Dallas Fallout
The horrific murderous rampage in Dallas did not lead any of the radical race baiters to pause their incendiary attacks on the thin blue line that keeps Americans of all races as safe and secure as possible. There were ambushes of police in Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee that appear to be motivated by hatred of police.
In addition, Black Lives Matter demonstrations in several cities were marked by violence carried out by radical protestors. The worst violence took place in Minneapolis, where more than 20 police officers were injured and more than 100 protestors were arrested.
Another disaster was narrowly averted after someone opened fire on the San Antonio police headquarters, riddling the building with multiple gun shots. Fortunately, no one was injured.
This violence, directed at law enforcement men and women, has been stoked and fomented by hundreds of social media pages, radical websites and rhetoric coming from the highest office in the land over the last eight years. The Dallas killer, Micah Johnson, "liked" several of those extremist sites.
Breitbart.com has found evidence that for a time Micah Johnson was involved with the New Black Panthers. You may recall that the Obama Administration refused to prosecute its members after they physically threatened white voters at polling places in Pennsylvania.
Here's a simple question: Why has the Obama Administration refused to seriously pursue an armed racist group that produced a video giving step-by-step instructions on how to ambush police officers? In the video, the group mocked the widows who would be created by the ambushes. The narrator of that video was reportedly among those arrested outside of the Baton Rouge police headquarters over the weekend.
Is President Obama capable of even saying that there are radicals in the black community trying to stoke unrest, who may even desire a race war? In that sense, they are no different that Dylan Roof, who was also trying to provoke a race war.
Are We Divided?
Obama said in Spain that while it was a tough week, it's just not true that Americans are more deeply divided than they have been in the past. This from a man who routinely tries to divide people by race, by sex, by income level, who has called average Americans bitter, fearful people who cling to their Bibles.
The great divide in America is between the left and the right, and the left regularly exploits minority Americans, suggesting to them that if conservatives are in control of the country, we will go back to the days of Jim Crow.
One of the great tragedies of the Obama era is that Americans have become increasingly pessimistic about the state of race relations during his time in office. In 2008, 70% of whites and 61% of blacks said race relations were either "somewhat" or "very good." Today, just 45% of whites and 51% of blacks say race relations are good.
A 2015 Gallup survey also found a huge discrepancy in how whites and blacks view interactions with police: 78% of whites said the police treat racial minorities fairly, but only 52% of blacks felt the same.
Signs Of Hope
That said, there are signs of hope. If you haven't seen the video of Shetamia Taylor's press conference, you should. Taylor and her son were saved by Dallas police officers who threw themselves over her and her son.
She broke down repeatedly in tears talking about the incredible heroism of the police, against whom she had been marching. With no concern for their own lives, they protected her and hundreds of others while they ran toward the bullets of a vicious murderer who shot twelve of their fellow officers.
You may have also seen over the weekend black Americans in law enforcement speaking out firmly against the race baiting and anti-police vitriol that is being stoked by the progressive movement and the American left. For example, Dallas Police Chief David Brown told young blacks, "Don't be part of the problem. . . We're hiring. Get out of that protest line and put an application in."
What Is Part Of The Problem
The Black Lives Matter movement is part of the problem. The group is exclusionary and has vehemently attacked anyone who dares to say that all lives matter. If you believe that "all lives matter" is racist, you have serious problems.
From Baltimore to Baton Rouge to university campuses across the country, the Black Lives Matter movement stokes anger, and has been hijacked by radicals. A real group dedicated to saving black lives would not be breathlessly waiting every day for another tragic confrontation between a police officer and a black American in order to advance a racist agenda.
Instead, it would be leading anti-gang marches of people of good will into the crime infested neighborhoods of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit. That is where young blacks are murdered daily in numbers that dwarf those of tragic police shootings.
While Black Lives Matter and its allies were injuring 21 policemen in Minneapolis, a two year-old black boy was murdered and his 15 month-old sister was seriously wounded by gang members. I doubt you heard anything about that. I doubt you will ever hear their names on the evening news. I doubt the president will say a word about their shootings.
If you want to know who saves the lives of blacks in America, it's mayors like Rudy Giuliani, whose tough policies reduced violent crime by 56% and cut the murder rate in New York City by 66%. These "tough on crime" approaches benefit all Americans, but especially minority Americans who are disproportionately victims of crime.
As we reported Friday, 990 people were shot and killed by police officers last year. Fifty percent of them were white. Twenty-six percent were black. However, as Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute has documented, there were more than 6,000 black homicide deaths in 2014 and "Almost all of those black homicide victims had black killers."
When it comes to black lives, the police are not the problem.