From the White House: President Obama on Freddie Gray’s Death
On April 12, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old native of Baltimore, was arrested by the city’s police. He died a week later.
The Department of Justice is now investigating the events that led to his death and today, President Obama offered his thoughts to the family and friends of Freddie Gray who are appropriately looking for answers while at the same time making clear there is “no excuse” for violence.
He noted that events in Baltimore called attention to the urgent need throughout the country to build trust between communities and their police.
“We have some soul-searching to do. This is not new. It’s been going on for decades.”
– President Obama“If our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could — it’s just that it would require everybody saying, ‘This is important, this is significant.'”
– President Obama“This has been going on for a long time,” the President said. “This is not new, and we shouldn’t pretend that it’s new. The good news is that perhaps there’s some newfound awareness, because of social media and video cameras and so forth, that there are problems and challenges when it comes to how policing and our laws are applied in certain communities and we have to pay attention to it.
Every American has role to play in tackling this longstanding challenge. “We don’t just pay attention to these communities when a CVS burns, and we don’t just pay attention when a young man gets shot or has his spine snapped,” the President said. We should be “paying attention all the time because we consider those kids our kids, and we think they’re important and that they shouldn’t be living in poverty and violence.”
