The Patriot Post® · Black Lives Matter, but So Do All Lives

It is well known that presidents often make promises they can’t keep. Barack Obama is no different, though in many ways the trouble has been with the promises he has kept. But one of his unrealized promises was to heal America’s racial divide and make us more united than ever. We all know how that worked out.

Over the weekend, residents of Ferguson marked the one year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown. Another black man was shot during what was supposed to be a day of peaceful protests. He was not only armed but fired at police officers with a stolen gun after a deal for a looted TV went south. Then there ended up being more riots, more looting and more police officers armed with tear gas, body armor and shields.

Obama said during an interview on Sunday that he feels a “greater urgency” than before to make race relations better in the United States.

Excuse us, Mr. President, but you have done precisely the opposite, all for craven political gain.

After Brown was killed, two weeks went by before Obama said a word. Instead, he sent then-Attorney General Eric Holder and his race-bating Social Justice Department to “ground zero” to see if they could solve the mystery. In the end, they absolved Officer Darrin Wilson but found endemic racism in the Ferguson PD.

But today Obama feels “greater urgency”? Why now? Why not then or even before the tragic event happened? And why not do something constructive instead of divisive? Perhaps the next president can do better.

By the sounds of it, that next president won’t be avowed socialist Bernie Sanders.

You might think Sanders would have a large segment of the black population following him. After all he rails against income inequality as the first item on his economic agenda. But just this weekend, one of Bernie’s fundraisers was hijacked by Black Lives Matter protesters. They literally took away his microphone until he left the stage in full retreat. How’s that for a leader? He can’t even stand up to protesters, so what would make anyone think that he could stand up to the dictators of the world?

Do black lives matter? Absolutely, as do whites, Asians and Hispanics and every other color in between. We are all created equal regardless of skin color.

Which brings us to another item in the Black Lives Matter political fiasco. If one were to take The Washington Post seriously (a big “if,” to be sure), it seems there are a disproportionate number of black men killed by police every year, more so than any other race. And the Post focused on the black men who were unarmed in order to weave a particular narrative.

Yet if you look at the statistics of how many blacks were arrested compared to whites and Hispanics, there is quite a disparity — far more whites and Hispanics are arrested than blacks. There are also more whites and Hispanics killed than there are blacks. And the circumstances surrounding the shootings are pretty much the same. They are generally found in high crime cities that are held hostage by Big Government Democrat policies.

“High crime” might need a qualifier, though. Those Democrat strongholds have increased their budgets even during the Great Recession and Obama “Recovery,” which has meant a reliance on police enforcement to generate revenue. The aforementioned Justice Department on Ferguson noted this problem. And yet Democrats are perplexed when enforcement crackdowns yield higher tension between citizens and police.

Finally, how many black officers have shot black men? How many blacks kill other blacks in general? Those black lives don’t seem to matter much to the race-baiters.

Is there injustice that occurs? Absolutely, but there are times when police officers must make a split second decision in which not reacting might cost them their life or the lives of others. All lives matter, and it’s time that message came to the forefront and curbed the divisive shenanigans of the Left.