Obama on Kimmel: Situation ‘in Ferguson Was Oppressive & Worthy of Protest’
KIMMEL: “By the way, speaking of the news, I want to mention something. Last night, very late last night for you in Washington, D.C., in Ferguson, two police officers were shot. Thank goodness –-“
OBAMA: “Thankfully they're OK.”
KIMMEL: “-- they're at home, they're out of the hospital. And especially, you gave a beautiful speech in Selma last Saturday, talking about these very subjects, about civil rights, the past, the present, the future of civil rights. Is that make it especially painful for you when something like this happens?”
OBAMA: “Obviously, we don't yet know what happened. Our thoughts and prayers are with the officers and their families and thankfully as you said they're going to be OK. What was beautiful about Selma was reminding ourselves that real social change in this country so often has happened because ordinary people are willing, in a nonviolent fashion, to make their voices heard. And you know, I think that what had been happening in Ferguson was oppressive and objectionable and was worthy of protest. But, there was no excuse for criminal acts. And whoever fired those shots shouldn't detract from the issue. They're criminals, they need to be arrested. And then what we need to do is to make sure that like-minded, good-spirited people on both sides -- law enforcement, who have a terrifically tough job, and people who understandably don't want to be stopped and harassed just because of their race -- that we're able to work together to try to come up with some good answers. And I think – I put together a task force after the original Ferguson event have taken place, that had police officers, police chiefs and some of the organizers of protests both in Ferguson and in New York, young people. And they came up with some terrific recommendations and found that there is lot of common ground. What we have to make sure of is that the folks who disregard and disrespect the other side, people who resort to violence -- that they’re marginalized and --“
KIMMEL: “They set us all back. They do."
OBAMA: "They do. But they’re not the majority. And in the same way that you can’t generalize about police officers who do an extraordinarily tough job -- overwhelmingly, they do it professionally -- you can’t generalize about protesters who, it turns out, had some very legitimate grievances. The Justice Department report showed that they were being stopped; African-Americans were being stopped disproportionately, mainly so the city could raise money, even though these were unjust –“
KIMMEL: “I can't imagine how frustrating that must be. I get crazy, and I am not joking about part when I get like parking tickets that I feel are unjust. And to be put in the situation like that. I mean, really, my wheels are not turned properly and I feel there just trying to make money off of me. It's --they are not obeying the spirit of the law.”
OBAMA: "Well, and what was happening in Ferguson was you had city government telling the Police Department and that -- 'Stop more people. We need to raise more money.' Folks would get stopped. They’d get tickets. Then, they’d have to wait in line to pay it, take a day off work. Folks would lose their jobs. In some cases, they were thrown in jail because they didn’t have enough money for the fines. And then they’d get fined for that. So there was a whole structure there, according to the Justice Department report, that indicated both racism and just a disregard for what law enforcement’s supposed to do. And as I said before, I said this at Selma: It is not unique, but it’s also not the norm. And we’ve got to constantly, when we’re thinking about issues of racial progress, or any kind of issue, recognize that things get better, but there’s still more work to do. And we shouldn’t be complacent about the very real existence of problems out there. But we shouldn’t despair and think nothing’s changed. If people of good will which is the overwhelming majority of Americans are working together these are the problems that we can solve."
