As protests and demonstrations continue in the aftermath of last week's grand jury decision on the Eric Garner case, President Obama told BET, "A country's conscience sometimes has to be triggered by some inconvenience."
The comment came in response to interviewer Jeff Johnson's question of "how necessary" the protests are that continue around the nation. "As long they're peaceful, I think they're necessary," Obama said. "The old adage, 'Power concedes nothing without a fight,' is true." Even as the interview aired Monday night, more than 1,000 protesters in Berkeley, CA, proceeded to shut down a highway, a train, and parts of the city's public transportation system.
Since the Garner ruling came down, Obama has stepped up his efforts to both raise the profile of issues surrounding police violence toward racial and ethnic minorities and find ways to address it. The exclusive interview with BET is just one more sign that the White House views this moment as more than business as usual. Obama is also coordinating with Attorney General Eric Holder, has made multiple statements on the issue, and met in the Oval Office last week with activists, many of whom feel his response has been too complacent.
The president made his first pronouncement on the matter last Wednesday.
"I'm not interested in talk, I'm interested in action," he said following news of the Garner decision. "I am absolutely committed as president of the United States to making sure that we have a country in which everybody believes in the core principle that we are equal under the law." It was a step up from the more professorial remarks he gave on the Michael Brown decision at the very moment that Ferguson, MO, was beginning to explode on TV screens across the nation.
i agree with the title of this article i think the more participants representing the diversity of our citizens and the longer it is in America's face the more relevant it becomes hard to call it frivolous or a Black thing with so many other ethnicity's involved. but we can't lose focus of that young rapper from Ferguson who was part of Pres.'s conference that body cams and training really is a small part of a greater problem of embedded racial self animosity to paraphrase the teen "it's in their heads and camera and training will not remedy when they are not focusing on the real catalyst.
