The president and his premier adviser on racial issues are inserting themselves in yet another controversial police case involving the killing of a black male.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, race-hustler extraordinaire and president of the National Action Network, said in a statement Monday that due to overwhelming demand he is heading to Baltimore to “help” the “justice for Freddie Gray” movement in any way he can. And President Obama sent the head of his initiative for minority males and two other officials to Gray’s funeral.
“I have been asked by many in the Baltimore area since day one to get involved in the justice for Freddie Gray movement,” Sharpton said in the statement.
Though I have discussed it on my daily radio and TV shows and been in touch with our NAN Baltimore chapter, I resisted personal involvement until we saw what the promised May 1 investigation report would bring.
I am saddened and disappointed that there now may not be a report released on May 1. It is concerning to me that a deadline that the police themselves had set and announced they have now conveniently changed. Therefore, I will come to Baltimore this week at the invitation or Rev. Westley West, who has led vigils daily there, along with local clergy, and morning radio show host Larry Young who has headed our Baltimore chapter of NAN for the last decade.
It is my intention to come and have a meeting with grassroots activists and faith leaders to schedule a two-day march in May from Baltimore to Washington. The march will bring the case of Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Eric Harris to the new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. Ms. Lynch, in her new role that we all supported, must look and intervene in these cases. Justice delayed is justice denied.
So Sharpton’s planning a two-day march in gang-infested Baltimore — in addition to the other black radical groups who are already there agitating. Looks like last weekend’s violent spasm was just the beginning, folks.
Meanwhile, of course, Obama sent several officials to Baltimore to pay his respects at the funeral which took place Monday morning.
The White House says the head of President Obama’s initiative for minority males will attend the funeral of a Baltimore man who died after sustaining serious injuries while in police custody.
Broderick Johnson, the chairman of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, will represent the administration at Monday’s funeral for Freddie Gray. Johnson is also the Cabinet secretary.
According to Fox News, Johnson will be accompanied by two other unnamed officials.
This practice of sending White House officials to the funerals of slain black criminals (Freddie Gray had a long rap sheet) would not raise as many eyebrows if the president had a similar policy for slain police officers, or fallen members of the military — like Chris Kyle, for instance.
And I don’t know of any instances where the president has sent an official to the funeral of a slain white criminal who died at the hands of law enforcement.
A recent analysis showed that more white people are dying at the hands of law enforcement than those of any other race. Although black men are 3.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police, when the racial breakdown in violent crime is taken into account, “the data actually show that police are less likely to kill black suspects than white ones.”
“If one adjusts for the racial disparity in the homicide rate or the rate at which police are feloniously killed, whites are actually more likely to be killed by police than blacks,” said Mr. Moskos, a former Baltimore cop and author of the book “Cop in the Hood.”
“Adjusted for the homicide rate, whites are 1.7 times more likely than blacks die at the hands of police,” he said. “Adjusted for the racial disparity at which police are feloniously killed, whites are 1.3 times more likely than blacks to die at the hands of police.”
Moskos says the deaths of whites at the hands of law enforcement “typically receive less attention, even when the case is shrouded in controversy.”
For example, Gilbert Collar, an 18-year-old white student at the University of South Alabama, was shot and killed while naked, unarmed and under the influence of drugs by a black police officer.
The officer, Trevis Austin, was cleared of wrongdoing in 2013 by a Mobile County grand jury in a case that received little media coverage outside Alabama. Mr. Collar’s parents filed a federal lawsuit last year against the officer.
Did Obama send anyone to Gilbert Collar’s funeral?
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