One of the interesting differences between the discord following the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, MO and Baltimore is to what extent African-Americans are full participants in the police and justice system in each community.

In Ferguson, justice was certainly delayed, if not denied, because of a white power structure that did not question itself after Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown. Wilson was one of 54 white officers out of a total of 57 police in Ferguson. The police chief was an old-guard white man, Tom Jackson. The mayor of Ferguson is James Knowles, III, who is also white. The Prosecuting Attorney in St. Louis County is Bob McCulloch who is white.

A clear picture of what exactly happened on that hot August afternoon in 2014 was not presented until the U.S. government, specifically the Department of Justice, became involved. It is no small coincidence that the U.S. Attorney-General was an African-American man, Eric Holder, and his boss is of course our African-American president, Barack Obama. The Justice Department issued two reports, both in March 2015. One detailed the incidents on Canfield Avenue on August 9 that led to the death of Michael Brown. The other was a critique of the police department in Ferguson and the North County Justice System.

It was not until these reports were released that we received an honest understanding of what really happened on August 9. The DOJ applied the kind of critical thinking to the testimony of Grand Jury witnesses that the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office did not. Some might have expected the DOJ under Holder to conclude that charges should have been pressed against Darren Wilson, but instead it methodically explained that there was not sufficient evidence to do so. But in the separate report, it took to task the judicial system in Ferguson and surrounding North St. Louis County communities.

In Baltimore, the judicial power structure has far more African-Americans in vital positions. The chief of police, Anthony Batts, is African-American as is the State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby. The city’s mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is also black. Forty-three percent of the police officers are African-American compared to Ferguson’s five percent.

In Baltimore, all six of the police officers (3 white; 3 black) who were involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray were indicted by the state’s attorney with a range of criminal offenses. Five of the six are charged with second-degree assault. The indictments of these officers indicates to citizens of Baltimore that justice has the potential to be fair in their city. The same cannot be said about Ferguson.

If the police officers in Baltimore are convicted and sentenced with real penalties, it will be strong evidence that the justice system can function well in that city when it comes to use of excessive force by police officers. In another sense, it will be a tribute to the significance of black power.

But black power can only do so much in Baltimore or any other community. Even if the judicial system works to perfection, it does not automatically raise people out of poverty, provide them with affordable, comprehensive health care, humanize the schools, raise the level of the housing stock, or open up thousands of new job opportunities. Only if the judicial system could rule that the country needs a massive redistribution of wealth in America could the problems of Baltimore and other communities like it be fully addressed.

It is not advisable for any of us to sit around and wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to ultimately rule that wealth is unevenly distributed in the United States and that this situation must be remedied “with all deliberate speed.” (borrowing language from their school desegregation ruling in Brown v Topeka in 1954). Yet such a ruling, if enforced, would give society the tools to correct many of the economic injustices that currently exist in the United States.

A second way to bring comprehensive change to Baltimore, Ferguson, and any community in economic distress, is for the United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign, a massive stimulus bill that would create millions of jobs, provide adequate health care universally, modernize our housing stock, update our infrastructure, sensitize our schools, and ensure an adequate economic and social safety net for all citizens. This is a much more realistic approach than a Supreme Court ruling, because it is doubtful that the Court would find economic disparity to be unconstitutional.

As much as we can cheer the racial justice that seems to be happening in Baltimore and applaud what Eric Holder’s Justice Department has brought to Ferguson, we cannot lose sight of the reality that to bring a more complete justice to impoverished communities, the federal government must lead the way with economic redistribution. Only the federal government has the taxing and spending power to do this. To focus on local solutions to national problems is paradise to conservatives because local communities cannot enact economic justice. Neither can most states. We need more progressives at the national level who can help solve our urban problems through more economic fairness.

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President Obama has repeatedly exhibited key characteristics of a strong leader. He is decisive when necessary; reflective when appropriate, and clear in his vision for the United States and the world. One attribute that he has not presented is the ability to apologize when he says or does something that he later regrets. Such an apology or reversal may be appropriate now, in light of the President referring to those who broke the law in the Baltimore disturbances as “thugs.”

