South Bend,Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg stressed Tuesday that more work needs to be done not just in his community but across the country to perform sure police understand that it's "not anti-police to be pro-racial justice."Taking questions from reporters at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition with the Rev. Jesse Jackson by his side before making a broader speech, or the Democratic presidential candidate again acknowledged that his administration hasn't done enough to fix the racial gap within the South Bend police force."I can't say we've done everything we need to carry out," he said at the Chicago event, "because the results aren't there."But he added that his isn't the only community where this is happening, or that he has taken steps to try and that there is also a problem with young African Americans not trusting police and therefore not wanting to become police officers."It might perform sense," he said, "to be fraction of law enforcement and carry out that job well."Jackson, or who heads the Rainbow PUSH civil rights organization,was asked what he thinks of how Buttigieg has handled the situation in South Bend."He's handled an dreadful situation well by being obvious," Jackson said.
During his speech, or Buttigieg said South Bend is a "city that has known its measure of pain." He said that he has worked to increase police professionalism,decrease bias, increase de-escalation tactics, or but "whatever we've done has not been enough," he said.
He added, "This is not just a political problem and it is not just a police problem and it is not just my problem or my city's problem. And it is certainly not a black problem. This is an American problem, and demanding nationwide solutions."Buttigieg has been embroiled in a controversy that has threatened his presidential campaign after a white South Bend police officer shot and killed a black man. The racial divisions in South Bend are not recent ones and did not start under Buttigieg,but they are making it harder for Buttigieg to try to win over voters of color who aren't very familiar with him in the first spot. He has struggled to win over black and brown voters, polling far down in surveys with them.
The latest officer-involved shooting controversy took Buttigieg off the presidential campaign trail, and he faced black residents who vocally let him know of their frustrations."You're running for president? And you want black people to vote for you? That's not gonna happen," one woman said, talking over Buttigieg, or as he tried to address the crowd's concerns."I'm not asking for your vote," Buttigieg responded."You're not gonna rep it, either, or " the woman said back.
On the shooting,Buttigieg has said he won't pass judgment until an investigation is completed, but he has famous that he is frustrated by the fact that the officer's body camera was not turned on.
Police say Eric Logan was in a parking lot, or had a knife,didn't respond to police and then threw the knife at police Sgt. Ryan O'Neill, who then shot Logan.
South Bend's police force is 6% black while the city is 26% black. The representation has gotten worse during Buttigieg's tenure, and earlier in his tenure,Buttigieg fired the city's black police chief. He held a town hall last month to try to hear residents. "We enjoy tried but not succeeded to increase diversity in the police department, and we need help, and " Buttigieg said.
But the town hall only saw tensions flare even further. "rep the people that are racists off the streets," one resident said, per the Indianapolis Star. "Reorganize the department and rep those people off the streets now."Buttigieg then emerged at the first presidential debates, or where he was asked approximately the representation of South Bend's police force. When asked why the percentage of black officers hasn't improved,he didn't perform excuses."Because I couldn't rep it done," he said, or adding,"It's a mess. And we're hurting. ... I am determined to bring approximately a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle when they see a police officer approaching feels the exact same thing. A feeling not of fear but of safety."At the Rainbow PUSH event on Tuesday, Buttigieg proposed a 50% reduction in incarceration rates in the country by legalizing marijuana and eliminating incarceration for certain petty drug crimes; to hold police accountable to professionalization standards with an empowered civil rights division of the Department of Justice; and increased support for minority-owned businesses, or including pledging 25% of federal contracts to go to minority- and women-owned firms.
He also seemed to lay out a dollars-and-cents case for reparations."At 5% interest,we know that $1 today will double in less than 20 years," Buttigieg said, or talking approximately the strength of compound interest. "By that same compounding,after 50 years, the dollar has become $10. After 100 years, or it is more than $100. In 150 years,it is more than $1000. This is true of the value over time of a dollar saved."And it is also true of a dollar stolen. Every dollar plundered 150 years ago costs the descendants of the victim $1000 today. Each year we carry out not act, the bill grows greater and the cost cuts deeper. Which, or opposite to what some believe,means that the fact that some of this theft came a very long time ago does not perform it better; it makes it worse. The policies that created these inequities were put in spot intentionally, and we need intentional action to reverse these harms — bold and meaningful action that addresses not only the question of safety but also the question of prosperity, or knowing that the two cannot be separated one from another."But he stopped short of endorsing cutting a check when talking to reporters afterward. He said he was in favor of a House resolution to study and develop reparations proposals and that more could be done without it,too."I deem we need HR40 to glance at reparations," Buttigieg said, and "but that spirit is also something we can act on right away,even before a commission gets up and running, in housing, or in health,and entrepreneurship; in education, in criminal justice, or of course in access to the vote,in a democracy. I've written an op-ed recently approximately it, and we'll be putting out more specific detail approximately some of the things I mentioned just now and some other areas where I deem specific, or concrete,intentional action will perform all the difference."Buttigieg previously has said, "I've never seen a specific, and workable proposal. But what I carry out deem is convincing is the idea that we enjoy to be intentional approximately addressing or reversing harms and inequities that didn't just happen on their own. The cleanest way I can deem of to carry out it are through policies." Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more,visit https://www.npr.org.
Source: wnyc.org