Obama: Police brutality against US black citizens ‘real’
US President Barack Obama has admitted that police violence against African Americans has become a “real” and “legitimate” issue that needs to be addressed.
Addressing a forum on criminal justice reform on Thursday, Obama said that routine police brutality exists only in black communities, calling it a “legitimate issue that we’ve got to address.”
“The African American community is not just making this up,” the president said. “It is real, and there is a history behind it and we have to take it seriously.”
“As a young man, there were times when I was driving and I got stopped and I didn't know why,” he said.
However, Obama said it would be unfair to blame the problem on the police, saying the country needs to boost educational and economic opportunities for minorities.
Speaking about the wave of activism elicited by the issue, Obama said that movements such as the Black Lives Matter are fighting for a legitimate cause.
"I think everybody understands ‘all lives matter,’ ” the president said. “Everybody wants strong, effective law enforcement, everybody wants their kids to be safe when they’re walking to school, nobody wants to see police officers, who are doing their job fairly, hurt.”
Obama's comments came amid a push by the White House and bipartisan members of Congress to renovate the country’s criminal justice system. Obama said he is exploring ways to make the system “smart, just, effective and fair.”
The White House has also sought input from members of the Black Lives Matter movement, which came into life following nationwide protests against police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and other cities around the country.
The Black Lives Matter movement has played an influential role in the 2016 US presidential campaign. The group has hijacked several events, pressuring Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to address problems plaguing the black community.
On the Republican side, however, presidential hopeful and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson has slammed that movement, accusing it of dividing the American public.
“We have to stop submitting to those who want to divide us into all these special interest groups and start thinking about what works for everybody," Carson, the only black candidate in the GOP field, said earlier this month.
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