President Barack Obama was giving a speech on the White House lawn today dealing with the topic of Asian trade. During this speech, Obama took the opportunity to express his feelings on the violent rioting that is occurring in Baltimore. President Barack Obama stated that there is “no excuse” for the looting and criminal activity that has taken over that city.
“There’s no excuse for the kind of violence we saw yesterday. It is counterproductive. When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting. They’re not making a statement. They’re stealing. And when they burn down a building, they’re committing arson.”
Many people believe that these rioters are protected by the first amendment of the Constitution . The people that believe this mangles the words of the first amendment to make their point. They will claim that the people rioting in Baltimore are expressing the right to assemble. They forget one very important word that is in the Constitution. The Constitution protects the right of the people to assemble, but they must do it in a peaceful manner. Once people begin to break the law, then they are no longer acting in a peaceful way. The above quote by President Barack Obama makes that fact clear when he talks about stealing and arson.
This is the first time President Obama has publicly made a comment on this worsening crisis.
The reason for the rioting is due to another black man who has died while in police custody. The events surrounding the death are not yet known. However, the ones who are rioting in Baltimore have already made their own judgments. The topic of police violence against the black communities has been a hot topic for a long time. President Obama has not helped matters any on this topic, due in part to making statements that some argue only fan the flames of this problem. President Obama states that this problem is a “slow rolling” crisis.
Has this crisis always been a problem? Has the advent of 24-hour news coverage and social media finally brought this problem the light it deserves or have they made the problem worse by sensationalizing certain events?
It is being discovered that social media is being used to fuel the violence by essentially putting out a hit on all white police officers.
Maybe it’s time for President Obama to start dropping the hammer on the people who are using social media to only further divide our country along the colors of black and white.
[Image via Getty Images]
