Washington - states that "if I have a son, he looks like Trayvon," President Barack Obama chose a highly personal way to the hot national debate over the death of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager killed by a neighborhood to see included volunteer in Florida.
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| Trayvon Martin |
Obama has no opinion to express about the behavior of the shooter, George Zimmerman, or any legal aspect of the case beyond a call for a thorough investigation. "The Attorney-General reports to me so I have to be careful about my statements to make sure that we do not Obstruction of an investigation," he said.
Yet his comments Friday, a powerful influence on how the public regarded the case. It was a rare moment White House - a president to identify himself with a victim in a racially charged shooting. More generally, it drew attention to the way young black men by a predominantly white society seen.
Zimmerman or acted legally in the Feb. 26 shooting, and whether the Sanford, Fla., police had acted correctly in declining to arrest him turn into a big part on how the victim is considered.
Zimmerman, 28, claimed that he was Martin, 17, shot in self defense after he called police to say he is a person in his gated community in which he believed was acting suspiciously. Fans of Martin's family said the high school student is simply walking through the neighborhood on his way to a relative's house and that nothing about him reasonably could have been as suspicious or threatening.
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| Barack Obama |
Martin's parents appear to recognize that Obama's public identification with their son that great symbolic importance.
"The president's personal comments touched us deeply," they said. The remarks "we wonder: If his son had looked like Trayvon and a hoodie, he would be suspicious?"
Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla, in close contact with the Martin family, a view held by many black leaders expressed saying that targeted for violence "is the reality of a black boy in America."
"This is a problem for generations since slavery existed," she said, hopes that Obama's remarks can change how black men were observed.
"Every time the president is realistic about a situation, it helps the country grow and mature," she said.
Obama's comments were written in advance, aides said, but after a week in which the president is following the case. During a trip to Western countries over the past two days, he read articles about the shootings and comments private how the teen's family must feel, and how the news if he ever came to her through it.
On Thursday, Obama has the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose mother died that day, to express condolences. Sharpton was on his way to a meeting about the matter that he helped to organize. Aides said they accepted the two men talked about the shooting, although Obama did not explicitly tell them so.
Initially the president hesitated to publicly talk about the shooting that he would appear to try the outcome of the case to influence, but over the week, she considered moving. "He did not want an independent investigation to jeopardize," the official said, "but he also felt that we need to ask ourselves how this could happen."
On his way to the Rose Garden Friday morning, a nominee to head the World Bank to announce, said Obama aides that he comment on the Martin case if asked about it - a contrast to his regular practice of questions in the formal institutions to avoid if they stray from the topic of the day.
He was "speaking as a parent," the official said. "He was deeply upset by the death of a young man."
The comments from the White House position shifted a distance to keep the case. Tuesday, for example, the press secretary Jay Carney said that "we here at the White House is aware of the incident" and that "our thoughts and prayers go out to Trayvon Martin's family, but of course, we will not wade into a local law enforcement matter. "
In contrast, Obama said that "it is imperative that we all aspects of this investigation, and that everyone pulls together - federal, state and local - to find out exactly how this tragedy happened." People need the laws and the context for what happened, and the details of the incident, "he said.
Republican presidential hopefuls with Obama in his call for a thorough investigation.
"What Trayvon Martin is a tragedy," said Mitt Romney said in a written statement. "There must be a thorough investigation contact the public that justice is carried out with impartiality and integrity to be."
Campaign at a shooting range in West Monroe, La, Rick Santorum, Martin's death a "terrible event."
"It's cool to hear what happened," said Santorum. "The fact that law enforcement did not immediately go into and prosecution of this case is another example of cold, I would say, the terrible decisions made by the people in this case."
That consensus was a stark contrast to the last time that Obama as president, said a law enforcement matter and race. Early in his tenure, he was much criticized after saying that the police in Cambridge, Mass., had "acted foolishly" with the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, a friend of the president's.
At the moment, administration officials said Obama was surprised by the response to the statement. This time, he was more cautious. He did just what the racial aspects of the matter obliquely to the call of the way that his son would "look" and said that "we all have some introspection to find out how that happens."
She sees his words made more effective, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University in Houston.
"There are advantages to think and digest," Brinkley said. "He has the right amount of waiting time information collected, think about what he would say, and run how to do the right way.
"His words today are really healing gesture for the nation."
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