It's a damn shame
this even needed to be said.
"I just want to repeat, because somehow this never gets on the TV: There is no contradiction between us caring about our law enforcement officers and also making sure that our laws are applied fairly,” Obama said. "We want to protect our police officers. We’ll do a better job doing it if our communities can feel confident that they are being treated fairly. I hope I’m making that clear.”
Sadly, we know this clarification from the president was absolutely necessary. The gut assumption for tens of millions of Americans is that one cannot advocate for equal justice under the law while simultaneously caring about the safety and security of police officers.
Just think about that for a minute. It's absurd.
The president of the United States of America felt he needed to make it clear that when he speaks up for fair drug sentencing and the removal of institutional racism from the criminal justice system, he doesn't do so at the expense of officer safety. The implication is that police officers lean so heavily on racism and injustice that when the president of the United States comes after racism, people mistake him for coming after the police.
That's wild. Racism, injustice, and American police are so intertwined as three strands of the same damn cord that when you address one strand, the others begin to tremble.