America
Obama calls for building 'political movement' to help African-Americans
By
Arun KumarWashington, April 29
As Baltimore on Wednesday
started limping back to normal after two days of riots over the
police-custody death of a black man, President Barack Obama called for
building "a political movement" around policies to help African-American
communities.
In a radio interview aired on Wednesday on "The
Steve Harvey Morning Show", Obama tied focusing on the need to broaden
the conversation and address the root causes of tensions between police
and urban, predominantly black communities.
Striking a balance
between empathising with protesters and condemning bad policing, Obama
tied neglected and impoverished communities as both the source of
frustrations that drew rioters into the streets and "part of the reason
police have a tough job".
He stressed the need to go beyond new
trainings for police officers and also "build a political movement"
around policies to help those communities -- from early childhood
education to infrastructure building to drug sentencing reform.
But
Obama also focused on police accountability and the need for police
departments to build up trust in the communities they operate, which he
said would not only make them more successful but keep police officers
safer.
Once again sharply condemning the riots over the death of
25-year-old Freddie Gray as "counterproductive," and inexcusable, he
said the violence, looting and destruction was "not a statement, that's
not politics, that's not activism, it's just criminal behaviour".
Obama
said those actions shifted the focus away from the injustice
surrounding Gray's death and other deaths of black men at the hands of
police in New York and Ferguson, each of which he said are "not just an
isolated incident".
Obama also stressed the need to build a broad
coalition to address issues with policing across the country and the
state of poor, urban communities -- and the need to stay focused on that
mission.
Meanwhile, schools reopened across Baltimore and
tensions seemed to ease on Wednesday after made it through the first
night of its curfew without the widespread violence many had feared, CBS
News reported.
With 3,000 police and National Guardsmen trying
to keep the peace and prevent a repeat of the looting and arson that
erupted on Monday, the citywide night curfew ended with no reports of
disturbances in the early morning hours, it said.
A group of pastors announced plans to hold a rally and prayer vigil for the city and Gray's family.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])