Attorney General Bill Barr: ‘I Don’t Think That the Law Enforcement System is Systemically Racist’
As America faces continued civil unrest over the death of George Floyd, Attorney General William Barr refused the notion that U.S. law enforcement has a problem with systemic racism.
In an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan for Face The Nation, Barr defended President Donald Trump’s right to invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military against protesters, a proposal that has been condemned by Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Brennan eventually moved the conversation forward by asking “Do you believe there is systemic racism in law enforcement?”
Barr’s answer:
I think there’s racism in the United States still but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist. I understand the distrust, however, of the African-American community given the history in this country. I think we have to recognize that for most of our history, our institutions were explicitly racist. Since the 1960s, I think we’ve been in a phase of reforming our institutions and making sure that they’re in sync with our laws and aren’t fighting a rearguard action to impose inequities…I think the reform is a difficult task, but I think it is working and progress has been made.
The interview continued with Barr swatting down the need to “reduce immunity” for bad cops “because that would result certainly in police pulling back.” He also scoffed members of Minnesota’s state government for their efforts to review police practices, expressing doubt that that’ll lead to any major change.
“I think that there are instances of bad cops. And I think we have to be careful about automatically assuming that the actions of an individual necessarily mean that their organization is rotten,” Barr said. “All organizations have people who engage in misconduct, and you sometimes have to be careful as for when you ascribe that to the whole organization and when it really is some errant member who isn’t following the rules.”
Watch above, via CBS.
