The White House on Wednesday said civil lawsuits over the use of lethal force by police officers should be handled by state and local jurisdictions, rejecting requests to intervene in cases like the 2016 shooting death of Alton Sterling, for which two officers avoided charges this week.
“The president is very supportive of law enforcement. At the same time, in these specific cases and these specific instances, they would be left up to local authorities to make that determination and [not] something for the federal government to wade into,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in response to a question about the Sterling case.
She continued,”On the rulings that have taken place in the last few days, those are things that have to be done at a local level and they’re not at the federal level at this time.”
Tuesday’s announcement by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry that no charges would be filed against the two police officers who shot and killed Sterling, 37, came just days after another unarmed black man was shot and killed by police in his grandmother’s yard in Sacramento.
At a city council meeting on Tuesday, Sacramento residents urged the city to fire and prosecute both officers who responded to the 911 call and fatally shot 22-year-old Stephon Clark. The officers were instead placed on paid administrative leave following the incident last week.
Sanders said Trump has gone out of his way as president to “look for ways to protect the individuals of this country … whether they’re black, white, Hispanic, male or female, rich or poor.”
“When the president has talked about a number of issues, we want to find ways to bring the country together,” she said. “You’ve seen that in the policies he put forward. He wants to grow the economy and wants a better America for every American. That’s been a repeated thing out of this White House.”
