WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah dedicated his column yesterday to arguing that the Justice Department shouldn’t get involved in investigating the recent police shootings of two African American men, Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana, in part because the DOJ “and its boss, Barack Obama, have only served to fan the flames of racial division for the last eight years, thus becoming part of the problem rather than part of the solution.”
Farah not only blamed Obama for fanning “the flames of racial division,” but he managed to connect the president to the shootings themselves, noting that both men were carrying weapons when they were shot and it is Obama who “has helped perpetuate this notion that armed civilians automatically represent danger to the public and the police.”
There’s one more critical facet of these two recent police killings that are worth noting.
In both cases, the men killed had guns in their possession – and that fact led directly to their executions. For victim Castile, it was particularly heartbreaking. He had a concealed carry permit and offered to the police officers who had stopped his vehicle with his girlfriend and child aboard that he had in his possession a firearm and a permit for it. He was trying to be forthright, candid, helpful.
It cost him his life.
As he reportedly reached for his wallet at the instruction of an officer who demanded his license and registration, he was repeatedly shot and left to bleed to death without any medical attention from officers. They never even checked his pulse.
What attracted cops in Baton Rouge to the other victim, Sterling, was a call placed by a homeless man to police about a man with a gun. Sterling never drew his gun on officers. He can’t be seen reaching for it as two cops tackle him to the ground. Then he is shot point black in the chest at least five times while he is subdued.
There is no excuse for this.
Cops like this are unfit to wear a uniform and carry guns themselves. Again, who has helped perpetuate this notion that armed civilians automatically represent danger to the public and the police?
I can think of no one more responsible for creating that climate of hysteria than Barack Obama.
