On Monday, former President Barack Obama encouraged activists to make the protests and riots following the horrific death of George Floyd into a “turning point for real change.” While Obama has championed radical “transformative” change in America that undermines many of the virtues of the Founding and the Constitution, his advice for criminal justice reform proved surprisingly apt and measured. While the groups he recommends are suspect, activists should indeed follow some of his advice — and especially listen to his powerful condemnation of the looting and riots.
Obama acknowledged that the protests “represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States.” He insisted that “the overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring.”
Yet he condemned “the small minority of folks who’ve resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause.”
“I saw an elderly black woman being interviewed today in tears because the only grocery store in her neighborhood had been trashed. If history is any guide, that store may take years to come back. So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves,” Obama said. While the former president had previously exacerbated racial tensions, his condemnation of this violence was important.
The former president insisted that translating “aspirations” into “specific laws and institutional practices” involves political action, but he insisted that “the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.” While the Democrat would of course like to see his former vice president win in November, he encouraged activists to focus on local races where they could have a more concrete impact on criminal justice reform. – READ MORE
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --