Ferguson, we initiated a task force whose job it is to come back to me with specific recommendations about how we strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color and minority communities that feel that bias is taking place; that we are going to take specific steps to improve the training and the work with state and local governments when it comes to policing in communities of color; that we are going to be scrupulous in investigating cases where we are concerned about the impartiality and accountability that’s taking place.

"And as I said when I met with folks both from Ferguson and law enforcement and clergy and civil rights activists, I said this is an issue that we’ve been dealing with for too long and it’s time for us to make more progress than we’ve made. And I’m not interested in talk; I’m interested in action. And I am absolutely committed as President of the United States to making sure that we have a country in which everybody believes in the core principle that we are equal under the law.

"So I just got off the phone with my Attorney General, Eric Holder. He will have more specific comments about the case in New York. But I want everybody to know here, as well as everybody who may be viewing my remarks here today, we are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust and a strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement.

"And I say that as somebody who believes that law enforcement has an incredibly difficult job; that every man or woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us; that they have the right to come home, just like we do from our jobs; that there’s real crime out there that they’ve got to tackle day in and day out -- but that they’re only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system.

"And right now, unfortunately, we are seeing too many instances where people just do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly. And in some cases, those may be misperceptions; but in some cases, that’s a reality. And it is incumbent upon all of us, as Americans, regardless of race, region, faith, that we recognize this is an American problem, and not just a black problem or a brown problem or a Native American problem.


"This is an American problem. When anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that’s a problem. And it’s my job as President to help solve it."
How much the Dems pay you breh?
No way you suck they ass for free like this
:itsawrap:
:roflmao:
 
He doesn't even understand. Any kind of independent thought or critical analysis is foreign to him
How are these characters any different from these CAC soccer moms who dont want little Connor to learn Critical Race Theory because it makes something they care about look bad when dissected and analyzed?
 
Our needs are more local than national.
What needs are needed from the federal government that can't be met from the state on down to the local government? We needs are needed from the government period that can't be met either from individual black folk or groups of black folk?
This is a bunch of jibberish

Local government didn't create the white middle class. Local government didn't pass the homestead act or the GI Bill. But yet you want black people to do it all on their own...what group has done that?
 
This is a bunch of jibberish

Local government didn't create the white middle class. Local government didn't pass the homestead act or the GI Bill. But yet you want black people to do it all on their own...what group has done that?
Yep. Anything to avoid holding his favorite party, that control the fed government currently btw, accountable.
:smh:
 
This is a bunch of jibberish

Local government didn't create the white middle class. Local government didn't pass the homestead act or the GI Bill. But yet you want black people to do it all on their own...what group has done that?
So you can't answer the questions. Therefore you call it gibberish. Got it..
 
I hear you. I have zero beef with the Brotha. Just trying to understand where he was coming from.


The whole thread is about who's not President anymore. No? It's good to share perspectives about history and current events, even if they are in opposition sometimes.
whats the perspective...whats new now that you didn't know then? You knew the president wasn't going to downtrod the institution of law enforcement....you know that Obama did send the DOJ to investigate all those controversial killings including Brown and Garner etc.
You know a president who acts within the law and wants a second term isn't going to get on a microphone and say we gotta kill these pig honky motherfuckers or anything even in the realm of that...

so whats this NEW perspective you guys are supposed to be discussing??
 
whats the perspective...whats new now that you didn't know then? You knew the president wasn't going to downtrod the institution of law enforcement....you know that Obama did send the DOJ to investigate all those controversial killings including Brown and Garner etc.
You know a president who acts within the law and wants a second term isn't going to get on a microphone and say we gotta kill these pig honky motherfuckers or anything even in the realm of that...

so whats this NEW perspective you guys are supposed to be discussing??
Ionno about NEW perspectives. That wasn't my word. I said share perspectives. I'm generally in agreement with most of the rest of what you said except...

The police killings became a sustained part of the national discourse AFTER Michael Brown was murdered in 2014 and with the resulting emergence of BLM, two years after Obama's re-election. So Obama's wanting a second term isn't relevant here.

No one said he had to get on the microphone and be extreme crazy like what you said. Just tell it like it is, which is to say, in his addresses to the nation, don't gaslight the nation that breadth of the problem is 1% of cops gone rogue killing Black folks. At least acknowledge that the problem is widespread and systemic.

Also, if you think this is all a waste of conversation, why are you taking part in it?
 
