President Obama weighed in on a grand jury’s decision Wednesday not to indict a New York City Police Department officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man, calling the episode an “American problem, not just a black problem.”
Earlier Wednesday, a grand jury opted not to bring charges against the officer for his role in the death of Eric Garner, which was captured on video. It represented the second racially-charged case in recent weeks that required the president’s attention, following the lack of an indictment against Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of teenager Michael Brown.
“We’re seeing too many incidences where people do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly,” Obama said. “This is an issue we’ve been dealing with for too long, and it’s time for us to make more progress than we’ve made.”
Obama declined to comment directly on the grand jury’s decision, saying only that Attorney General Eric Holder would address the matter more extensively.
The president had already been facing pressure to travel to Ferguson to address protesters there, and the decision in New York City will certainly stoke calls for him to devote more attention to how police interact with minorities suspected of crimes.
Earlier this week, the president signed an executive order to bolster oversight of the weapons provided by the Pentagon to local police departments and called on Congress to approve funding for additional body cameras on cops.
