Colin Powell said he was “shocked, but not that surprised” over the Justice Department’s report on Ferguson.
“I know these things have existed in other parts of our country,” Powell said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, adding, “This shouldn’t have been that great a surprise to any of us.”
The Justice Department report released this week claimed excessive racial disparities in law enforcement by the Ferguson Police Department. However, the Department found no grounds for charging white police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting of black teen Michael Brown, which occurred during a physical altercation shortly after Brown apparently robbed a convenience store.
Powell, who became the nation’s first African-American secretary of state following a distinguished Army career, called on police departments nationwide — as well as local and state officials — to be examined to make sure they avoid racial disparities of the type the Justice Department described in the case of the Ferguson department.
Though Powell — whom many Republicans once hoped might run for the White House himself, but who endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 — stressed police departments should use nonlethal means whenever possible, he added that parents should teach their children to “stop and listen carefully” and to “not argue or fight” when they are stopped by police. “Let it resolve itself, especially if you’ve done nothing,” Powell said.
“Enormous progress” has been made in race relations, Powell said, saying he was touched by how Selma commemorated the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march this weekend.
However, voting is still an issue in the U.S., he said.
“Things opened up,” said Powell. “Law was changed and the barriers to advancement went away. But we still now have hurdles that we have to get over. I’m troubled by a number of things about — with respect to some of the states trying to restrict voting by voter ID laws,” he said.
“It was only 60 or 70 years ago that we still had poll taxes, that we still had literacy tests in order to vote,” he said. “We’ve come a long way but there’s a long way to go and we have to change the hearts and minds of Americans.”
