President Obama in a year-end press conference Friday urged the public to engage each another on issues of race, saying problems exposed in the wake of police killings in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City could not be solved without wide-ranging discussions on the sensitive topic.
“You’re not going to solve a problem unless it’s being talked about,” Obama said from the White House.
The president added that law enforcement agents don’t always work in a “colorblind fashion.”
Obama, the nation’s first black president, has faced growing pressure to do more to address local police tactics following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York.
Obama has called for more oversight of the militarization of local police departments and additional funding for body cameras for cops. And his Justice Department has announced new racial profiling guidelines.
However, critics contend those measures don’t go far enough to crack down on police brutality.
But the president said most people just want to see a solution implemented.
“What I don’t think is always captured in our political debates,” Obama said, “is the vast majority of people are just trying to do the right thing.”
