Barr Dismisses Idea of Systemic Racism in Justice System: ‘False Narrative’ to Say There’s an ‘Epidemic of Shooting Unarmed Black Men’

Attorney General Bill Barr continued to dismiss the idea that there’s systemic racism in the U.S. justice system in a lengthy interview with Wolf Blitzer Wednesday.

Blitzer spoke with Barr about the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha and asked, “How do you think African-American parents around the country explain to their kids what exactly happened to Jacob Blake, for example, and why that police officer had his knee on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes?”

“I’m not going to talk about the Blake case,” Barr said.

“Why not?” Blitzer asked.

Barr said it’s different from the case of George Floyd and said, “Floyd was already subdued, incapacitated, in handcuffs, and was not armed. In the Jacob case, he was in the midst of committing a felony and he was armed.”

“His family says he wasn’t armed. There may have been a knife in the car,” Blitzer said, “but he wasn’t armed when he was shot. That’s what his family and his lawyers say.”

“I’ve stated what I believe to be the difference,’ Barr said. “I don’t want to talk about them because they’re interchangeable.”

He went on to say, “I did say that I do think that there appears to be a phenomenon in the country where African-Americans feel that they’re treated when they’re stopped by police frequently as suspects before they are treated as citizens. I don’t think that that necessarily reflects some deep-seated racism in police departments or in most police officers.”

He said sometimes people operate according to stereotypes and “I think it takes extra precaution on the part of law enforcement to make sure we don’t reduce people to stereotypes, we treat them as individuals.”

Blitzer brought up comments from Blake’s father to ask, “Are there two justice systems here in the United States?”

Barr said no and added, “I think the narrative that the police are on some, you know, epidemic of shooting unarmed Black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that that’s based on race. The fact of the matter is very rare for an unarmed African-American to be shot by a white police officer. There were ten cases last year, six of them the suspect was attacking the police officer physically. So these are rare things compared to the 7 to 8,000 young Black men who are killed every year.”

At one point Blitzer asked again, “Do you think Black people are treat differently by law enforcement than white people?”

“I think there are some situations where statistics would suggest that they are treated differently. But I don’t think that that’s necessarily racism,” Barr responded.

You can watch above, via CNN.