Obama must step in

It has been more than a week since the fatal shooting of American teenager Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri sparked violent unrest there but it appears the situation is nowhere near any peaceful resolution. And that is because nobody seems to be in real control. Even US President Barack Obama has done little beyond calling for calm and sobriety.

The last time I looked on tv, it was this African American guy, a lawyer identified as head of a national organization of activist lawyers, who was trying mightily to calm the situation. He was walking back and forth a buffer zone between police and protesters with a bullhorn, exhorting everybody to stay back and not do any provocative acts.

But of course it takes only scant little to provoke one side or the other. I turned off the tv when the police started firing tear gas and stun grenades at the crowds to disperse them, after shots were fired and bottles were thrown. The African American lawyer, apparently frustrated by the lack of control, issued a call for community leaders and credible personalities to descend on Ferguson to bring peace to the town.

The slain teenager, according to police accounts and supported with video evidence, had just been involved in what they described as a "strongarm" robbery of a drugstore, meaning no weapons were apparently used except sheer physical superiority. Minutes later, Michael Brown was dead. He was said to have been accosted by the police and tried to resist. He was shot six times.

To be sure, shooting an unarmed teenager six times even if he had just robbed a store and tried to resist or even attack the police officers is too much. The incident is reminiscent of our own version here in Cebu of what happened between a police officer and an unarmed teenager suspected as a robber. The suspect got killed in what the police officer described as a shootout. The court did not believe that and convicted the officer.

The big difference, however, is that no riots erupted in the Cebu incident. And that is because we here in the Philippines are not divided along racial lines. In the United States, there is great effort to try and not make the obvious apparent. But when incidents like this happen, the racial tensions that have been tenuously subdued instantly spring open.

When an African American person gets killed by the police, especially if the one who pulled the trigger happens to be white, there is an instant uproar. Claims of racial bias and profiling immediately rend the air. It no longer matters if the victim has done something wrong. For as long as he is black and the killer is white it becomes a racial killing.

And yet nobody seems to even wonder if the African Americans are not themselves skeedaddling along racial lines by immediately seeing the color and not the substance of an event. Maybe if the police just picked up people on the basis of their color and started shooting them or beating them up for no apparent color, then maybe that is a clear racist event. But to jump on the incident without even first ascertaining its circumstances makes me wonder who is being racist.

This does not mean however that the police officer who shot Brown should be made to escape justice. Now that would be a most racist development if there was one. But just as I said earlier, there appears to be nobody in control over there. Nobody has gone before the protesters to assure them that the policeman will get his due upon proper investigation. All that the Ferguson police have done is identify the shooter and that's it.

It has been reported that there are provocateurs who have infiltrated the ranks. I heard a reporter say two white "communists" from Illinois have flown in to instigate the crowd in order to provoke police into attacking. Others have reportedly flown in from the "west" with a similar intent to stir up trouble so that the unrest might perhaps blow up into a major conflagration, apparently for the enemies of America to exploit.

Now that is very distinctly possible. But the thing is, what is clearly lacking on the ground is a credible symbol of authority. But there is none. The mayor of Ferguson and the governor of Missouri seemed to have distanced themselves from the situation. Okay, maybe for security reasons. But as leaders, they should not make concerns for their own personal safety prevail over the safety of an entire city.

As it happens now, the only semblance of authority on the ground is that African American lawyer who is trying very hard to separate the warring sides. My heart goes out to his efforts. And I agree that if the real symbols of authority do not make an appearance, it is now up to the community leaders, those who are known and are familiar to both sides to step in.

Indeed, it would have been a great opportunity for Obama to fly down there unannounced and try to talk some sense to both sides. Nothing beats the sight of the American president stepping up to the barricades. He should not be afraid of his own people. What security concerns are there will always be there, even if he sits in the White House just watching the coverage.

America cannot let this incident go on for long. It is not good for its image. How can America intervene in conflicts overseas if it cannot address its own problems in a quick and resolute manner. I really do believe it is now up to Obama to step into the picture. And by stepping into the picture, I mean literally stepping up to the picture, not just issuing some exhortation for calm and sobriety than cannot rise above the din of protest.

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