He described the law enforcement community and the black community as diverging further and further apart with each new controversy.
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Indeed, major cities including Milwaukee, St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, New Orleans, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City and Charlotte have seen double-digit jumps in murder rates over the past year.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has been talking a lot this past weekend about the police and #BlackLivesMatter, specifically about why officers are more reluctant to do their jobs “in the age of viral videos”.
Comey acknowledged Monday that he has little evidence to support the theory.
“The question that has been asked of me, is whether these kinds of things are changing police behavior all over the country”, he said during the speech.
“The honest answer is, I don’t know for sure whether that’s the case, I don’t know for sure whether even it is the case that it explains it entirely”. In a few cities, police officers privately report holding back on making stops for fear of ending up the next YouTube “bad cop” sensation.
And groups that grew out of the Ferguson protests dispute that crime rates have any link to their efforts to shine a light on what they believe is widespread problem of excessive use of force.
“Time and time again [Comey] generalizes about a segment of the population that he knows nothing about”, said James O. Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. “He has never been a police officer”.
“We need to figure out what’s happening and deal with it now”, Comey said.
The White House, meanwhile, has already distanced itself from Comey’s statements. Others say the rise in crime is connected to drug-related violence fueled by increased gang activity.
President Barack Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch will address the officers on Tuesday. “Across the 93 or 95 top cities, it’s very hard to distinguish anything statistically meaningful”.
Comey said in his Friday speech that he had no numbers to back up his assertion, but said many police officers have told him they often don’t feel like getting out of their cars because they are met with a crowd of citizens pointing their cellphone cameras at them.
As if to underscore the roiling controversies hanging over policing in America, on Saturday hundreds of protesters staged what they called an “I Shocked the Sheriff” Counter-Conference outside the Chicago convention hall hosting the IACP meetings. Each incident that involves an attack on a member of law enforcement bends our line that way.
“Law enforcement can actually use hashtag ‘Black Lives Matter, ‘ to see the world through the eyes of people who are not in our line of work and see how they might perceive us”, Comey said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation director did, however, offer cautious praise for elements of the Black Lives Matter movement for the first time, suggesting their work could allow police officers to understand the viewpoints of people in situations different to their own.
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Earnest declined to explicitly say he was disagreeing with Comey’s comments and simply reiterated that law enforcement leaders across the country have indicated otherwise. At that meeting, many – including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) – reported that police morale was sinking in their towns amid ongoing scrutiny.
