Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid set to air Wednesday afternoon that “we, as a nation, have failed” to make progress on the divide between police and racial minorities.
Addressing current tensions over several police killings of unarmed black men, the host of “The Reid Report” brought up an infamous case from 1999 in which a person of color was shot dead by police.
“In a similar case in New York, Amadou Diallo, a young West African immigrant who was shot in the vestibule of his own apartment building,” she said. “What does it say that we essentially are in the same exact place now, so many years later?”
“It means that we, as a nation, have failed. It’s as simple as that. We have failed,” Holder replied.
Reid also asked the attorney general whether young blacks or Latinos growing up should fear the police.
“I don’t think that they should fear the police. But I certainly think that we have to build up a better relationship between young people, people of color, and people in law enforcement,” he replied.
Holder said there is “misunderstanding” on “both sides,” and that the nation has work to do.
“[I]t’s what we are, as an administration, committed to doing—to building trust that—that does not now exist but that has to exist,” he said. “It has to exist.”
Law enforcement is waiting on minorities to be more docile before they will lift a finger…
As with elements of the military throughout the 80s, 90s and 2000s, a certain political party politicized policing, expanded police powers and significantly increased police armament and arms and, with the political racism that’s come to the fore in recent years, this party too bears a large part of responsibility for the itchy trigger fingers and the lack of funds for training.
As a practical matter, this business of allowing police officers to act out of “fear for their life” has to be examined. The unreasonable fears (and resentments) that conservatives have experienced and capitalized on since 9/11 have made their way into police forces.
So you have resentful, fearful police officers who have been encouraged to adopt a confrontational attitude and circle up the wagons. It’s a disaster for public safety.
The only real failure here has been a failure to cull the “worsifiers” from the herd. Buck up, Holder. Indict and/or fire the bad officers–the others will pick up the slack and the public will be all the safer for it.