Stunningly racist Barr says 'epidemic' of cops killing unarmed Black men is a 'false narrative'

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday September 03, 2020 · 7:31 AM PDT

2020/09/03 · 07:31

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 10: Attorney General William Barr participates in a press conference at the Department of Justice on February 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. Barr announced the indictment of four members of China's military on charges of hacking into Equifax Inc. and stealing data from millions of Americans. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

Attorney General William Barr, who should have been impeached a year ago, does not believe there’s systemic racism in policing in America. He told Wolf Blitzer on CNN: "I don't think there are two justice systems," one for Blacks and one for whites. He also said: "I think the narrative that the police are in some epidemic of shooting unarmed black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that's based on race."

When he says the very real epidemic of unarmed Black men being shot is a false narrative based on race, he's saying the people pointing that out are racist. Against white people. He did acknowledge, however, that "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.” He suggests it's not racism, but "there are stereotypes. I think people operate very frequently 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." He went on even further, defending a hypothetical cop who might have killed an unarmed Black man by saying this cop may be "scared for his life and is in a situation where a half a second can mean the difference between his life and his death, and he's wrestling with somebody." The cop who had his knee on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds was not scared for his life.

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Barr also said, in so many words, that Black people are making it all up. Like they have a persecution complex or something. 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," he said. "I don't think that that necessarily reflects some deep-seated racism in police departments or in most police officers." Barr apparently has not read the 2006 investigation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation entitled "White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement," a product of the Bush/Cheney-era FBI.

He said people are too used to "throwing the idea of racism around," saying that while it exists in this country, it is not "as common as people suggest," and that we have systems so that race "doesn't really have an effect [on] someone's future." The asshole even went so far as to say Rev. Jesse Jackson agreed with him. "Didn't Jesse Jackson say that when he looks behind him and he sees a group of young Black males walking behind him, he's more scared than when he sees a group of White youths walking behind him. […] Does that make him a racist?"

Jackson was not amused. He reacted on CNN. He explained that in the 1990s his family lived in a "drug-infested neighborhood" where "a family member's son was killed right in front of my house, killed right in front of my wife, a drug thing." He said he had been speaking about "the young man" who killed his relative. "If he comes behind me, I would be afraid," Jackson said. "Now what Mr. Barr said is the opposite about what I meant about crime," he said. "Those shot in Wisconsin, the killings in Ferguson and the killing in Atlanta, Breonna (Taylor) and George Floyd, all of those were police killings that had nothing to do with who was coming down the street."

He also said: "I would love to have a conversation with William Barr." Fat chance of that happening.

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