Indiana Gov. Mike Pence rejected the notion of widespread bias by police, which is a central tenet of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Asked about the police shooting of an unarmed black man in Oklahoma, Pence told MSNBC on Tuesday night the GOP ticket called for a “thorough investigation” and noted that human beings are fallible.
“The truth of the matter is that police officers are human beings and they make mistakes and where mistakes are made, they should be held to strictest account,” Pence said. “But what I find offensive is when Hillary Clinton and others refer to implicit bias or institutional bias within the ranks of our law enforcement community broadly. I mean, the men and women who serve in law enforcement in this country … whether they be white or African American or Latino, Hispanic or Asian, men and women in law enforcement are the best of us.”
Clinton told radio host Steve Harvey the Oklahoma shooting was “intolerable” and said she intended to speak “directly to white people” about the violence.
Law enforcement’s relationship with the Black Lives Matter community could take center stage at next week’s presidential debate in New York, where Clinton will meet Donald Trump onstage for the first time.
