“We have a long history in this country of poverty, mental illness”, said Casaday. “We were able to say to law enforcement what we felt, they said what they felt, protesters what they felt, those of us that had been through this before, those that had never been through it”.
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On July 13, the president had a private meeting with 33 members of civil rights organizations, law enforcement, and lawmakers to discuss how to bridge the gap of trust between police and the black community.
“We have to push this out to communities so that they feel ownership for some of the good ideas that have been floating around this table”, the president said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday that ABC was “working hard to. organize a diverse audience that represents a variety of points of view”.
White House officials acknowledged that enhancing the trust that has been frayed in so many communities will be a job for future presidents, but said Mr Obama was determined to get all sides to commit to steps they could take to improve relations.
But Obama also said he can’t “pretend as if there aren’t potential problems with how police in certain communities interact”. There’s no doubt that police departments still feel embattled and unjustly accused.
Obama even shared his own experiences being pulled over by police, “The overwhelming majority of the time I deserved to be pulled over because I was going too fast and the police officers were courteous.there have been a couple of times in my life where that was not the case”.
The president said progress on preventing shootings like last week’s incidents will not happen overnight, because the roots date back not just decades, but centuries.
“We have to as a country sit down and just grind it out, solve these problems”, he told a score of stakeholders. Biden did not offer detail about the complaints, but said Obama stressed how he has repeatedly voiced support for law enforcement and offered to send critics a list of when he has done so. Edwards says, while not everyone agreed on everything, the conversation was constructive.
During an earlier interview with ABC News, Jermar’s mother said that she’d heard two gunshots when the shooting began the night of July 7.
The conversation on race took place on the same day funerals were held in Dallas for three of the five police officers killed last week.
“The challenge is how do we talk about both things at the same time without acting like we’re blaming the African American community for their victimization or that we’re assuming that all police are racially biased?” “We must come together in support of those who risk everything to keep us safe”.
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“Words matter. Your words matter much more than mine”.
