Mail.comWASHINGTON (AP) — The widespread mistrust of law enforcement that was exposed by the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in Missouri exists in too many other communities and is having a corrosive effect on the nation, particularly on its children, President Barack Obama says. He blames the feeling of wariness on persistent racial disparities in the administration of justice.
Obama said these misgivings only serve to harm communities that are most in need of effective law enforcement. “It makes folks who are victimized by crime and need strong policing reluctant to go to the police because they may not trust them,” he said Saturday night in an address at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual awards dinner.
“And the worst part of it is it scars the hearts of our children,” Obama said, adding that it leads some youngsters to unnecessarily fear people who do not look like them and others to constantly feel under suspicion no matter what they do.
“That is not the society we want,” he said. “It’s not the society that our children deserve.” Obama addressed the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown carefully but firmly, saying his death and the raw emotion it produced had reawakened the country to the fact that “a gulf of mistrust” exists between residents and police in too many communities.
The shooting sparked days of violent protests and racial unrest in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. The police officer who shot Brown was white. “Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness,” said Obama, who has spoken of enduring similar treatment as a younger man.
He said significant racial disparities remain in the enforcement of law, from drug sentencing to application of the death penalty, and that a majority of Americans think the justice system treats people of different races unequally.
Obama opened his remarks by praising Attorney General Eric Holder as a great friend and faithful public servant. The president announced Holder’s resignation this week after nearly six years as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. Holder attended the dinner and received a standing ovation. He will stay on the job until the Senate confirms a successor.
“We will miss him badly,” Obama said. Holder visited Ferguson after the shooting to help ease tensions, and the Justice Department is investigating whether Brown’s civil rights were violated. There was more gun violence Saturday night in Ferguson when a police officer investigating suspicious activity at a closed community center was shot in the arm. The wounded officer is expected to survive and the police were looking for two suspects early Sunday.
Authorities said they didn’t believe the shooting was related to demonstrations that were taking place at about the same time to protest the killing of Brown. At the dinner, Obama also announced the addition of a “community challenge” to My Brother’s Keeper, a public-private partnership he launched earlier this year to help improve the lives of young minority men. Communities across the U.S. will be challenged to adopt strategies to help all young people succeed from the cradle through college and to a career.
Obama said government cannot play the primary role in the lives of children but it “can bring folks together” to make a difference for them. Helping girls of color deal with inequality is also important, he said, and part of the continuing mission of the White House Council on Women and Girls. The effort has involved his wife, Michelle, the mother of their 13- and 16-year-old daughters.
Obama noted that black girls are more likely than their white peers to be suspended, jailed and physically harassed, and that black women struggle daily with “biases that perpetuate oppressive standards for how they’re supposed to look and how they’re supposed to act.”
“I’ve got a vested interest in making sure that our daughters have the same opportunities as boys do,” he said.
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When 12 percent of the population causes 90 percent of the crime, don’t come crying to me about racial disparities. And the cops aren’t showing any prejudice, they just shoot anyone and everyone, with or with out cause. Or beat them to death. Just love it when the shit-head in chief plays his race card.
The word trust and police should never use in the same sentence. We hear all the time about the good ones while at the same time seeing pictures of the militarized thugs that they have become.We see them in their body armor and MRAPS parked in front of citizens homes initiating shelter in place which is nothing more than getting the citizens use to seeing them in their neighborhoods practicing marshal law. They have become mercenaries and prey on the public and enforce draconian laws at the drop of a hat. How can even a fool believe they are doing this shit for the good of the citizens.Government has turned into a cancer that is eating amerika, America is gone and has been replaced with a police state for all to see if they would simply open their eye’s! Believe voting and the courts will magically fix this if you want too,its like believing in Santa Clause.
“The word trust and police should never use in the same sentence”
How about “You should never, ever, trust the police”
Or “Trust me, the police are not your friends”
“That is not the society we want,” he said. “It’s not the society that our children deserve.” Obama addressed the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown carefully but firmly, saying his death and the raw emotion it produced had reawakened the country to the fact that “a gulf of mistrust” exists between residents and police in too many communities.
