“After the ABC-hosted townhall that was taped this afternoon, the President had a brief opportunity to visit with Erica Garner who was upset that she didn’t get called on to ask a question”, he said.
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She added: “They lied to me and my family to get us to travel to DC to participate. Taking time away from things I had planned to remember my father”, Garner said.
Emotions boiled over after President Obama’s televised town hall meeting on race relations Thursday, as the daughter of a man killed by police shouted that she wasn’t allowed to ask the president a question.
“The reason I wanted to be a police officer is that I wanna try to make this world a better place as much as I can”, Jermar Taylor said during the town hall, with the president and ABC News’ David Muir.
President Obama went on to say that he is hopeful that real, lasting change can happen in improving trust between police departments and the communities they serve, giving himself the title of “Mr. Hope”. But as he nears the end of his eight years in the White House, he is faced with a CBS News-New York Times poll showing that more than two-thirds of Americans believe that race relations in the country are bad and that racial discontent is at the highest point of his presidency.
“I have been unequivocal in condemning any rhetoric directed at police officers so I think, Lt. Gov., you’d be hard pressed to find any message that did not include a very strong support for law enforcement”, Obama said. ‘I was railroaded by ABC on the two-year anniversary of my father’s death’.
It wasn’t her intention to embarrass the president, Erica Garner said, but lamented that she had to be “belligerent just to be heard”. “The president spoke to several people after the event ended, including at length with Erica Garner”. “We know what a tough job they have”, he said.
Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, told HuffPost she immediately walked out after Garner did. And we have to guard against that as well.
The president said that his hope is that everyone involved in the shooting tragedies in the past week can recognize and mourn in one another’s shared loss.
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She then asked to speak for the president, who was standing in the corner greeting a receiving line of attendees including Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Mike Brown, the young man killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, which ignited protests there. “Not once did they mention Eric Garner or acknowledge the family”. Also, Milwaukee’s police chief was able to speak to Mr. Obama and ask him a question regarding parallel conversations between police and the community.
