WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised US police departments and downplayed police violence against blacks, saying “more white people” are killed by police officers.
During a CBS News interview, the Republican president was asked why blacks continued to die at the hands of law enforcement.
“And also the whites, also the whites. What a terrible question to ask. So are whites. More white people, by the way. More white people, “Trump replied.
The death of African-American George Floyd on May 25 while in police custody in Minneapolis sparked protests across the United States and has led to a greater focus on American police violence against blacks.
According to an analysis in the Washington Post updated Monday, half of the people killed by the police are white, but African-Americans are killed at a disproportionate rate. They make up less than 13 percent of the American population, but police kill more than twice the rate of white Americans, according to the newspaper’s analysis.
Some Americans argue that the Black Lives Matter protests have unfairly insulted the police forces.
Trump, speaking to journalists at the White House, defended the police departments and said “they do an incredible job in this country.”
“You can have a terrible and dishonest police officer, sometimes like you do in any industry, any business, in any profession,” Trump added.
Jeffery Robinson of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement in response that Trump’s comments were racist.
“Trump’s racism is so absolute that he continues to refuse to give tacit recognition to the epidemic of police violence against blacks in the United States,” he said.
Recent social unrest has raised new questions about the flying of the Confederate battle flag in areas of the country and whether statues honoring Confederate leaders during the US Civil War should be removed from prominent places.
When asked by CBS if the flag should “be removed,” Trump replied, “I know people who like the Confederate flag and don’t think of slavery.”
He added: “It is freedom of expression.”
Report by Richard Cowan; Peter Cooney and Rosalba O’Brien edition
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