I am reminded of a letter (yes, a letter, not an e-mail) I sent in 1965 to then Senator Charles Percy of Illinois. Percy was a Republican junior senator for Illinois who supported President Lyndon Johnson in efforts to pass civil rights legislation addressing the widespread discrimination in the United States. Prior to being a senator, Percy was president of Bell & Howell, a manufacturer of motion picture equipment, including movie projectors.

I was most impressed with Percy’s strong civil rights statements and actions. However, I was a little taken aback when I read that, in accounting for his company’s history of supporting civil rights he said, “When I integrated Bell & Howell ……”

It occurred to me that the integration of a large corporation would have required efforts from many individuals, not just the president of the company. His comment struck me as a little self-serving and I chose to write him to suggest that he might have stated his the company’s accomplishment a little differently so as to give credit to others as well as himself.

Several weeks later I received a short note from him that clearly came from him personally. In it he wrote, “As the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote, ‘If only we could see ourselves as others see us.’” He thanked me for my thoughts. I felt that he was open to the ideas of others and willing to reconsider what he had said.

Currently, I cannot recall an occasion in which President Obama has apologized for his words or actions. I’m sure that he does it frequently in private, and he may have done it in public when the bright lights and cameras were not on. Like many people, I would like to see him walk back from the characterization of some of the people on the streets of Baltimore as “thugs.”

Specifically, on Tuesday, April 28, President Obama condemned the “criminals and thugs who tore up” the city of Baltimore on Monday night. The next day, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked to explain why the President had used the word “thug.” Earnest said:

But what’s also true and what did get the lion’s share of the coverage out of Baltimore were the actions of a small minority that were nothing short of criminal actions. And whether it’s arson, or, you know, the looting of a liquor store, those were, those were thuggish acts. And, I think the President felt it was important, and continues to think it’s important, to draw a clear distinction between those actions and the efforts of the vast majority of people in that community to draw attention to the legitimate concerns that they have about the treatment of Freddie Gray.

There are those, now including Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes, who say that “thugs” has become the new ‘N’ word. He reasoned that if it was true that the Baltimore policemen has beaten up Freddie Gray, their actions might be those of thugs, but no public official was calling the police officers thugs. Stokes asked the president as well as Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to dial back their use of the word “thugs.”

Part of Stokes’ reasoning as well as that of others is that the word “thugs” is a very derogatory term and discounts the societal factors that may have led to some youth engaging in criminal behavior. The cauldron that is inner-city Baltimore, as well as many other urban areas, is one in which children grow up in poor housing, with a lack of nutritious food and quality health care, without schools that can properly address their learning needs, and with a police presence that is often outright hostile to young people.

There is little doubt that Barack Obama the community organizer knew this and that, in fact, he knows it now. The presidency seems to have hardened him, or at least some of his rhetoric. He has repeatedly talked about killing terrorists rather than neutralizing them. He has engaged in absolutes where nuance may have served him better.

It take courage to apologize and reverse oneself. In so many ways, the President has shown himself to be a courageous man. It would be very encouraging if he could walk back the word “thugs” and stick with something that is literally true, such as “criminal behavior.”

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Food desert neighborhoods are a real problem in America. Here’s a solution and another item for the good government file, from The Baltimore Sun:

An innovative, city-operated food-delivery program in Baltimore aims to tackle the longtime problem of neighborhoods that lack supermarkets…by bringing fresh produce and healthy supermarket fare to residents through a free delivery system that operates with the click of a mouse from the library.

The Virtual Supermarket Project offers library laptops where residents can order groceries online from [a local supermarket] and pick them up at their neighborhood library the next day.

“We know in communities around this library and in Washington Village residents must choose between shopping at corner stores that lack fresh produce or pay a premium for a ride outside their neighborhood, and we know this is not a fair choice,” said Olivia D. Farrow, Baltimore’s interim health commissioner. “Most city residents enjoy access to full service, competitively priced grocery stores. The residents of East Baltimore and Washington Village deserve no less.”

In the neighborhood surrounding Baltimore’s Orleans Street library, healthy food is a luxury. There’s a Burger King and a cluster of corner stores and carryouts, but not a single supermarket within walking distance. It’s no wonder, say health officials, that the neighborhood has one of the highest mortality rates in the city with alarmingly high rates of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

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