Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday suggested towns and cities implement the recommendations of a policing task force he empaneled during his administration to move forward from the chaos that has marred parts of the country following the death of a Minneapolis man in police custody on Memorial Day.
Obama, who spoke remotely as part of a YouTube livestream event sponsored by the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance – an activist organization created by the Obama Foundation to “address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color” – said the recommendations of the 21st Century Policing Task Force he created in 2014 were not implemented.
“A lot of mayors and local elected officials read and supported the task force report, but then there wasn’t enough follow through,” Obama said during a roughly 20-minute address during the event. “So today I am urging every mayor in this country to review your use of force policies with members of your community and commit to report on planned reforms.
“We need mayors, county executives, others, who are in positions of power, to say this is a priority.”
Obama’s comments come eight days after George Floyd died in police custody after his arrest for trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill. A widely circulated video showing Floyd, a black man, being restrained by a white police officer next to a police cruiser face down with the officer’s knee on Floyd’s neck.
The four officers involved in the arrest were fired and the officer seen in the video has been charged in Floyd’s death. The video of the incident has sparked protests and riots in several cities.
Obama offered three suggestions for listeners to act upon, the first of which was to enact the policies recommended in the task force report.
“We know there are specific, evidence-based reforms, that if we put in place today, would build trust, save lives, would not show an increase in crime, those are included in the 21st Century Policing Task Force report,” he said.
His final suggestion was that every community become a “My Brother’s Keeper” community.
Concluding his speech, Obama said that suggestions of comparing the Floyd riots to those of the 1960s was not entirely correct. While dismissing the riots and looting that have engulfed cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia as well as Minneapolis as involving a “tiny minority,” Obama claimed the Floyd reaction involved a broader mix of people.
“There is something different,” he said. “You look at those protests, and that was a far more representative cross-section of America out on the streets peacefully protesting, and who felt moved to do something because of the injustices they had seen.”
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