The White House has labeled the killing of Alton Sterling a local matter. The last time a local matter of a black man being killed by a white police officers came up a few days ago, the city of Sacramento was shut down. In 2014 a local matter which cost the life of Michael Brown came up and the city of Ferguson Missouri was in the headlines of every major paper on this planet and on April 4, 1968, a local matter set in motion the burning of major cities all over the United States. Why does this President consider the killing of innocent African American men by police a local matter? Press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered the stunning message during a White House news briefing when asked about the Sterling verdict.
“Certainly, we want to make sure that all law enforcement is carrying out the letter of the law. The President is very supportive of law enforcement, but at the same time in these specific cases and these specific instances, those will be left up to the local authorities.”
The President has not commented on the death of Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man who was shot and killed last week by Sacramento, California, police in his grandmother’s backyard after police thought he was holding a gun. Only a cell phone was found alongside his body nor has he said anything about the Louisiana attorney general’s decision not to file charges against the officers involved in Sterling’s death. Alton Sterling was shot several times at close range after officers said he was resisting arrest. They said they were responding to a report that a man in a red shirt was selling CDs and waving a gun threateningly at another man. A video was made available the day after the shooting by the store owner and eyewitness who said in a statement that Sterling never wielded the gun or threatened the officers. On July 7, a protest was held in Dallas, Texas, relating to the shooting of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, another African American killed by police. At the end of the peaceful protest, Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire in an ambush, killing five police officers and wounding eleven others including two civilians. Johnson was then killed by a robot-delivered bomb.
Others point out the hypocrisy of the statements coming from the White House in light of the Presidents remarks concerning Kate Steinle, a young white woman killed by an undocumented immigrant. The jury found the man, who repeatedly had entered the country illegally, did not commit murder because the gun he was carrying slipped and accidentally went off. The President devoted an entire weekly address to the “local matter.” He has countless times targeted the man whose gun killed Steinle in 2015 during his campaign speeches, and on Twitter. As bitter as the injustice that was done to Steinle is, so much more that you should act on all injustices or was it all just a lie Mr. President.
“Now its time for America to bind the wounds of division. We have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across the nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our lands that I will be the president for the American people. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, for which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great country.”
President Elect, Donald J. Trump
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