Obama: Ferguson Demands Change in ‘How Justice Is Applied…Perceived…Experienced’

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With Michael Brown’s parents in attendance at the Congressional Black Caucus Awards Sunday, Pres. Obama declared that America needs to change how justice is perceived.

Obama said Attorney General Eric Holder understands the need to both “close the justice gap” and change the experience of justice in light of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri:

“In fact, the folks who are doing the best, they’re the ones who complain the most. So you can just point these things out.

“But we still have to close these opportunity gaps.  And we have to close the justice gap — how justice is applied, but also how it is perceived, how it is experienced.  (Applause.)  Eric Holder understands this.  (Applause.)  That’s what we saw in Ferguson this summer, when Michael Brown was killed and a community was divided.  We know that the unrest continues.   And Eric spent some time with the residents and police of Ferguson, and the Department of Justice has indicated that its civil rights investigation is ongoing.

“Now, I won’t comment on the investigation.  I know that Michael’s family is here tonight. (Applause.)  I know that nothing any of us can say can ease the grief of losing a child so soon.  But the anger and the emotion that followed his death awakened our nation once again to the reality that people in this room have long understood, which is, in too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement.”

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