President Obama addressed Thursday the two fatal shootings where police officers shot black men, and urged Americans to recognize that it was an “American issue” that everyone should care about.
“This is not just a black issue,” Obama said, speaking from Warsaw. “It’s not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we should all care about.”
“We can do better,” he said. “And I believe we will do better.”
Video circulated Wednesday showed Alton Sterling being wrestled to the ground by police officers in Louisiana where he was fatally shot. A live stream on Facebook documented the aftermath of a police officer in Minnesota fatally shooting Philando Castile.
Obama noted that police officers had a tough job, but that to be “concerned” about these issues is “not to be against law enforcement.”
But Obama said that there were biases — conscious and subconscious — that needed to be “rooted out.”
“When people say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ it doesn’t mean blue lives don’t matter, and all lives matter, but right now the big concern is that the data shows black folks are more vulnerable to these kinds of instances,” Obama said.
He said that being concerned about these types of shootings wasn’t being “politically correct,” but “being American.”
This post has been updated.
Once again my beloved President has to talk about the fatal shootings of two young black men. When are good white people going to stand up en masse and demand justice for black people. I am so ashamed We have been silent for too long. I don;t know how we stand up and demand change but maybe demand that our legislators to do something and perhaps voting them out of office if they don’t. I see many white faces in Minnesota standing up and demanding action which gives me hope but but something has to be done to train police better and when they do murder innocent people, then there has to be consequences instead of the same bullshit of getting off scott free
Thank you Mr. President.
Chammy all I can say is I feel your pain, it’s humiliating for us all as a country, it’s obscene. Thank god everyone’s got a video camera in their pocket, and a lot of them back up to the cloud right away so they can’t just confiscate them and make it go away. And once again Obama nails it.
I wish the president would issue an executive order requiring local police get the same training that federal officers receive. Something has to be done. How do police officers allow white men wielding guns and rifles the opportunity to lay down their guns, even talking them down yet they have no problem shooting black men. Someone posted a story above and this is just one amongst many. I am sick to death of this and I can’t even begin to imagine how black people feel
I know you do. I know for sure that if it was black cops killing white kids, this would be a totally different story