NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton was very measured in his responses to Chuck Todd on Meet The Press, when asked about the rift that has developed between Mayor De Blasio and the rank and file after the assassinations of two police officers. But when it came to President Obama and AG Eric Holder, he wasn't so coy.
Todd: In some of your comments, you;ve been somewhat critical of the national attention, some national leaders. The implication perhaps with AG Holder, president Obama. What role do you want them to play
Bratton: when I say 'see each other,' that means to not look past each other, but to really see what is motivating what we're experiencing. See why they have the anxieties and perceptions they have.
They really do feel under attack, rank-and-file officers and much of American police leadership. They feel that they are under attack from the federal government at the highest levels. So, that's something we need to understand also, this sense of perception that becomes a reality.
Apparently if the president honestly speaks out about trust issues between minorities and police after what transpired in St. Louis amd NYC, even if he never criticized the police is just too much for the law enforcement community.
President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he and outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder are "not going to let up" in the effort to solve the problem of racial tensions that exists between law enforcement officers and minorities in communities nationwide.
It is incumbent upon all of us as Americans regardless of race, region, faith -- that we recognize this is an American problem and not just a black problem or a brown problem or a native American problem --- this is an American problem when anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law that's a problem and it's my job as president to help solve it," Obama said at the sixth annual White House Tribal Nations Conference.
By trying to quell possible hostilities in the recent protests over those recent events, Obama is suddenly persona non grata.
