Just days after two black men were fatally shot by police in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Charlotte, North Carolina, vice presidential hopeful Mike Pence on Thursday urged an audience of evangelical leaders to “set aside talk” of institutional racism, the Associated Press reported.
Speaking at a roundtable of pastors in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Pence said police officers are “the best of us” and the public should avoid focusing on talking about racism, which he called the “rhetoric of division.”
“Donald Trump and I both believe that there’s been far too much of this talk of institutional bias or racism in law enforcement,” Pence said, according to the AP.
Politico reports:
Asked by Bishop John Brannon, who is African-American, what Pence would “personally do” to heal divides in the country, Pence brought up the recent shootings.
“When there’s any loss of life, we have to speak with compassion, we have to make it clear that there will be a thorough investigation and that justice will be served and that high standards will be upheld,” Pence said.
I wonder why it’s always white people in positions of power or comfort who want to “set aside” talk of racism? Weird how that always seems to be the case.
Yes, let’s set it aside; because it is very inconvenient to the abject bullshit my boss is trying to peddle. #stopandfriskisagoodthing!!!
No, please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion! Let’s not bicker and argue about who killed who …
I’ve said this before but jeeze, these guys—it’s like they’re saying “The first rule of Racist Club is never talk about Racist Club.” The racists say it’s racist to talk about racism at all, and certainly not about police officers who never did one wrong thing since the beginning of time. The classic Soviet propaganda-mongers had nothing on these guys for sheer head-slapping obviousness.
I take HUGE exception to the statement the police are “the best” of us. Sorry. It used to be believed that priests and clergy were the best of us, and we found out their human frailties didn’t we. The police are individuals who are not inherently better than any other group of people. I don’t discount that their job is dangerous and hard. But from a character standpoint I cannot agree that they can be grouped as any better than a whole lot of other classifications of people.