OBAMA DEFENDS "BLACK LIVES MATTER" – AT 9:25 A.M. ET:  His tin ear on full display, President Obama lectured us once again on race.  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defending the Black Lives Matter movement, President Barack Obama said Thursday the protests are giving voice to a problem happening only in African-American communities, adding, "We, as a society, particularly given our history, have to take this seriously."

How arrogant.  There are issues in other communities involving interaction with the police that are just as serious.

Obama said the movement, which sprung up after the deaths of unarmed black men in Florida, Missouri and elsewhere, quickly came to be viewed as being opposed to police and suggesting that other people's lives don't matter. Opponents have countered that "all lives matter."

The term "unarmed" has to be examined.  A huge, 200-plus-pound guy like Michael Brown, who tried to grab a policeman's gun in Ferguson, Missouri, can kill with his fists, or render an officer unconscious. 

At the conclusion of a White House forum on criminal justice, Obama said he wanted to make a final point about the nexus of race and the criminal justice system before launching into his defense of the movement.

"I think everybody understands all lives matter," Obama said. "I think the reason that the organizers used the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' was not because they were suggesting nobody else's lives matter. Rather, what they were suggesting was there is a specific problem that's happening in the African-American community that's not happening in other communities.

"And that is a legitimate issue that we've got to address."

The fact is that, if you eliminated all cases of police officers fatally shooting blacks, it would not make a dent in the murder rate in black communities.  It is black-on-black crime that is an epidemic.  There are certainly some bad cops.  No one denies that.   It's why large departments have internal affairs divisions.  But these killings of young African Americans by cops are actually quite rare.  Each one deserves a full investigation.  But after the "hands up, don't shoot" farce in Ferguson, a Justice Department probe cleared the officer.  Facts matter, as well as black lives, as well as all lives.

Police relations with minority communities and the deaths of unarmed black men have been topics of great interest since the shootings of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 in Florida and 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Those deaths, and others of black women, have inspired protests around the country under the "Black Lives Matter" moniker.

COMMENT:  Is Obama serious about black lives?  If he is, why does he allow Al Sharpton, a low-class racial agitator, to sit at the same table as the president of the United States? 

A few nights ago a black police officer was murdered in New York City.  He leaves a family.  Mr. Obama did not mention him.

October 23, 2015