President Obama alluded to the recent unrest in Ferguson and New York City in remarks today at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C. The president talked of “restoring a sense of common purpose.”
“When it comes, as we’ve seen, unfortunately, in recent days, to our criminal justice system, too many Americans feel deep unfairness when it comes to the gap between our professed ideals and how laws are applied on a day-to-day basis,” Obama said, according to a transcript of the event provided by the White House.
I should mention, before I came here I had a chance to speak with Mayor de Blasio in New York, and I commended him for his words yesterday and for the way New Yorkers have been engaging in peaceful protests and being constructive. He was just in the White House with us on Monday, as we started taking some concrete steps to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color, and I intend to take more steps with leaders like him in the months ahead. But beyond the specific issue that has to be addressed — making sure that people have confidence that police and law enforcement and prosecutors are serving everybody equally — there’s a larger question of restoring a sense of common purpose.
And at the heart of the American ideal is this sense that we’re in it together, that nobody is guaranteed success but everybody has got access to the possibilities of success, and that we are willing to work not just to make sure our own children have pathways to success but that everybody does; that at some level, everybody is our kid, everybody is our responsibility. (Applause.) We are going to give back to everybody.
And we do that because it’s the right thing to do, and we do it because, selfishly, that’s how this country is going to advance and everybody is going to be better off. And big challenges like these should galvanize our country. Big challenges like these should unite us around an opportunity agenda that brings us together, rather than pulling us apart.
And at the heart of the American ideal is this sense that we’re in it together, that nobody is guaranteed success but everybody has got access to the possibilities of success, and that we are willing to work not just to make sure our own children have pathways to success but that everybody does; that at some level, everybody is our kid, everybody is our responsibility. (Applause.) We are going to give back to everybody.
And we do that because it’s the right thing to do, and we do it because, selfishly, that’s how this country is going to advance and everybody is going to be better off. And big challenges like these should galvanize our country. Big challenges like these should unite us around an opportunity agenda that brings us together, rather than pulling us apart.
Obama’s remarks follow separate recent grand jury decisions in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City not to indictcops who killed unarmed black men.