The society we deserve is devoid of a national military police force run by DHS! The gulf of mistrust is only going to get worse.
Everyday there are stories of police misconduct, what did they think was going to happen when they police themselves? Prosecutors, & judges rarely prosecute police.
Giving police, tanks, bayonets, flashbangs etc. and training them to act like a standing army is B.S.!
Its only going to get worse, Illegal immigrants in the armed forces, WTF? Soon they’ll become cops, what a recipe for disaster oh, sorry its a well coordinated private corporate takeover of America run by DHS.
My Fellow Americans:
Criminal Obama:
*******************
The mistrust of police is corroding America.
Reality:
*********
No, it’s Zionist/International-Jew trash like Commie-Obama and the Criminal Cartel HQ’d in Washington DC that is corroding/destroying America,.. by design.
Commies NEVER leave willingly, the NEVER stop stealing, they NEVER give up trying to own everyone and everything,… and NEVER think twice about Mass-Murdering people to get them out of the way.
There is ONLY one sloution: America must exercise a “Final-Solution” for these Jew controlled assets called commies,.. they must be exteriminated,… with EXTREME Prejudice,… OR THEY WILL EXTERMINATE YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES,… WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!
As the old knight said to Dr. Jones in The Last Crusade: “….. Choose wisely….”
JD – US Marines – Well,.. its really no choice at all is it,.. we only have one option,.. fight,.. or die.
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Its really as simple as that JD,the kicker is how many don’t see it! Where I live the police are a giant gang funded by tax dollars,3500 in my county alone. Choppers,MRAPS,all the military goodies are already in their procession and growing all the time.SWAT team deployment for just about anything for a show of force.How can even a blind fool believe that this is being done for their welfare?
“Obama says mistrust of police corroding America”
No, Obama. You and your brutal pigs are corroding America. Nobody needs your stinking cops anywhere, and I hope you and your piggies all suffer the same fate.
Mr. O’bama what’s corroding America is every time we turn on the national news it’s completely corrupted with lies. For example Ukraine. Our own State Department spent $5 billion tax payer dollars to overthrow the government which is a war crime. Your puppet president in Kiev is murdering so called separatist in the East, you stole all their gold, you gave oil contracts to Chevron and Shell who will steal their gas shales and frack for oil, and forced the Ukrainians to take out an IMF loan making all Ukrainians debt serfs for life. Everything happening in Israel in regards to the Palestinians is a bold face lie. So whats eroding America? American Imperialism….that’s what.
Mistrust of police is corroding America? Gee..I wonder why that is and who made it that way…. 🙄
Barry is such a weasel, it’s not even funny.
AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
(Horns & Lights Blaring!!!!!!!)
In a Pee-wee Herman voice –
NC!,.. You said the secret word of the day,… “Weasel!” AAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
You win a beat-down by the local cops, as the other Badged-Gestapo look on from their military helicopters, MRAPS, HUMVEE’s, LRAD’s, APC’s, and all the other military gear they have been given to,… (wait for it,……..),… SLAUGHTER AMERICANS WITH!!! (Ta-DAAAAAA!)
(People appaulding,… a voice in the background,.. “thank you,.. thank you,… thank you so much,.. thank you,……)
JD – US Marines – We have seen ALL of this before in recent history,.. do we have to wait until they dig the ditches and start filling them with American corpses before we say,… enough!???
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Sounds like the POTUS calling the kettle black, again. Instead of pointing his finger of blame, he should be looking in the mirror to see the root cause of our Nation’s problems. Obama is merely a puppet, and he cannot be blamed for everything… but…
“The Buck Stops Here” – President Harry S. Truman
He needs to grow a set of balls, or borrow his wife’s.
“That is not the society we want,” he said. “It’s not the society that our children deserve.”
That sorry POS just went there AGAIN!!!
All about the children, don’cha know.
Imbecile.
Violent cops, violent government agencies, violent black ganstahs, violent mexi gangstahs, violent asian gangstahs, violent moooslam extremist,
Makes you just want to leave, beam me up Scotty, there are no signs of intelligent life on this planet.