Our needs are more local than national.
What needs are needed from the federal government that can't be met from the state on down to the local government? We needs are needed from the government period that can't be met either from individual black folk or groups of black folk?
Staying to the topic, for starters, what's needed is police accountability starting with the elimination of qualified immunity for police officers. It has to be a multi-pronged effort to get there- from individuals to grass roots to the halls of Congress and everything in between.

Whether it be a Democrat or a Republican in the office of President these are the things we need to constantly push them towards pushing... be the flames rapidly approaching their backs.
 
Ionno about NEW perspectives. That wasn't my word. I said share perspectives. I'm generally in agreement with most of the rest of what you said except...

The police killings became a sustained part of the national discourse AFTER Michael Brown was murdered in 2014 and with the resulting emergence of BLM, two years after Obama's re-election. So Obama's wanting a second term isn't relevant here.

No one said he had to get on the microphone and be extreme crazy like what you said. Just tell it like it is, which is to say, in his addresses to the nation, don't gaslight the nation that breadth of the problem is 1% of cops gone rogue killing Black folks. At least acknowledge that the problem is widespread and systemic.

Also, if you think this is all a waste of conversation, why are you taking part in it?
no president is going to speak ill in a forceful way that could be construed as disparaging law enforcement..thats just not going to happen.

But in the case of ferguson the DOJ did fine the PD rife with systemic racism and what happened??

In March 2015, the Justice Department released a 102-page report documenting its investigation into the police and courts in Ferguson. The investigation revealed racially discriminatory practices that Attorney General Eric Holder said have “severely undermined the public trust” and used law enforcement “not as a means for protecting public safety, but as a way to generate revenue.”

Ferguson’s police chief resigned after the report’s release and city prosecutor Bob McCulloch lost his re-election bid after failing to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown. Ferguson’s police department now has 21 Black officers, a huge increase from four in 2014.

A Federal Retreat from Reform
After police in Ferguson met protestors with tanks and other military-grade equipment, the Obama administration convened the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and, unveiling its recommendations in March 2015, President Obama called on the nation to seize the opportunity “to really transform how we think about community-law-enforcement relations so that everybody feels safer and our law enforcement officers feel, rather than being embattled, feel fully supported.”

The Justice Department’s civil rights division embarked on an unprecedented police reform campaign using investigations and consent decrees with police departments in Baltimore, Chicago, and Ferguson alongside a voluntary Collaborative Reform program that enrolled 16 police departments across the country.

The Trump administration has abandoned those efforts, halting new investigations and fighting to block or limit existing consent decrees. In September 2017, hours after a white police officer was acquitted in the shooting death of a Black man in St. Louis, the Justice Department announced that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions had eliminated the Collaborative Reform program.

And just before he left office, Sessions issued a memorandum to make it more difficult for DOJ to enter into consent decrees with state and city governments, mandating closer control by the department’s most senior political appointees, requiring expiration dates for consent decrees, and limiting what the department can require of state and local agencies.

About a third of the staff assigned to investigate police practices at the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section (which numbered 29 people at its peak) have departed since Trump’s election, HuffPost reports. The Trump administration has shrunk the unit and there are no plans to replace employees who have left.


Monique Dixon, a top official at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, told HuffPost that local lawyers and advocates have had to take up the policing reform effort because of the Justice Department’s retreat. “It’s really causing civil rights organizations and local advocates to shift more and more resources to monitoring policing reform efforts that the federal government has abandoned,” she said.

The Trump administration has made public only one pattern-or-practice investigation, involving a total of 14 officers in Springfield, Massachusetts, who were indicted for beating four Black men and two Latino juveniles. One of the officers allegedly spit on a juvenile and said, “Welcome to the white man’s world.” HuffPost reports that the current status of the investigation is unclear.


seems like Obama DOJ was addressing systemic issues and the next president said fuck that...hey google is available to all of us and it seems the only perspective some people interested in presenting is anything negative about the only black person elected president so far and purposefully ignoring or downplaying anything that they would actually be in agreement with..

If trump or bush sent the DOJ to do that their praises would sung but Obama did it and its not good enough...

Why am I participating...partly to present a perspective and partly for the same reason people post threads like these
heath-ledger-slow-clap.gif
 
whats the perspective...whats new now that you didn't know then? You knew the president wasn't going to downtrod the institution of law enforcement....you know that Obama did send the DOJ to investigate all those controversial killings including Brown and Garner etc.
You know a president who acts within the law and wants a second term isn't going to get on a microphone and say we gotta kill these pig honky motherfuckers or anything even in the realm of that...

so whats this NEW perspective you guys are supposed to be discussing??
Obama's reelection > Black life
 
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