YouTube ‘Star’ to Obama: Cops Are ‘Bullies with Badges’

THORNE: “The most recent story I have for you. I was driving. I pulled over to send some text messages. Cop pulled up behind me, called for a back up. They are all over me, harass me for my ID, registration. Third cop is driving by. I kind of just like — I get harassed often. I learned to live with the harassment, but people are dying now. I can’t sit by and let that happen. So my thing to you is I feel law enforcement, they are just bullies with badges at this point. They get caught on camera, they are killing people, they go to he court of law and they get off without a lot of consequences. So I really want to know — accountability. What can you do within your time left. What can the government do with the time left because these  guys are going through and they are killing people like — I think they are developing Superman complex.”
OBAMA: “Well, first of all, I am a black man who sometimes wears his head backwards —“
THORNE: “Really?”
OBAMA: “And there have been times when I was younger when I was stopped for reasons that I wasn’t always clear about. But I think it’s also important for us not to completely generalize. Now, the overwhelming majority of law enforcement are doing a tough job and they are doing it well.  They are respectful and they are doing it the right way. It is absolutely true that there has always been pockets of police misconduct around the country and we have to take seriously. And what’s happened is not that this is new. If you talk to anybody that is little bit older and was an African-American in Chicago, or New York, or any place else, back in the ‘50s, ‘60’s, ‘70’s, I promise you it was lot worse.”
THORNE: “Oh, yes.”