President Barack Obama told ABC News on Friday that he has a simple message for demonstrators in Ferguson, Mo.: “keep protests peaceful.”
“This is a country that allows everybody to express their views, allows them to peacefully assemble, to protest actions that they think are unjust,” the President told George Stephanopoulos in an interview set to air Sunday on “This Week.”
“But using any event as an excuse for violence is contrary to rule of law and contrary to who we are,” he continued.
A grand jury decision on whether to indict white police Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown is expected any day now. Obama joins Attorney General Eric Holder in urging peaceful, nonviolent protest ahead of the announcement.
Watch the clip below via ABC News: