detroitnews | President Barack Obama says the widespread mistrust of law
enforcement that was exposed after the fatal police shooting of an
unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, is corroding America, not just
its black communities, and that the wariness flows from significant
racial disparities in the administration of justice.
Speaking
Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual
awards dinner, Obama said these suspicions only harm communities that
need law enforcement the most.
"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. "And the worst part of it is it scars
the hearts of our children," leading some youngsters to unnecessarily
fear people who do not look like them while leading others to constantly
feel under suspicion no matter what they do.
"That is not the society we want," Obama said. "That is not the society that our children deserve."
The
fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August sparked days of
violent protests and racial unrest in predominantly black Ferguson. The
police officer who shot Brown was white.
Obama addressed the
matter carefully but firmly, saying the young man's death and the raw
emotion that sprang from it had reawakened the country to the fact that
"a gulf of mistrust" exists between local residents and law enforcement
in too many communities.
"Too many young men of color feel
targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking while black, driving
while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and
hopelessness," he said.
